Darkon's page

She already seemed lacking in strength for what her score was. She has an 18 strength, that's the top 0.8% of humans. I have never seen someone who goes around in the gym with nearly this lack of muscle tone, and she is stronger than most of them! The new Amiri looks like she has a 10 strength and a meth problem. She doesn't even look like a healthy kind of thin, or a healthy whiteness like you would expect from a northern Russian or an Alaskan native. My girlfriend, an alaskan native herself, finds this kind of whitewashing of the character highly offensive as it makes Amiri a charicature, much like blackface. It causes people to assume alaskan natives to be paler than the driven snow, when in reality they vary from as dark as this guy to as pale as this girl

In that case it should only be a 5' increase per standard rules, otherwise a colossal dragon would have very massive reach woth its bite indeed, something like 200 feet!

Try running timestop more like the 2e (ad&d) version. Make it not a personal range spell but a medium range 10' radius that actually stops time for everything in it, except the caster. Sure, no save, but maybe SR applies, maybe not. Nothing can be harmed within it still, but now that its an area the party can get more use out of it without making every other player leave to make a meal.

Wow, that spell is terribly written. As written "Ray of Sickening" has the same function as ray of exhaustion, including the exhaustion if the target fails their save, except it also sickens them if they fail their save, and they are completely unaffected if they make their save.

In somewhat more realistic use, the functions as ray of exhaustion should only be referring to being a close range ray spell with a 1 min/level duration that has a casting time of 1 action. It should not stack sickened to nauseated, especially considering how powerful nauseated is in comparison to both exhaustion and sickened.

IIRC this question was answered by the sage in one of the Dragon magazines for DnD 3.5, but that was written by Paizo so the RAI is probably the same.
The answer was about as follows "No The grease from the grease spell is not flammable"

From a balance perspective I would also agree with that, especially given that in 3.5 wizards later published a spell that is exactly grease but can also be lit on fire ending the duration but dealing 4d6, as a 2nd level spell. If it works for your game go for it though, I would have it do 1d6 per round and halve the remaining duration in my games, though require at least 10 points of fire damage to ignite.

The full amount would likely be enough to level them five times or so, the creature should be able to hold its own against a demon lord, and their AP is 10

Thank you for the advice! I will treat it as a CR 16 trap should they choose to flee immediately, rather than the resting world destroyer that it is.

CRB, p. 399, Awarding Experience wrote:

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game characters advance in level by defeating monsters, overcoming challenges, and completing adventures . . .

I would argue that the players who flee have not defeated the monster, haven't overcome the challenge, nor completed the adventure: they earn zero XP.

Yes, they've evaded the challenge, but the challenge still exists, it hasn't been overcome. If you're arguing that the challenge is not staying to fight and having the wisdom to flee, then, okay, it's your game and you can do what you want, but I don't think they should earn a single XP for running away.

PC1: "Okay, my 15th level wizard --"
DM: "Uhhh, it's the beginning of the campaign, you're all first level."
PC1: "Yeah, but I haven't blasphemed Orcus, I haven't gone to the Abyss and fought him, thus overcoming the challenge of an impossible enemy, so I get the XP for defeating a CR:30 encounter."

No DM would allow that and that's an example of my reasoning for why fleeing doesn't earn XP; it's earned for what PC's do, not what they don't.

A bit off, its more like going to the abyss, trying to steal orcus's ruby rod, then trying to escape

How is an unarmed strike not an item if it is a weapon, a weapon is a type of item, therefore an unarmed strike must be an item, even if a non-traditional one, I still cant find anything in the PRD to suggest otherwise.

Not quite what was being asked here toastedamphibian, though I would also like to point out, technically Craft(Babies) is a perfectly valid skill, as the craft sub-categories are not enumerated, and I cannot find a rules definition of item anywhere, so it would default to the english definition, which does include animate objects such as humans, even more obviously so if you are of a old grecian school of thought and do not consider children to be alive until they are several months old.
I am asking for a RAW refutation of this point, not one made on an assumption that is not substantiated in RAW.

As the title says. In a game I am DMing the party has come across a VERY powerful creature, and it is quite cross with them. I won't go into the specifics of what it is or why it is so powerful since some of my players do read this forum, but this creature is well out of their league, being over 15 CR higher than their APL (not quite as bad as it seems since I have 8 players). Fortunately for them the creature is essentially stuck within its room, and the door is accessible to them.
Unfortunately for them, this creature can one shot their squishier members, and will just kill anyone it crits.
Now, character death isn't a concern here, they all have alternative characters, and have the diamonds to raise three people, or resurrect one and raise two.
Basically, what kind of CR should I treat the creature as if they just attempt to flee immediately? A fair bit of its CR comes from its immense durability, but it still has the damage output of a CR 20. I am anticipating it to kill one to five characters even if they attempt to flee immediately.

