Dafydd's page

The often ignored part of Detect Magic: Seeing Auras

Player A: I cast Detect Magic
GM: The Aura is too powerful, it overwhelms you.
Player A: Guys, I think this might be important
Player B: I roll a KN History check
Player C: I roll a KN Local check
Player D: I roll a KN Nobility check
Player A: I roll a KN Arcana check

Together, with some good rolls, they figure out what the item is.

58. A list of the other PCs, their tactics, associates, equipment, other abilities and weaknesses.

59. A list of possible ways to destroy each of the PCs, including back up plans, and back up back up plans.

Well, your question is basically, "At what point would you allow a player to be a werebear?"

Thus, my answer would be, either, when a werebear mauls you or if you wanna skip 2 levels vs the other players.

wait... Wait... WAIT....!?!?!?!

Are you telling me that it is not possible to create fun, flavorful characters with backstory and multiple role play opportunities who are actually strong at what they do mechanical wise?

Oh My Gods!?!?!?!

Every character I have ever built is wrong!?!?!

Quick, I need to find ways to completely dump the RP aspects on a number of characters, then find ways to make my other characters absolutely suck at everything they do so they can Role Play.

In the Immortal Words of Zapp Brannigan:

"I hate these filthy Neutrals. With Enemies, you know where they stand. With Neutrals, who knows? It sickens me."

And it is true, there are really no strong counters to Neutral alignment. No Detect Neutral, no Smite Neutral.

Well, a familiar can deliver touch spells, and if you plan to dump dex, will likely have a higher dex, as well as use your BaB and have a hefty size bonus.

Point Blank Shot applies to rays, and it is not just a +1 to hit but a +1 to damage too.

Another option is True Strike. Scratch that, it is not a cleric/oracle spell. It is a wizard one, if you are that kinda oracle.

Reduce person gives you more dex and a size bonus too. Spells often do not care about your size too.

So if a person with an Intelligent Item gets hit with a Charm Person and fails to resist, can the Item force an Ego check in an attempt to gain control of the charmed person?

If yes, can you fail the Will save vs the Ego on purpose?

I know it sounds a little rules bendy, but it seems to be all by the rules. That said, I could be missing something.

Thank You.

Sheyln/Zon-Kuthon would have been the way I would have gone. Oh well, to the main question.

If DA and GL are out, there are not many good options left. Exchange may really be the best one left to go with. Or you could be Sovereign Court. Silver Crusade is right out, terrible idea, someone would be shanked.

Dafydd wrote:

kinevon wrote:

Dafydd wrote:

@FLite: I guess we will just have to agree to disagree. You seem convinced that the Summoner likes to hang out behind the school, beating up the other classes, and laughing as they try to crawl away. I have always viewed them as the class that is being beaten up, daily. This latest beating earning the class a coffin.

In my experience, as a PFS GM, APG Summoners are, as a rule, broken, even if they manage, somehow, to actually build their Eidolon correctly.

GMed a game with two Eidolons with Summoners in it. That covered most of the actions in the game.

You would probally say the same thing however with 2 druids, or 2 wizards. I do not think anyone has tried to say the summoner is weak, but my stance is that it was not so over powered to warrant a nerf (not unless the rest of the tier 1 classes are getting an axe or 3 forced on them).

Guess it does come down to experiences with the class. The summoner I played had trouble outshining any of the others in anything. Even the rogue was keeping up in damage and outshone me in skills. Probably helped to have constant flanking, thanks to the reach bite my Dragon eidolon had in combat.

Nope, played with both of those, and, since they were properly built, didn't hang off of walls with reach, didn't abuse their spell lists, they were manageable, and the rest of the table had fun.

To be honest, if the Wizard is Tier 1, the APG Summoner, especially when the eidolon gets mis-built, moves into Tier 0.

Got to love that catch 22. The druid did not do it's stupid overpowered tricks, nor did the wizard. Not that they could not do em, The Player choose not too.

On that same token, the summoner's player DID choose to use it's most powerful options.

Again, all the issues with Summoner can be solved, not through the use of a Nerf Hammer, but through the Golden RPGer's Rule (Do not be a Jerk).

