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According to the Radiation revelation: Radiation (Su)

As a standard action, you can emit an aura of low-level radiation. Creatures within 5 feet of you must succeed at a Fortitude save or be sickened. A sickened creature recovers as soon as it moves out of your aura, and a creature that succeeds at its saving throw is immune to your radiation for 24 hours. This is a poison effect (see page 415). The radiation lasts for 1 round or until you leave photon mode.

Poison effects in Starfinder have new functionality compared to Pathfinder and move someone up the poison track with condition modifiers. The level 1 poison effect (weakened) is similar to sickened. Since it says it is a poison effect does it ALSO make a person weakened. And if you keep them in your aura does that poison stack as well.

Poison says: Upon initial exposure, regardless of whether she succeeds at her saving throw, the victim loses a number of Hit Points equal to the poison's DC – 10. If a victim is exposed to multiple doses of the same poison, she must attempt a separate save for each dose and progresses to the next state on the poison track with each failed save.

Besides moving up the poison track, does the revelation also give hit point (bypass stamina and straight to hit point, ouch) damage as well. This could make Radiation very powerful indeed if one or both of these attributes are true.

While it doesn't specify the limits of a condition, it sort of implies a single condition/action clause. However, I think it would be perfectly logical and should be acceptable (imo) to allow an if/else clause for a readied action. I think one reason that players don't use readying that often (at least in my area) is that they have encountered GMs who metagame. "I ready an action to attack any creature that comes near me," is one way to pretty much ensure that no creatures will get to your threatened areas that turn because for some reason they just decided to do something else.

I mean, readying an action is essentially preparing yourself to react to a certain situation. For say a caster, I would think an acceptable readying of "If the monster is moving towards me, I cast grease on the square 10' in front of me when he reaches it. Else, if he looks like he is moving to attack the fighter, I cast magic missile at him." In this situation, the character is setting his condition on a similar switch (the movement of the creature), but his response is different.

Have you ever done this or had a player try this? As a GM, I would definitely allow something like this to occur. The multiple cases of the "switch" statement would need to have the same base and unfortunately would still need to be subjective but I think it would more accurately represent what a person can react to if this were happening "in real time".

Looking at the new Pathfinder Player Companion book, Blood of the Moon. There is a new major hex called Delicious Fright.

Delicious Fright: The witch can feed on the fear of her victim. The target of this hex becomes shaken for a number of rounds equal to 3 + the witch’s Intelligence modifier. As long as the witch remains within 30 feet of her target, she gains a +1 morale bonus on attack rolls and a +1 morale bonus on saving throws as long as this effect persists. A successful Will save reduces the duration of this hex to 1 round. This is a mind-affecting fear effect.

I assume that this follows normal fear stacking rules (instead of the demoralize non-stacking). Since it doesn't state that it is a 1/day/target hex, I assume that you can hit the same creature with it on subsequent rounds. Or even do a demoralize to make them shaken, and then hex to make them frightened (and then even hex again to up it to panicked). I saw another thread asking about whether it is cackle-able. I hope that they rule that it is.

Most of the symbol spells have harmful effects, except for Symbol of Mirroring (and Healing). It says that it works "as symbol of death except ... (effect of mirror image)".

For symbol of death, it has rules for attunement which allows you to set certain people or procedures in order to ignore the effects. For symbol of mirroring, what you (as the caster) would really want is to either a) attune certain creatures so that it ONLY works for them, or b) attune everything that is not your party so that it does not work for them.

Is a) the generally acceptable ruling for attunement? I am especially concerned with the ruling for use in PFS, but I am also in a homebrew where it might come up at some point too.

My alchemist has the tentacle discovery.

Note that the tentacle does not give extra attacks, but can be used in place of a normal attack. A tentacle is normally considered a secondary attack per the natural attack chart. However, the tentacle discovery does not grant it as a secondary natural, and is only used in place of another attack. If I use it as an Attack of Opportunity, do I apply the penalties normally applied to secondary attacks (-5 to hit, x.5 strength bonus)? Or would it receive normal full attack bonus, x1 strength for its attack?

