@Belafon, I'm not so certain the second sentence of Paired Opportunist continues with the same qualifier of "when you are adjacent to your ally. Consider two rogues with the opportunist feat, the both namesake and most benefited example: the rogues want to be flanking excluding them from being adjacent, their opportunist attack now triggers for each other, and if they crit they get yet another attack of opportunity.
Also, Gang Up permits simultaneous adjacency and flanking.
Advanced Player's Guide wrote:
Gang Up (Combat)
You are adept at using greater numbers against foes.
Prerequisites: Int 13, Combat Expertise.
Benefit: You are considered to be flanking an opponent if at least two of your allies are threatening that opponent, regardless of your actual positioning.
Normal: You must be positioned opposite an ally to flank an opponent.
The squares/cubes directly above you and above squares adjacent to you are also considered adjacent. You can't use a third dimension to avoid an attack of opportunity. For movement in the z-axis, use the same rules for diagonal movement in the x-y plane, i.e. +5 feet every other time you move along the z-axis.
Paizo's most beloved AP spells out a specific opportunity for a DM wishing to create an awkward social situation by including goblin babies. By default, however, the goblin babies simply do not exist.
This is how it should be handled all the time, in my opinion. Ignore the implication of enemy babies unless there's a very good reason not to. Verisimilitude doesn't qualify as a very good reason in my games, but it might in some. Then again, we handwave a good many things that others play out in detail.
The best weapon for TWF (if you were automatically proficient) is the Sawtooth Saber, but almost everyone has to spend a feat to be proficient. It deals 1d8 with a 19-20x2 crit range.
While true at lower levels, as you level up the wakizashi's 1d6/18-20 eventually gives it the edge. (pun intended) I'm not sure how they'd stack up against daggers with River Rat & Deific Obedience for Pharasma - too many variables to make a definitive choice other than with a specific build & target AC.
If you don't want to spend limited resources on proficiency with an exotic weapon, the kukri is almost as good.
Wakizashi (P or S) 1d6 18–20/×2 is exotic
Kukri (S) 1d4 18–20/×2 is martial.
Claxon beat me to it.
Crit range is really cool if you have Butterfly Sting and/or Outflank.
Dragon's Demand is a nice module that takes players from level 1 to 7. It is a bit railroady but that's really good for beginners.
There are some cool DMPCs that you can use to tweak difficulty, or let additional players join the regular group for a time.
I ran this for a group of four who created their own characters, and for one of the dungeon delve sessions, we let a guy hanging around the gaming shop join in and play one of the NPCs the party befriended. These were experienced players and they were seldom challenged. The overall difficulty seems tuned for a beginner group. Specifically, there is gear discovered in the course of the adventure that renders the final encounter much easier than it normally would be. This is a good thing, as it rewards exploration and preparation.
When I tried to create a role playing game, I used personality ranges.
Vow of poverty(Detects strong good)
Generous(Detects good)
Shares when needed
normal
Tight
Greedy(Detects evil)
Hoarder(Detects strong Evil and madness)
I'm not sure I can find the stuff, but you get the idea.
Perhaps I'm being overly prickly here, but you did read the part where I said "buffing and debuffing only," right? I know that support characters are pretty much perfection for a GMPC, as I have run a few before. Perhaps I should've mentioned my prior experience before.
Your prior experience should inform you as to which elements of the various advice you may receive can be applied to your specific circumstance.
Emerald Spire is sanctioned for Society play, so you can always issue chronicle sheets, or use the chronicle sheets as a guide as to what each character is expected to receive from each level.
Not really. The chronicles use PFS Standard module gold, and XP for each level, with a note in the rules for PFS that some levels should be played on Slow mode so you can play the same PC all the way through.
So the PFS chronicle gold amounts are the standard amounts given out in PFS for Level X modules, so 1398 for The Tower Ruins, for example. And teh XP given for PFS is 3, or enough to level for every level.
The only use for the chronicles, for a non-PFS Emerald Spire run would be to point out what unusual items are findable on each level.