I forget where the math was posted, probably on one of the dead forums, but the equivalent dollar value of a gold piece is ~$385. Thus paying them 20gp a month is about a 92k salary in terms of USD, its not super high, but it is a good salary for people who don't wear the GDP of several small countries for a walk to the park.

Okay, so related question then, can armor spikes be masterwork weapons? they are a weapon that is a part of a non-weapon. I'm not certain how an unarmed strike meaningfully differs. And if people then consider the issue to be that babies are grown, well so are wyroot and darkwood, yet they can be made into masterwork weapons.
It's not like you have no control over the growth either, medical literature is full of ways to make sure your child is born and stays healthy, while many martial arts have some variation of iron body training which adjusts parts of your body to be harder and better for combat. For example a spearhand strike is generally a fairly useless attack, but someone who has done the iron body training to strengthen their fingers and keep them aligned properly while striking can deliver a meaningful blow with it that is more damaging than a normal punch due to the lower contact area.

My question is, where rules wise, does it say that these are not things that can be created? The unarmed strike is a weapon, which in the monk's case is even specifically a manufactured weapon. The rules for masterwork weapons state that they must be masterwork when created, which the craft(human) or whatever check should provide. Furthermore unarmed strike is a simple melee weapon, which actually makes it specifcally a thing you CAN craft, see the craft skills and DCs table, it is the 9th entry. Also note that its not that they had a +30 to any specific craft, it was just a general +30 on any craft check that they didn't have ranks in, might have actually been higher, but it means that they could easily make a masterwork item of whatever craft is needed, and even if not, the spell masterwork transformation should still be able to render the unarmed strikes masterwork, unless there is a specific ruling for unarmed strikes not having a masterwork equivalent in spite of the general rules for weapons.

On the amulet of mighty fists front? it enhances all of your natural attacks, that still has a niche location in druids, and monsters, and takes out the monk tax.

Essentially I want a solid RAW answer, that doesn't rely on an extraneous assumption that people cannot be crafted.

This topic appears to have been often discussed, and the answers I see are typically "no, it cant be done, an unarmed strike is not masterwork" and that masterwork transformation cannot be used to make an unarmed strike a masterwork weapon because "there is no such thing as a masterwork unarmed strike"

But where is it substantiated that there is no such thing as a masterwork unarmed strike?

Masterwork Weapons

A masterwork weapon is a finely crafted version of a normal weapon. Wielding it provides a +1 enhancement bonus on attack rolls.

Without using magic, you can't add the masterwork quality to a weapon after it is created; it must be crafted as a masterwork weapon (see the Craft skill). The masterwork transformation spell transforms a non-masterwork weapon into a masterwork weapon.

The masterwork quality adds 300 gp to the cost of a normal weapon (or 6 gp to the cost of a single unit of ammunition). Adding the masterwork quality to a double weapon costs twice the normal increase (+600 gp).

Masterwork ammunition is damaged (and effectively destroyed) when used. The enhancement bonus of masterwork ammunition does not stack with any enhancement bonus of the projectile weapon firing it.

All magic weapons are automatically considered to be of masterwork quality. The enhancement bonus granted by the masterwork quality doesn't stack with the enhancement bonus provided by the weapon's magic.

Even though some types of armor and shields can be used as weapons, you can't create a masterwork version of such an item that confers an enhancement bonus on attack rolls. Instead, masterwork armor and shields have lessened armor check penalties.

So shouldn't all that is needed be for the characters unarmed strike weapon to have been created with a sufficiently high craft check and 100g more in raw materials (beyond 0)? I ask because I am in a multi-generational game atm, on the second generation, and one of the first generation characters was a human perfectionist, and primarily a crafter. They wanted to implement eugenics, and institute policies to make sure the children born are the best they can be, and went as far as to expend over a million gold throughout their adventuring career and after to establish schools and other facilities to do so, and yes, they had something like a +30 to their craft checks, for whatever would be relevant.

Essentially given this context, is there any rules reason for said children to not be able to be enhanced as magic items, or anything that would prevent their unarmed strikes from being masterwork weapons?