Are you really saying every PC should be allowed to build their character using everything in chapter 4: Race builder of the Advanced Race Guide? Because that is basically what the APG summoner got to do.

In what world is being able to custom design SLA, resistances, ability bonuses and penalties for yourself the same as having a competent mount/bodyguard?

A few things the ARG allows (in chapter 4) (Standard race gets 10 points)
Large Size, for 7 points: at first level, allowing Enlarge Person to become Huge at 1st. Speaking of which...
Spell Like Ability, for 1 point: You can gain Enlarge Person, once per day.
Hell, for 2 points you can have Enlarge Person as an At Will ability.
Course, on the flip side for casters. You can be tiny for 4 points. Tack on at will shield or mage armor, and flight and you have an unholy wizard, even at level 1 (17 AC with 0 investment on Dex, as well as at least a +9 to stealth, more if you actually try to improve it)
Spell resistance 11+HD, starting at first level. Total cost, 3 race points. Yes the Summoner can get this one too. For 4 evolution points, at level 9, not level 1.

The summoner can barely do a fraction of these, and many it has to work up too. As a race, it is automatic at first level...

You have either greatly overestimated the summoner, or never even looked at the ARG race builder.

Quinton, what outsider were you previously able to build that is not an outer planer resident, that you now cannot build?

Because these were the outsiders you had access to before, it's just that players kept making up their own, as if the summoner was a god with the power to create brand new creatures out of raw mana.

Actually, this point needs to be clear. The outsiders we are forced into now, were available before BUT, were not the whole collection. The ones we must use now are only the biggest and best known outsiders.

Ultimate Magic showed us that not all outsiders fell into those groups. Dragon, fey, even animal like creatures, were all summonable, thus they must have existed. In fact, the majority of the models published in UM were models of creatures not normally associated with outsiders.

A specific example?

You can no longer make a LG Lion like eidolon. To my knowledge, all the LG options are bipeds, where as the Lion is clearly quadruped. Only way to make him now (that I am aware of) is to turn this noble and regal creature into a fiend.

And please do not try to say that Lion like creatures are not Lawful or Good. The summon monster list already disagrees with you Summoning Celestial Lions, as well as the existence of the resolute template.

But hey now... How did we get so off topic? This thread is supposed to be about how much everyone hated* the old Summoner!

*except for the people who loved them

Actually, as the OP, I can say with certianty that the original topic was:

The answer (a few days ago) was a NO and NOT YET. I wanted to know so I could decide if the dozen ish pages were worth the money to me right now.

Why the summoner haters came over to unload their (at best) highly exaggerated stories is beyond me.

Well, the easiest way is a helm of opposing alignment. Instant change with no effort on your part (except wrestling a dragon into a helmet)

If you do not want to present the idea with a cheat, I suggest asking the GM something along the lines of "Are you willing to run a redemption side quest with this dragon?"

In the end, based on the fluff around the white dragons, it is unlikely you will get a full redemption. At best, you are looking at a dragon who will turn his back on the actions of the other chromatics. He is unlikely to stand up and fight his elders (as any red of even his same age will rip him to shreds).

How about when having a nasty pounce monster who literally killed like 80% of every encounter with the claw/claw/claw/claw/bite with acid/holy damage. Difficult Terrain? He flies.. Enlarge/Evolution surge moves him from large to 'oh my gawd'.

DOn't assume that you know the entirity of the encounter.. and please don't be snarky to others. You are free to disagree but other peoples opinions about their experiences are their own. Having one guy totally dominate the scenario might be nastier for them than you.

You are correct, I do not know all the details of the encounter. However, the recounting of the event had major holes like most "Terrible Summoner ruined my game" stories.

5 attacks, yep that is accurate. Pounce too, assuming quad or serpent shape. That said, the attack is doing, assuming all 5 hit at huge size*, 5d8+2d6+53 (large drops down too 5d6+1d8+22), minus damage reduction. Acid and Holy? Well, you can get Acid with a lesser evolution surge yes, but Holy? Can you please explain how you get Holy beyond a 16000 gp item?