Right, so you play slow when you're supposed to, to keep with the expected level. PFS does a great job of allowing the GM to not micromanage loot, so you can use it as a model when available.
Actually selling loot and buying it is a waste of table time. Organized play avoids this problem deftly.
Emerald Spire is sanctioned for Society play, so you can always issue chronicle sheets, or use the chronicle sheets as a guide as to what each character is expected to receive from each level.
I like it how rpgdrivethru does it. You click on the link and it will personalize it and save it to drop box. This way I do not need to wait for the personalization to complete. I can just check dropbox later when the queue catches up.
Just a thought.
It seems like it would be possible to include a separate download link for files which have already completed personalization so that personalization doesn't need to be repeated.
I would suggest checking in periodically, and try at non peak hours. I have been able to get everything in the bundle, though it took me many tries, and some late night hours. I am not the most patient person in the world, but I do understand this problem, and how to deal with it as a customer. I can tell you that major improvements have been made since the bundle first hit. Just keep checking periodically, but don't spam requests. Spamming requests just seems to make things worse.
I have been having a spirited discussion on the appropriate usage of Find the Path
spell text:
Find the Path
School divination; Level bard 6, cleric 6, druid 6
Casting Time 3 rounds
Components V, S, F (a set of divination counters)
Range personal or touch
Target you or creature touched
Duration 10 min./level
Saving Throw none or Will negates (harmless); Spell Resistance no or yes (harmless)
The recipient of this spell can find the shortest, most direct physical route to a prominent specified destination, such as a city, keep, lake, or dungeon. The locale can be outdoors or underground, as long as it is prominent. For example, a hunter's cabin is not prominent enough, but a logging camp is. Find the path works with respect to locations, not objects or creatures at a locale. The location must be on the same plane as the subject at the time of casting.
The spell enables the subject to sense the correct direction that will eventually lead it to its destination, indicating at appropriate times the exact path to follow or physical actions to take. For example, the spell enables the subject to sense what cavern corridor to take when a choice presents itself. The spell ends when the destination is reached or the duration expires, whichever comes first. Find the path can be used to remove the subject and its companions from the effect of a maze spell in a single round, specifying the destination as “outside the maze.” This divination is keyed to the recipient, not its companions, and its effect does not predict or allow for the actions of creatures (including guardians) who might take action to oppose the caster as he follows the path revealed by this spell.
What is this spell typically used for, and how much interpretation is involved in adjudicating how it works?
What would be an example of an obviously appropriate case?
What would be an example of an obviously inappropriate case?
What would be an example of a gray area that would involve significant interpretation?
Could you say "Take me to the Emerald Spire" and be shown the way to the dungeon? What if someone had opened a pub on the way to Fort Inevitable named The Emerald Spire? Is there ambiguity? Does it matter which one is in the mind of the caster?
Suppose you were looking for someone able to work an unusual type of metal. You find a dagger made of that metal, and you wanted to go to the place where it was made, but you don't know exactly where that is.
Could you say "Take me to the place this dagger was forged" and be shown the way? Does it matter how prominent the location is if you don't know what it is? Does it matter whether the dagger was forged in a well known smithy or in someone's barn? Does it matter whether the smithy was prominent itself, or located in a prominent city at the time of crafting, or whether the building itself or the city it was in is still a prominent location at the time of casting?
Suppose you read about a place in a book, but maybe it's ancient history, maybe a legend, maybe even fiction, and maybe it no longer exists, or never existed.
Could you say "Take me to the shrine of Kugo-Lippo" and be shown the way? What if the shrine was torn down and a shrine to Desna rebuilt in its place? What if the shrine was a fictional place but within the fictional world, it had a specific, findable location, i.e. the southern tip of a continent?
Is an Azlant ruin at the bottom of the Inner Sea a prominent location if it was famous around the world during its heyday? Would the spell show you that you need to go underwater to get there if no one currently living even knows it exists?
I have my own opinions, but I'm interested in seeing how others would handle it.
