Cyrilion Nightwalker's page

Sputtering aside: Going by the rules, Panther Style works fine during total defense, assuming you can finagle a means to attack, such as panther style's retaliatory strike or a mythic path ability's swift action attack.

Going by CRB that's true, it never specifically says you cannot attack, Going by MTT it specifically states you cannot attack though, which makes way more sense when you consider feats like Desperate swing which specifically allow you to make an attack in total defense 1/day.

Both the CRB and the MTT say the same thing; when you take a total defense action, you cannot attack

Not true, in the CRB it states you give up a standard action and attacks of opportunity, only in the MTT does it state you cannot attack.

Total Defense
You can defend yourself as a standard action. You get a +4
dodge bonus to your AC for 1 round. Your AC improves at
the start of this action. You can’t combine total defense
with fighting defensively or with the benefit of the Combat
Expertise feat. You can’t make attacks of opportunity while
using total defense.

First time poster, sorry if I trail off.

So here's the scenario. An 8th lvl monk/Master of many styles(not unchained) has Crane style and the Panther style/Panther claw feats. when he begins combat, he uses crane style and panther style both as a swift action and then activates the Total Defense action and moves through the enemies spaces to provoke AoO's and dish out his retaliatory attacks because they're free actions now.

Can the monk do this by RAW?

The argument my friends have is that the total defense action removes your ability to attack in any way, shape or form. They came to this conclusion by reading the Melee Tactics Toolbox pathfinder book which states on page 8:

Melee Tactics Toolbox book wrote:

Use Defensive Combat Options: If you’re easily hitting your opponent, or if survival is more important than dealing damage, you can increase your Armor Class at the expense of your attack bonus by fighting defensively or using the Combat Expertise feat. Using the total defense action prevents you from attacking—including making attacks of opportunity—but you still threaten foes for the purposes of f lanking. Alternatively, you can use the aid another action to increase another character’s Armor Class.

However, in the PFSRD, it states under the total defense action:

PFSRD wrote:

Total Defense: You can defend yourself as a standard action. You get a +4 dodge bonus to your AC for 1 round. Your AC improves at the start of this action. You can’t combine total defense with fighting defensively or with the benefit of the Combat Expertise feat. You can’t make attacks of opportunity while using total defense.

The actual explanation of the ability basically states you exchange your standard action, which is normally reserved for attacks, and AoO's to gain the benefits of the total defense AC. It doesn't, however, state that you're now in capable of attacking after using the total defense action.

Since the Melee Tactics Toolbox book says the total defense...

I would also add that the "Desperate Swing" inflicts a -4 penalty on the attack, just as Fighting defensively does, implying it's a more defensive form of fighting defensively, and if there were other forms of attacking intended then they would also likely have a -4 penalty, the absence of which implies that you shouldn't be able to attack while in Total Defense.

The lack of any options for undead mastery type necromancer makes me sad. And given how weak basic summons are, I’m wondering if summomers are even going to be viable builds anymore.

All i've found to create undead is Ghoulish Cravings or a botched resurrection check. So if you tie someone up and give them ghouls fever, wait for stage 6 to kill them(assuming they survive the damage and fail the fort saves), and then cast improved command undead and if they crit fail then you could have a single ghoul of up to lvl-3 for 24 hours. Obviously not exactly fleshed out, hope this isn't all 2nd edition has for necromancers.