Yes, level 6, flight should be common by now. Wizard has been flying for a full level. Potions of flight are 2pp or 750g. If the issue is that the summoner does not need to spend money on it, well neither does the wizard, or sorcerer or witch, or clerics of 3 different domains. Alchemist has had wings available for a level. Magus, alchemist and summoner all get the spell themselves at 7th.

*Being huge? Well, as I said in the last post, he did not have Evolution Surge for the 4 point evolution. This means, the player has the issue of trying to slip a large sized creature through doors made for medium creatures and spent 4 of his 10 evolution points for it or the size is only Large, no worse then the Enlarged Fighter or Barbarian.

Finally, if you read snark into my post, I am sorry. I meant no snark, just pointing out the flaws in another "Terrible Summoner ruined my game" story. Flaws that actually prove the point I made in the post prior.

Dafydd wrote:

The problem the summoner has always had is...

A) A story someone at the table heard from their friend, who heard it from a 3rd friend, who heard it from his brother, who got it from his sister in law, who heard it from her hair dresser, whose son played with a guy, who's second cousin twice removed read online of a build that allowed the Eidolon to outdo every other person at the table.

The last time I player with a summoner was when I was playing up with a level 5 in a 5-9. The summoner was 6th level and was handing out haste to the party like candy while the eidolon did 80% of the damage of the entire party thanks to evolution surge making a giant sized flying pouncing beast that put the druid, the druid's velociraptor AC, my monk, and the archer bard to shame.

So the Summoner used a big team buff on the party.... What a jerk.

He used Evolution surge to buff his pet? Cool, that is a 3rd level spell he did not have access to at 6th level. (Point B proven again, assuming he was using mid instead of Lesser)

He was using lesser? To do what? Could not enlarge him with lesser. Flight? Was the majority of the foes flying? If so, the eidolon doing 80% of the damage means, either, the party lacked ranged support (makes sense for Druid and velociraptor and monk) or rolled terribly (hurts everyone, but is not the fault of the summoner)

Giant? How big? Large? So the summoner used Enlarge Person on his medium sized beast. Huge? So he spent half his evo pool on being Large, taking on all those issues of being large in other, indoor scenes and still cast Enlarge Person.

At best, the summoner would have been looking at 6 Enlarge Persons and 4 Hastes/Lesser Evolution Surges. (Assuming a 20 CHA)

Thank you for another blown out of proportion story though.

The problem the summoner has always had is...

A) A story someone at the table heard from their friend, who heard it from a 3rd friend, who heard it from his brother, who got it from his sister in law, who heard it from her hair dresser, whose son played with a guy, who's second cousin twice removed read online of a build that allowed the Eidolon to outdo every other person at the table.

B) People not reading the rules and thinking that the build they heard about is actually possible.

Unchained has fixed exactly 0 of these problems. In fact, it may have made the second problem worse. There are now 2 sets of rules to learn, making it harder for GMs to audit and fix the issue.

Unchained even made them less group friendly by taking their big team buff, Haste, and removing it's availability to 7th level. They got it at 4th, Wizard got it at 5th. Was the delay really needed?

Was summoner breakable? Yes, like most classes. The "do not be a jerk" rule is a rule for a reason.

Dafydd wrote:

Are the rules for the Unchained Summoner available anywhere besides buying the PDF?

They'll eventually be on the PRD, but even when they are you'll still have to own the source (the PDF or the book) if you wish to play an Unchained Summoner.

Yes, however...

Most of the book appears to not be legal to begin with...

tosses what sounds like at least half the book over the shoulder

Barbarian, sounds interesting, but does not apply as when I want to rage, I go Bloodrager

sends another couple pages into the dark

Monk, not with a ten foot pole....

gets 20 foot pole to push those pages away

Rogue, dex based is possible ?!?!

sets these pages aside

And Summoner, THEY DID WHAT TO IT NOW?!?!?! NOT MORE PUNCHES TO THE STOMACH! AND IF I WANNA PLAY A SUMMONER (hint, I do, a lot) I HAVE TO USE THIS NOW?

cries for my favorite class and curses the hatred for it

Ahem, so as I was saying, IF the changes are as frustrating and saddening as I suspect, the ONLY part of the book I would ever care about is the rogue. $10 for 3-4 pages of things I may like and 20-30 pages of things I can not use, do not like, or utterly despise is a bit steep.