I assume that "you" are a valid target for attacks during your attack sequence (stop hitting yourself!). If you have a sequence of say 2 claws + bite, could you use 1 claw to "hit" yourself injecting your friendly infused extract, and the the other claw and bite as actual attacks on the enemy? What type of damage would you do to yourself? I would assume you can "pull your punch" so that you would not hurt yourself. I guess this question would also be valid for the Touch Injection extract.

I know this idea goes against the universality of what PFS should be, but I think it would be nice if certain encounters (at a minimum the BBEG) had a "customizing" budget. It would scale per subtier, but would allow a GM to buy a potion/scroll or minor magic item to something to flesh out the creature. He would have to decide on it prior to meeting the PCs or starting the adventure so that he doesn't choose that silver bullet that is effective against the one specific talent (using prior knowledge of the builds).

For the earlier season stuff, this would allow some of the newer abilities to be utilized as the flavor. Also, it would allow for GMs to deal with some of their local "metagame" (to use the other definition of the term meaning the local flavors of the month "overpowered" tactics/builds e.g. scent). I have seen way to many BBEG missing some vital "necessary" item or buff and get destroyed because of it.

I know it's not an "us vs them" when you're GMing, but I know I get frustrated when I have a BBEG get destroyed by some cheesy tactic that should have been avoided had the villain had a more "proper" gear load-out.

I don't really expect this suggestion to ever go into being, but just trying to voice one of my frustrations as a GM. I hate going through hours of prep looking up spells/abilities/tactics for a BBEG encounter only to have the PCs use one of the cheesier tactics (like scent vs invisible) and shut it down completely.

I just picked up Champions of Purity to work out the viability of my Paladin/Hellknight. I came across these new trait Weapon of Peace.

Weapon of Peace (Combat): Even though you are a trained combatant, proficient with any number of weapons, you don’t relish killing your enemies. It’s not that you’re afraid of seeing blood, but rather that disabling a foe is superior to killing someone capable of admitting defeat. When using a melee weapon that deals lethal damage to instead deal nonlethal damage, you take only a –2 penalty instead of –4.

However, it seems pretty inferior compared to Blade of Mercy from Legacy of Fire.

Blade of Mercy (Sarenrae): You know that within the heart of even the most hateful and cruel living creature exists a sliver of shame and hope for redemption. You have trained long on martial techniques to use bladed weapons not to kill, but to subdue. When striking to inflict nonlethal damage with any slashing weapon, you do not take the normal –4 penalty on your attack roll, and gain a +1 trait bonus to any nonlethal damage you inflict with a slashing weapon.

Less than half of the benefit. However, it does lift the requirements to be a follower of Sarenrae and works on piercing and blunt weapons. So now to decide which trait to take to go along with my plans to grab the Enforcer feat.

In the PFS Field Guide, there are a variety of prestige awards that grant situational bonuses (e.g. Hellknight gives +3 intimidate when wearing heavy armor). Are these untyped or circumstance bonuses, and thus stack with everything? Or are they something like a trait bonus?

I couldn't find a thread that addressed this spell/ability combination.

Animal Aspect:

"Armed" Unarmed Attacks:

So natural attacks are considered "armed" for the purpose of not generating AoOs and allowing the ability to perform AoOs. However, with respect to the Animal Aspect spell, do the claw and/or bite attacks gained Feral Mutagen get the benefit of the increase in damage die? It states unarmed damage (vice unarmed "strike"), so it confuses matters.

Preserving Flask: This small, durable flask is designed to preserve alchemical extracts indefinitely. An extract stored in a preserving flask remains potent until it is consumed or otherwise removed from the flask. Preserved extracts count against an alchemist’s extracts per day on the day they are prepared, but not on subsequent days. Each flask is capable of preserving an extract of a particular level. An extract stored in the flask retains duration, caster level, and other properties it had when it was created. The flask works on extracts and infusions, but not mutagens.

Does consuming this count as a potion, and thus work with Accelerated Drinker? What if the extract was put in as an "infusion"?