Meh I'd probably just not bother with with the dragon disciple stuffgo Dex and Cha and rely on spells till you can buy an amulet of agile might fists

You could take the Dragon Disciple instead of scaled fist levels, since gestalt is pick 3 classes at each level, and merge them. Then you have full sorc/oracle and get bonus spells in sorc too! And if you want some more synergy between your classes, doing Sorc20/oracle20/(Scaled fist 1, magus 9, Dragon disciple 10) would give you a good use for all those spells while doing your unarmed damage, as broad study would let you get spell strike and spell combat on all your spells for sorc and oracle

(Sorc 13, DD7)/Oracle 20/(Scaled fist 8, Magus 9, DD 3) also gives you all the same benefits if sorcerer casting is capped at HD.

And go ahead and make those magus levels be eldritch scion - Draconic bloodline with bloodline havoc while you are at it, keeping with the draconic theme.

Given how this offers no way to reduce the time it takes to load and fire a siege weapon, I see no reason to limit the amount of rounds bonded to int mod rounds/day. As it stands, to shoot a fireball ballista bolt it would take an extra action over just casting a fireball and shooting the ballista, and requires a lot of prep.

... Just re-read this. It also requires a spell a slot higher? seriously, just making a spell storing siege weapon and playing an evoker is stronger.

My Suggestions:
Remove either the action required or maximum rounds from siege engine bond, or both and give them the bonded object drawback when not within their bond range of a bonded siege weapon.

Increase the range limit on siege engine bond as the wizard levels up, to medium and then long, and maybe even more than that eventually, so that the wizard can be physically with the party while providing artillery support

Remove that false metamagic from imbue artillery, they shouldn't give up all those great class features and then have to cast their spells at a level higher just to get a funny ranged spell strike

And because I know JUST how my party would love to use this, maybe add merciful to the +1 options on enhance artillery, so the wizard doesn't kill the party when they fire the buff cannon, just knock them out.

In my "home" (online) game we are running with WBL as a hard limit of how many magic items you can use at once, like 5ed attunement.
One of my players just convinced an NPC to join them as a Cohort after several months of in game interactions, and basically skyrocketing them towards their life goal that they have been practicing for for years. Said player has taken both Leadership and Mythic leadership.

I was wondering what I should use for the (now mythic) cohorts WBL limit. I was thinking the heroic NPC limit, but that seems like it might be a bit small. I was wondering if the boards think that using the PC WBL for the cohorts level would be too much.

This is probably done to encourage you to find these items, craft them yourselves, or find someone who would craft them for you. Talk it out with your DM, also, if your DM uses the same great wheel multiverse as DnD and potentially Pathfinder, then you could mention the planar metropolis Sigil. Sigil also works as a great place for plot hooks, and has immense potential to get you screwed at DM fiat.

Ah yes, missed that, It should probably also be in the paying for the item section for clarity however

I have now read and quite like most of Pathfinder Unchained, however the Dynamic item creation, while it looks great, leave me with a major question. Namely, with the cost reductions that occur from challenges, do they have multiplicative or additive stacking, and can they go negative?

I am inclined to lean toward additive stacking, with the potential to go negative, however with 40 challenges on higher level items, it seems to me like a high skilled party could group up when making a single expensive item and gain several hundred thousand gold without even selling the item.

All right, thank you for the full explanation StabbityDoom, that makes sense once you consider the by size as a convenience. Thank you for taking the time to write a significant explanation.

The reason I ask is that as per the PRD (http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/monsters/dragon.html), everything mentioned is something based directly on the size of the dragon, and righteous might increases the size. I can see where you are coming from, but i was wondering if there was any rules basis for it.

I am currently playing in a game where everyone is dragons. Our Cleric (Archivist actually, fits flavor) is going to be getting access to righteous might soon, and so I wanted to confirm that the Size increase from that would change everything it would if he sized up due to age. E.G. as he is a small dragon, his bite and claws would go up to 1d8/1d6 respectively, and he would also now be able to use his wings as natural attacks for an additional 1d4 each. His fly speed wouldn't increase, unless he went up to large when it would hit 200', and his breath weapon is now a 30' cone rather than 20' Is this correct?

This is all of course assuming that Spellbane will in fact beat the fighters widened AMF, and that it is not in fact cast by their major artifact greater ring of spell storing, which as it is cast by an artifact is specifically not prevented by Spellbane or AMF. Explosive runes has no effect as it cannot reach, and you wasted your action to command a minion to dispel, and to lesser wish geas, which fails as the fighter only speaks some obscure human language. And the idea that the wizard even gets an action is still up to debate as the fighter is undetectable, as his ring is casting invisibility, which is not suppressed by the AMF as it is an artifact. Now, if the wizard was mythic, they might have some solutions, like mirror dodging then teleporting out, waiting a few hours, then reengaging. But without mythic, I am not aware of any pathfinder spells that will save that wizard from an undetectable 1 shot that includes an unpreventable AMF, honestly I think that setup defeats most mythic wizards too.