Thus, reading the rules from the book, before buying said book.

Funny thing about Razmir, his greatest illusion is NOT that he has gotten people to think he is a god.

His greatest Illusion is that he has convinced the people who have "found the truth" that he is just a human wizard.

In reality, He is a Kitsune Sorcerer 20/mythic (5+) who focuses on Enchantments. He also has the Tail Feats, giving him some SLA that look a lot like divine power.

Oh, and a lot of ranks in Bluff.

Are you a wizard?

If not banned, there is a Discovery (True Name) that allows you to learn the true name of an outsider, binding it to your service. Just want to be nice to it, it it will start plotting revenge.

Retrain to Bloodrager?

Getting Blur, Displacement, Haste, Enlarge Person etc just for entering your rage (see the arcane bloodline) is great.

You have access to Blur, Resist Energy and Protection from Arrows, one of those your choice. At 8th, you get access to Displacement or Haste in addition to the choice of Blur, Resist Energy and Protection from Arrows.

Might as well point out a +3 enhancement will give you the ability to overcome the 3 most common DR, magic, silver and cold Iron. For alignment, you will have to buy Holy/Unholy/etc or get the bonus to a +5 (not sure how possible that is in PFS)

For your last skill point, stealth is a very handy skill and while it is not used as often in pfs as it could be (or probally should be) it is always good to be the guy who did NOT alert the nearby bandit camp you were sneaking past.

On a side note. You handle animal bonus of +8 at first level (1 rank, 3 class, 0 cha, 4 animal companion) will actually be enough for most handle animal uses. Teaching new tricks may become an issue down the line but most combat you will only need a +11 max (DC to push an injured animal to do a trick it knows is 12, so +11 is auto succeed)

Sling is far from a deadly weapon. That said, as a ranged weapon it is fine.

You have light armor prof, you are prohibited from wearing metal armor ala druid code.

Club is good because it is bludgeoning damage vs those brittle brittle skeleton bones. Most PFS characters should carry around a club simply because a skeleton DR will eat up most of a shortsword damage.

Shortspear is good as a primary. I usually pick a primary weapon (one i use feats and class abilities for) and then have a back up suite of weapons. Club (or battle aspergillium, super awesome club like weapon, it can sprinkle holy water for extra damage to those restless undead) and Daggers (throwable, light so useable in a grapple, piercing and slashing coverage, concealable) and a ranged (I prefer bows, but slings are good too)

Badger is a good pet, not my favorite (take a peak at the Dino from the CRB, Deinychus) but still nasty.

Traits can be tricky. My suggestion is for Elven Reflexes (Half Elf Racial Trait, +2 init) and Highlander (+1 trait bonus to stealth, and you get stealth as a class skill). I am suggesting Highlander because I do not think stealth is a class skill for druids. If I am wrong, please do ignore this trait, a +1 trait bonus is not enough really, the big benefit was the class skill.

Spells, yeah, easiest would be go through the CRB druid list and pick ones your character would like. Some highlights are:

Entangle: big area, good effect, just be careful of catching the party
Cure X wounds: YOU CAN HEAL, keep it in mind because this means you can use CLW wands without UMD and it is nice to have one prepared and tucked away up your sleeve for an emergency.
Shillelagh: turn your club or staff into a +1 weapon which deals 2d6 damage
Magic Stone: 3 stones become +1 magic weapons and can be thrown or shot from sling for 1d6+1 and you treat em like sling bullets. Oh, and it is 2d6+2 vs undead.
Magic Fang: +1 enhancement to one of the pet's attacks, good for bypassing DR later, but for now, it is a +1 to hit and damage

At early levels (1-5) the animal companion is your melee side or body guard. You can do melee yourself, but the animal companion starts at HD 2 (twice your HD) and most are built to rip things apart.