I'm mostly interested in the Society ruling on this.

I see it say that Spellcasting Services are always at minimum level. And that the always available scrolls (0 and 1) are at caster level 1. However, if you wish to (and have the necessary TPA), can you purchase scrolls with a higher caster level? Can I buy a caster level 5 burning hands scroll for 125 (25 * 1 * 5)? Same with potions I suppose, could I buy a potion at higher than minimum level with the increased price?

I would imagine I can, but I want to make sure.

Ok, Nap Stack reads "You reduce the amount of uninterrupted sleep or rest creatures within the spell’s area need in order to recover from injuries, regain spells, or other special abilities to 2 hours instead of the normal eight."

The text for divine casters mention stuff like they get so many spells per day and they have to devote 1 hour praying/meditating etc to get their spell allotment. From this description, I would think divine casters would not be able to use Nap Stack to get new spells after 2 hours. Correct?

However, for Wizards, the next says "He must choose and prepare his spells ahead of time by getting 8 hours of sleep and spending 1 hour studying his spellbook."

From my understanding, this would mean that Nap Stack would allow a Wizard to recover/change his spells after a 2 hour nap, even if it occurs on the same day. Correct?

From quick glancing at the classes, all except the Wizard state spells in number of day, and Wizard is the only one mentioning the 8 hour rule. A follow up then would also be, are Wizards the only class that needs the 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep? Can all other casting classes take their turn on watch and still recover spells the next day?

If Nap Stack didn't explicitly mention "regain spells" in its text, I wouldn't question it.

Hydraulic push:

This might be a question of RAI/RAW, but if you were to use Hydraulic Push in a wand, would the CMB always be 1 (caster level 1 + 0 bonus)? Or would it be your current level and bonus?

Similar question for Veil of Positive Energy:
You can dismiss this spell before its normal duration as a swift action on your turn to deal a number of points of positive energy damage equal to your level to all undead creatures within 5 feet of you.

Does "your level" refer to your current level or caster level of the spell (i.e. 1 for a wand)?

I was thinking about whether some dips (maybe 4) into Alchemist would be worth it for a Witch.

It would cost him 2 hexes, grand hex and level 9 spells.

He would gain:

• Brew potion
  
• Alchemy bonus
  
• Poison use
  
• Mutagen (dex/wis most likely)
  
• Bombs (2d6 plus health int bonus)
  
• +4 poison saves
  
• Swift alchemy
  
• Good fort/reflex saves (difference of +3/+3 with a loss of 1 will)
  
• 2 discoveries (infusion, smoke/stink bomb, extend potion)
  
• Level 1-2 alchemist spells (shield, disguise self, alchemical allocation, barkskin, blur, invisibility as some good ones)
  
• Perception as a class skill
  
• d8 hitpoints
  
• Light armor proficiency

If this would be a viable dip, where would you suggest taking the levels? I was thinking maybe go Witch 3(or 4), then either 2 or 4 level of alchemy (to get the first discovery, or the 2 discoveries and spells), and then go back to leveling Witch.

I haven't played enough PF yet to know if this dip would hurt the character too much at mid level (like a level 7 with only level 2 spells available), or if it would hurt too much at the high levels (losing out on the 9th level spells).

Would 2 levels instead of 4 be better? Would still get perception, mutagen, discovery (could feat for a 2nd discovery), poisons, and some saves while only losing a hex and some more casts of high level spells.

I assume that I know how this works, but it doesn't explicitly say it in the rulebook under adding spells to a spellbook.

Can you add a spell to your spellbook that is above the level you can cast? You encounter a scroll that is above your level, can you add it to your spellbook so that it is there when you hit the required level?

I am particularly interested due to Society rules. If I encounter a scroll during the scenario, I can use it for "free" during the scenario to add it to my spellbook if the rule allows. Otherwise, I will have to buy the scroll later in order to scribe it.