Any intention of mythic paths aimed more at these classes?

Ah-ha, had missed that archetype somehow, thank you very much. We will probably use the celestial heart ability to replace the mercies, though the sacred bond will probably be weapon anyway, and the summons replacing LoH seem a bit weird for the character. though i suppose some refluffing would fix that. Anyway, thank you very much for your help.

So, my group is running a game with no real DM (we take turns basically every other session) in which I am playing a Chaotic Neutral paladin variant. Yes, Chaotic Neutral, not Chaotic Good. We have made the obvious adjustments so far, like smite law and so on. We have also manged out a "code" which is at least as restrictive as a normal LG paladins code.

My question is, as we just hit level two last session, what does the community think would be a decent way to go about replacing lay on hands, as that seems a bit odd. My first thought was to have it damage everything as a direct infusion of chaotic energies, but what about the mercies. We haven't really gone over this with the group yet, as things have come up, so I would like some suggestions.

Oh and the destructive strike ability of the anarchs from dragon #310 (311?) is out, as we already have home-ruled that you can anything that isn't mostly homogenous.

some advice for the later abilities like the fearlessness aura would also be great, as we haven't really discussed that, and were focused on helping our newer players with character creation.

P.S. for anyone wondering, the established code is somewhat silly as it is nearly lawful by adhering to it, but is as follows: Always lie, Never uphold an oath, Never formally join a real organization, Don't think things through, Open doors with your face, Be random.
upholding this code nearly got the entire party killed twice, solved one puzzle on accident, and got an NPC guide deafened.

Also in the same kind of boat as Tinkergoth, In my last major campaign, my PCs ended up visiting only 3 out of nine nations in a three year long game. They ignored three of them (killing the one PC who actually wanted to go to one of them), and destroyed the world before they ended up going to any of the other three that they had planned on visiting. oh the horrors that 100,000 rats can cause...

I feel that EVERYONE should be getting one or two more skill points per level if they are playing a PC class, Fighters with their meager 2 skill points per level, or even 4 if you are human and spending your favored class bonus on skills still need 2 more to cover the skills that the fighter should have (Climb, Intimidate, Perception, Ride, Swim, Survival) without touching the background and craft skills, which a character should have regardless of class.

If you think the classes have enough skill points as is to cover what they should have, lets run over a few more examples.

Rogue(skill monkey): Last time I had a rogue in the party, we were playing 3.5 with pathfinder skills, he put an 18 into int, and got a +6 int headband before the wizard did, and was a Human who put his favored class bonus into skills. yet STILL with 17 skills per level he needed more, he had one appropriate craft (alchemy) and no knowledge or profession skills,nor did he have intimidate or heal, and that lack is what got him killed in the end.

Wizard: now lets see the wizard with 26 int, human, and favored class into skills(you should not do this, you need the HP), that is 12 skill points per level, seems like alot right? now think, how many knowledge skills is this wizard taking, arcana and planes for sure, probably religion(undead) and dungeoneering(oozes and freaks), likely Geography and history, Nobility and Engineering are slightly unlikely, but still you will probably be expected to have then in several games, Local and Nature are the only ones you probably wont take and are not expected to have...
That is 8/12 skills right there (10/12 with local and nature), now you NEED spellcraft, and if you don't have another craft as a wizard, i expect you are playing PFS. That is 10/12 or 12/12 now, you are one of the few classes that should take the fly skill as a human, and you should probably have linguistics or perception, so that is 12/12 if you drop two knowledge skills and linguistics or perception, or 15/12, and this is with you dropping ~30% of your hit points from class for skills...

Sorc: Fly, bluff, spellcraft, intimidate, diplomacy, you are expected to have all these, on an int dump class with 2 SP per level

Cleric: Spellcraft, diplomacy, knowledge(religion), Knowledge(the planes), heal, again 2 SP per level and an int dump

Barbarian: Actually has about the right amount, since they are like fighters who usually don't take ride, but have 2 more skill points per level.

Ranger: Fighters but with one or two more knowledge skills, and 4 more skill points per level, it seems about right to me.

Druid: Never played one, nor had one in any of my games for more than one session, but 4+int seems good to me for them.

Bard: Thanks to Jack-of-all-trades, Bards might have enough skills at 6 per level, but i feel that they should have 8 as a skill monkey class

Monk: Full ranks should be in Acrobatics, Climb, Escape Artist, Perception, Sense Motive, and Swim if you want to play a shaolin styled monk, but you only get 4+int a level.

Paladin: Go home and re-roll please, Don't allow paladins in my games, they are black holes of fun.