Flank Trick
Attack Trick (taken twice so it will chew on all the foes, not just animals and humans)
Down/Come Trick (could do both if you like)
Heel Trick (so it will follow you through those hell gates)

That is 5/6 tricks there. It does not leave much wiggle room at level 1 sadly, but I think that will about cover most trick needs besides some niche ones. Tricks for the future to keep an eye out for are Sneak, Seek, Track and Menace.

After 5th level, most love-able furballs are mounts and scouts. This is mostly because they start to lag behind other martials soon. They are not completely useless in combat (not till post most PFS careers) but the lower HP and BAB show around now.

You are all highly UNDER calculating the number of arms you can have.

Synthesist Summoner CAN have 4 at level 1, and at level 20 have 40 arms. This is done by taking Extra Evolution every chance you can, being half elf and putting all those FCB into evo points and turning every evo point into an arm (38 points - 38 arms, +2 free from biped form)

Now, what you do with all those arms is another question entirely.

(Actually, you can use Lesser Evo Surge and Greater Evo Surge to gain more arms, but do you really need more then 40?)

An absolutely FLAWLESS way to become the god of (setting your are in)

"I Wish I was the Next Game Master for our Group"

Poof, when the campaign ends, you gain God hood, multiple times if there are multiple gods. Omnipotence too, as you are also every man, woman, creature, tree, rock, plane EVERYTHING (except what, 4-5 people that you still have a large amount of control over)

PS, as long as you are not actually evil (and you can argue that the animating of undead animals is not evil, undead animals also tend to be stronger anyway then humanoids) if said paladin tries to smack you around, they lose paladin powers.

You raise an undead bear. Paladin screams evil and attacks you. GM turns to paladin and says, "You feel your divine might slip away as you bring the blade down upon your comrade". Paladin loses paladin powers for attacking a teammate who is not evil WITHOUT some kind of compulsion forcing him to. If the attack does kill you, GM could say that the no longer paladin must now go on a redemption quest to redeem himself.

Looks like you could do with some more range. Maybe a druid (one who likes storms), or some type of alchemist (vanilla is my preferred flavor of alchemist), could also go Face Smasher Barbarian/Bloodrager, Flavor with some dragon (ask the GM if they allow DD to enhance BR bloodline). Red Mantis Slayer (no PrC, just straight slayer that way you do not have to worry about being evil around a pally, course the PrC is great if the GM allows non evil assassins). Hunter is also an option. Tengu Divine Hunter of Erastil. That way you can field an Animal Companion, you and a familiar. Your pick of Bow or Blade (I prefer Elven Curved Blade with the tornado of death known as the Deinoychus, Dinosaur from CRB). Could also do a Combat maneuver focused Whip Kensai Bladebound Magus, trip and disarm anything within 15 feet of you.

In the change from season 5-6, the factions who were based on nations took a bit of a change. They switched to goals that being tied to a nation would not allow them to fully clear.

For example, Paracountess Zarta left Chelix and returned to Absalom. There she convinced the leadership to give her access to the Archives so that all those relics could start to be really examined and figured out. Now that she has access, her and her Dark Archive Pathfinders have begun their research.

All this info is in the faction letters.

While I like the Arcane Bloodrager for an anti mage, if you want the race to be Dwarf, Inquisitor would be a better choice.

Spellkiller Inquisition is great for the bonus disruptive feat. Also, against groups of magic users, the AC boost->Staggered foe is fun.

Spellbreaker Archetype is great for an Anti Magic warrior. The Defence against Magic is great for shoring up the weak Ref save (Evocation spells).

For the Arcane Bloodrager, I would suggest Half Elf or Human.

The Paladin/Oracle wants to be Half Elf I feel. For the floating bonus and the low-light vision.

Not to be difficult, but if the official ruling is you need dervish dance to finesse a flame blade, TWF is kinda out the window.

DD says you can not be carrying a weapon or shield in your off hand while you are getting dex to hit on the attack. I am not sure if this would count on claws or those gloves as the "off hand" however, claws would not gain from TWF. The gloves might work as a plain old punch of acid.