My alchemist is a dwarf who uses a dwarven dorn-dergar (reach weapon). So I have to give up my attacks, which by this point are generally soon to be 2 (when BAB goes up to 6) or 4 (if mutagened), on the HOPE that someone or someones will do some AOO provoking actions. As it is, I have a 10' threatened radius and with Combat Reflexes I already get multiple AOO opportunities. My GM seems pretty good at playing the monsters very smart (sometimes I think too smart but he claims that he has to play the melee hard b/c he claims my alch is too much of a powerhouse) and so he keeps AOOs to a minimum.

Is there something that I'm missing with this feat? Do a lot of AOOs happen in other games that I'm just not a part of. Since it says Combat "Patrol" and mentions moving, does this mean that you can choose like a 20' path that you would walk and thus really have more like a 30' (or something, don't feel like doing the math) effective threatened area? It just seems like giving away all your attacks on the off-chance of getting AOOs (half of which you would probably already get) does not seem like a good decision.

So I noticed in the PF APG that they appended a sentence into the Alchemist description.

An alchemist can also add formulae to his book just like a wizard adds spells to his spellbook, using the same costs and time requirements. An alchemist can study a wizard’s spellbook to learn any formula that is equivalent to a spell the spellbook contains. A wizard, however, cannot learn spells from a formula book. An alchemist does not need to decipher arcane writings before copying them. (emphasis mine)

Does this mean that he does not need to make the spellcraft check to copy the spell?

Came across an interesting and potentially overpowered scenario today.

Unless the text has been changed in the official APG (come on tomorrow!) the evolution Push is decribed below.

Push (Ex): An eidolon gains the ability to push creatures away with a successful attack. Select one type of natural attack. Whenever the eidolon makes a successful attack of the selected type, it can attempt a free combat maneuver check. If successful, the target of the attack is pushed 5 feet directly away from the eidolon. This ability only works on creatures of a size equal to or smaller than the eidolon. Creatures pushed in this way do not provoke attacks of opportunity. This evolution can be selected more than once. Its effects do not stack. Each time an eidolon selects this evolution, it applies to a different natural attack.

This caused a rise of 2 questions. How does this work with a reach attack (like with the evolution reach)? With RAW, I would imagine it would push the enemy from 10'->15'.

The followup question is a multi-parter (same reach scenario). Would a successful AoO be eligible for a push? If this AoO was generated by movement (say from 20'->5'), would the push occur as the enemy was still in the 10' square (10'->5' causing the AoO) and thus be pushed to 15'? Or would it be pushed to 10'? Either way, this would cancel any potential follow up attack from the enemy. The 15' scenario would be even more overpowered in my mind since it would cause either the enemy's remaining standard action to move into melee (generating another AoO if Combat Reflexes is available). The 10' scenario would still cause a similar behavior if they wanted to close to melee that round since they couldn't 5' step since they had already moved that round (and 5' step is only if you didn't do movement).

I would imagine the easiest "fix" would be to not allow AoOs to "push", but I wanted to know if there was an official ruling (of maybe a rewrite of the evolution). I probably should have just waited until tomorrow to see what the APG says, but it's possible the scenario is still relevant.

I couldn't find any recent posts regarding some of these questions.

1) Eidolon + mount. Earlier posts referred to a Ride or Mount evolution for eidolons. It has since been removed from the APG for Summoner. Can Eidolons be used as mounts? Combat mounts? Do they have to have the quadruped form? just 4 legs?
2) Eidolon and "shape". Each level the summoner can choose the evolutions that his eidolon has. However, does the shape of the eidolon get fixed at this point too? Or can it have a different shape (while keeping the same evolutions) every time it is summoned (e.g. one day it looks like a dog, another day it looks like a cat, another day it looks like a giraffe)?
3) A summoner can only "summon" his eidolon once a day, but is it a fixed amount of time it can remain out? I don't see it say anything like 1hr/lvl or anything. So if I summon my eidolon, can I keep it out indefinitely until it "dies" or I return it to the ether or will it *poof* after so long?
4) UMD + Eidolons. As I see it said that Eidolons can speak the languages of their summoner, can I assume then that UMD can be taken as a skill and wands used?

Thanks in advance.