Commander Salamander's page

Commander Salamander wrote:

Zurai wrote:

Only PCs get maximized first HD. No NPCs or monsters do, nor do cohorts, followers, animal companions, special mounts, or eidolons.

I just looked up the source of my confusion on this point. On p.292 of the Bestiary it says "Remember that PC class levels provide the maximum number of hit points at 1st level". Since this is in a section on "building a monster", I thought that it was referring to any class that could be taken by a PC (as opposed to Warrior, Adept, etc.) rather than saying this only holds true for PCs.

It is true for NPCs/Monsters with PC class levels as well, so you were not confused at all.

Just look at the sample Aasimar in the Bestiary. It is a first-level cleric, and has maximum hit points.

Thanks! In that case I stand by my assertion that it seems WAY off that a Lvl 2 Duergar fighter would have the same CR as a Gnoll.

Only PCs get maximized first HD. No NPCs or monsters do, nor do cohorts, followers, animal companions, special mounts, or eidolons.

I just looked up the source of my confusion on this point. On p.292 of the Bestiary it says "Remember that PC class levels provide the maximum number of hit points at 1st level". Since this is in a section on "building a monster", I thought that it was referring to any class that could be taken by a PC (as opposed to Warrior, Adept, etc.) rather than saying this only holds true for PCs.

Thanks for the assistance!

I'm running my first campaign in a long time, and I'm just now tallying up XP for the first session. Some of the XP awards for creatures make no sense to me. Any thoughts on the following would be appreciated:

[1] How can an Orc and a Goblin both be the same CR? In my mind, Orcs are substantially more powerful (especially because of ferocity).

[2] How much XP would a Lvl 2 Duergar fighter be worth? I assume this falls under the category of "creatures whose hit dice are solely a factor of their class levels" (Core Rulebook p.398)? This would make the fighter CR 1, with 400 XP assigned. This seems off to me, since the Lvl 2 Duergar seems much more powerful than, for example a Gnoll (also CR 1).

Am I perhaps mistaken in giving the Duergar full hit points for the first fighter HD (this contributes to the Duergar having much higher hit points than a gnoll)? Or should I be using the "adding a class level to a monster that stacks with its existing abilities" category (Bestiary p.297)?

[3] How much XP would a Lvl 2 Half-Orc fighter be worth? CR1 with 400XP?

Thanks for any help/clarification that you all can offer.

Thanks for the response!

I will make the adjustments as you suggest, though I think I'll also make some alterations to the poison potency (no clear rules on how this would scale).

The entry contains a table for other species of spiders, which have different CRs, sizes, and HDs. Do all of the other stats remain the same. For example, should the Tiny scarlet spider have the same BAB, damage, and poison as the Giant Spider?

Thanks!

Untyped, Dodge, most circumstance, and racial bonuses.

Silly question: How could racial bonuses possibly stack? Is it even possible to have two racial bonuses for a given trait?

This is partly covered on pages 208 and 209, which deal with magical bonuses...

Thanks Magicdealer, this is a good starting point. I also note that on p.149 there is a critical tidbit about all masterwork weapons having a +1 enhancement bonus to hit and that, while all magic weapons are considered masterwork, the enhancement bonuses do not stack.

It does seem to me that it would make a lot more sense for the rulebook to discuss the "bonus" concept near the beginning of the manual in a more codified way. The way it is currently written there are scattered references to these bonus types everywhere before any attempt is made to explain them.

Bit of a beginner GM... help would be much appreciated.

Scattered about the core rulebook are references to various types of bonuses (e.g. competence, enhancement, shield, armor, etc.). Is there any place where these are summarized along with the rules of what can and cannot stack? Should every type of bonus in the game come with one of these "type prefixes"?

Thanks!

It has been fixed in the errata.

You can get the errata for the other books from your downloads page.

Thanks Elan, I mean Nale, I mean Tikael...

That is what is commonly referred to as a "copy paste error" basically its because they simply took the stat block from the 3.5 MM and rearranged it into the bestiary without updating it with the changes for pathfinder.

=(

Have they issued corrected versions via pdf? If this is common then I feel a bit ripped off by the Bestiary, as it seems to be little more than a hardbound reformatting of openly available information.

Oh well, on the whole I very much like Pathfinder.

Thanks for the reply... I have a follow-up question:

If the standard Duergar is warrior 1, why is the HD in the Bestiary listed as 1d8+2 and not 1d10+2? (i.e. warrior is listed as HD d10 in the Core rulebook)

On a totally unrelated note, any idea why the Hobgoblin is CR 1/2 and the Gnoll is CR 1 in the Bestiary? In virtually every case the Hobgoblin stat is equivalent or better...

Thanks again.

Let's say I wanted to make a Duergar with a level of Cleric. Would that make the Duergar a warrior 1/cleric 1? In other words, will every Duergar always have a level of warrior since that is how they are listed in the Bestiary?

Thanks!