If that is the case, I could see Slayer talent going for Combat Trick (for Combat Expertise) or Weapon Training (getting that weapon focus for a scimitar, which should apply to hit with Flame Blade, assuming we are treating it like a scimitar when it helps too)

I would argue, the flame blade should crit on 18-20/x2. It is a scimitar after all.

This also allows you to enter Arcane Trickster at 5th, assuming you still wanna go that path.

Simple solution, Arcane Mark EVERYTHING.

Townfolk A: There is a glowing L on that beast forehead. It must be an Eidolon, look for the person with an L on their forehead.

Townfolk B: There is the same glowing L on that guy, and on her, and them, that sword, and that door, and that frog. OMG! IT IS EVERYWHERE!!!

Some general advice on combat manuever builds and using a whip.

Dusty Rose Prism Ioun stone in a Wayfinder is a +2 to ALL CMB and CMD (this includes trip, disarm, sunder, grapple, dirty trick, and steal)

With a whip, you do not need to be adjacent to the foe to do the manuevers, thus you only need improved (manuever) for the +2 it gives.

You can use Dex with the manuever, so long as the manuever is done with a finessible weapon (and you have weapon finesse).

Any bonuses you have for using a whip (such as weapon focus) apply to the manuever, so long as you use the whip.

As another possibility, you could go with Magus, (Kensai Bladebound) to get the Focus and Proficiency for free. Arcane Pool to enhance the whip. Bladebound to give you a free whip, that improves over time. The Manuever arcanas allow you to use your magus level in place of your BaB, negating the lose of d8 vs d10. You can still do damage in battle by discharging touch spells via the whip during a manuever.

That said, I am sure many people will come by and suggest the fighter route. It is an option, I just prefer the magus path.

Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes, though I thought Alchemist has fly on class skill anyway, could be wrong
Yes, but expect variation
Yes
Yes
Yes, would also allow the player to take flying feats like hover and fly-by

So I am looking at a Darkleaf Studded Leather armor for my hunter. My question however is, do I have to wait till I have 9 fame to purchase this?

Thank you for the responses.

Bad guy turns to them, analyzes them, thrashes them, non lethally, then laughs and leaves.

Good way to introduce a foe and allow the players to see his tactics. Also, him beating the party with nonlethal (ie the -4 penalty) is a good way to show he is very strong.

You take precise bomb, people complain that you do not pass out infused extracts.

You take Infusion, people complain that you hit them with their bombs.

Either way, you can not appease everyone. Personally, I understand not having room in a build for the discovery, there are lots of good ones to choose from and this is one that can be made unnecessary with not stupid positioning.

One exception, if you have explosive bombs, then yes, you need precise bomb too. When you are blowing up that big a space, it is polite to not blow up team mates who literally can not escape the AoE.

Alignment is dictated by actions and choices. As such, there is no way for the paladin to tell which babies will be evil. None are at this point, as they have not done anything to become evil (they have not selected a class and thus do not have an aura, nor will they have the 5HD needed to detect even minor evil). Now, if you go see this gypsy fortuneteller, she might be able to tell you which will be and which will not be evil once they reach adulthood.

Course, that is assuming the gypsy is not evil and telling the truth.

Basically, half the Adult Humans in the world are evil, half are good. However, children are undecided, at least until the teens.

Closest to your concept I can think of (already in the game) is the Bladebound Magus. They gain an intelegent weapon at 3rd level that increases in power. It also has it's own agenda, it's own desires, it's own view of the world. By the rules, it helps the magus, usually. However, GM has a large control over this and can hand wave it to be less co-operative at times.

From my reading of the ability, I would have to say no. This is because a strict RAW reading of it says you can upgrade a +1 to a +2.

However, your GM could easily rule that you can use it to add properties. It is far from overpowering and imho in line with the RAI.

Personally, I have a house rule that you can change a +2 longsword into a +1 keen longsword with 1 day of work by someone with craft magical arms and armor, as long as they make the DC. It is a house rule, but it definatly cuts down the time it takes to upgrade gear between adventures.

Well, besides casting it yourself,

Wizard has access to true name. Take it a few times to get the true names of a bunch of noble genies, every year summon them via true name and make a wish. Make sure you are immortal.

A Masterwork Silver Dagger is a non magical dagger that is finely made and made of alchemical silver. Stats are normal dagger with a +1 to hit from being masterwork and a -1 to damage for being made of silver. It also bypasses Damage Reduction that is overcome by silver, DR X/silver.

The Minor 94-95 I believe refers to a randomly rolled treasure (minor item, specific weapon).

Jurassic Park. Seriously, you did not start with this?

Megafauna are nice too, but come on, JURASSIC PARK!!! They are even pretty cheap (top price is 11k for old spinesaurus out of animal archive)

Awaken is also a great tool. Especially if the GM rules a mated pair of awakened Deinonychus produce awakened children. Allows you to have handlers in the exhibits without them being obvious to the guests.

His ability says 2, but tactics says 2d4? (I do not have the book to look myself)

I would go with whichever is more appealing for the party. If they have been having a cake walk, do 2d4, if they have been pushed to the edge of TPK more then once, maybe just 2.

Do not forget, the whip is a non lethal weapon that does not threaten the area around you. It's use provokes attacks from those who threaten you. Finally, it will not do damage to anything furrier then a bald monk or wearing armor of the same relative thickness and durability of tissue paper.

You do not need to limit it any more then that, thank you.

Strong Jaw is magical, Improved Natural Attack is a feat.

While they have a similar effect, only one is magical.

While I can not point to a specific rule, I can easily liken it to Magic Weapon and Weapon Focus. 1 magic effect, 1 feat effect. However, no one questions that.

Ah age gaps. They are meaningless to be perfectly honest. I have played with teens and I have played with senior citizens. (I am upper 20s) Yes, the teens can be trouble, but you and the other players will not know till AFTER the teen has played a few games with you if they will fit in. Same as if the new player was 24, 48 or 96.

I understand both sides of your problem.

On one hand, getting your kid into the game is great and can become a bonding thing. There is also, he has heard that others do not want to play with him, which is very hurtful for a kid.

On the other hand, some people do not want to restrain themselves/characters because of children. Would you want my Calistra (sex diety) worshiping bastard child magus in the same game as your 12 year old son? Even if you were fine with that, I am not sure I would be as comfortable.

Your choices boil down to include him, losing some of the group, or exclude him and possibly hurt his feelings.

Too bad you can not have 2 groups. It was my first thought while I was reading your post. It would also be fun if your friends had kids.

Actually, if your friends have kids, you could set up a kids group to play at the same time, different room of course.

Why would you be able to activate it with an AoO?

The effect lasts until your next turn, meaning it starts on your turn and the penalties and bonuses persist until your turn starts again.

Activating on a AoO would just be trying to game the system. Trying to avoid the penalty to attack during your main attacks but still gain the benefit when something is trying to hit you.

If someone asks you to pass them the blue ball, but the only balls you see are a red ball and a ball that is blue with polka dots, do you call back that there is no blue ball? I can not stand with such reasoning as it eliminates common sense.

So Slashing Grace is a feat that allows you to add you Dex modifier to damage, instead of Str.

On its surface, it looks like the long awaited final piece to making a dex based melee combatant. However, there are segments of the PF population that cry foul when you try to do this. They scream that it only applies to one handed weapons. Why is this an issue? Because those same people will claim that light weapons are not one handed weapons.

This would not matter except that, based on their interpretation, you can no longer use Dex on your attack. Weapon Finesse (a prereq to Slashing Grace) only allows certain weapons to be used with it. These are Light Weapons (tossed out by the light=/=one hand crowd), Rapier (a piercing weapon, thus not allowed with Slashing Grace), Elven Curved Blade (a 2 handed weapon), Spiked Chain (another 2 handed weapon) and the Whip (the ONLY weapon that can use Slashing Grace and Weapon Finesse).

So it comes down to this. Is the feat useless (lets face it, its a wasted feat if you can only use it on a whip) or are the creators trying to tell us that light weapons are one handed weapons with benefits.