Courageous enchant on a staff or spear holding the banner.
By 7th level, or whenever you can afford it, you will grant your group
+6 to attack/damage
+5 to saves vs fear/charm
If you add in Moment of Greatness (level 1 spell), everyone gets +9/+10 on the next attack roll, damage roll, or save vs fear or charm, then fall back to the baseline +6/+5.
You can improve this further by enchanting the weapon some more, but diminishing returns kick in fast.
The strength of them doesn't matter. I'm mainly looking at doing amusing and stupid things. :-)
The dirty trick option fits rather well for my intent, I had forgotten about those rules. So the question is, are dirty tricks that do not involve direct harm to someone in normal time allowed under the timestop rules?
Dirty tricks are combat maneuvers, which are attacks, so your targets would be invulnerable to them during a time stop.
My players always go for the hit point. Hit points are used every day, you last choice skill (the one you would take with a fcb) is used rarely and likely someone in the party can cover that for you anyway.
And you can but a headband with a built in maxed skill for only 4k. You can't buy a source of hitpoints that stacks with everything else for any price.
How often do you use your last HP?
And buying a headband for a skill is the same as buying a belt for hp.
Third there is a feat for hp but not for skills. At least not from paizo.
You mean that completely different feat that is in no way a Toughness-equivalent feat for skill points?
I mean that feat that augments your skills in such a way that you are being weird and/or pedantic if you suggest that it "in no way" augments skills.
No, it doesn't give you "more skill points" because it's even better than that, it lets you boost a skill beyond what your ranks would normally allow. If you want to spread them them thin among multiple skills, then yeah, you may have a semblance of a point, but you could accomplish the same thing by investing less ranks in a single skill and making it up with skill focus. And missing the opportunity to exceed what your ranks allow on their own.
My players always go for the hit point. Hit points are used every day, you last choice skill (the one you would take with a fcb) is used rarely and likely someone in the party can cover that for you anyway.
And you can but a headband with a built in maxed skill for only 4k. You can't buy a source of hitpoints that stacks with everything else for any price.
How often do you use your last HP?
And buying a headband for a skill is the same as buying a belt for hp.
Third there is a feat for hp but not for skills. At least not from paizo.
I don't think anyone in this thread is suggesting you can get extra attacks with unarmed strikes beyond your normal iteratives+maybe TWF. What people are arguing about is if the mere act of wielding a weapon in your hand (and *not* attacking it) is enough to restrict unarmed strikes. That's what I assumed you were supporting, since you argued against someone who was against exactly that?
I was taking issue with the imprecise use of language 'anyone can kick" because it HAS been used by those who would argue that kicks should be a supplement to weapon attacks because arms plus legs equals 4 limbs.
'anyone can kick' is definitely ambiguous.
I took it to mean 'You don't need a feat or a class feature to kick'
Not 'There is no circumstance that could possibly prevent someone from kicking'
I also think it is possible for someone holding a weapon to forgo their weapon attack to perform an unarmed strike. It will usually be suboptimal, but there may be good reasons to do it. Maybe you want to do nonlethal damage. Maybe you want to provoke an attack of opportunity. Maybe you want to humiliate your opponent. It shouldn't matter.
There are loads of spells that don't target creatures that have a duration longer than time stop that you could use. Delayed blast fireball, black tentacles, cloud and fog spells...
I don't see why you couldn't do the things you mentioned, though. Nothing about them would seem to disqualify them from use during time stop, unless the GM wants to treat the ghost sheet as a "dirty trick". But they are very weak compared to other things you could do.
All allies get the +4 flanking bonus, but only A2 gets the AoO. If you want everyone to join in the AoO fun, they need to get Paired Opportunists somehow.
The ones where you roll high on your save and nothing happens usually aren't very memorable. "The creature stares at you. Roll a Fortitude save." "26." "Nothing happens." "I smite it." "It dies."
I like to give a hint at what might have happened if they had failed. If they save against phantasmal killer, I describe a nightmarish scenario like the Dementors of Harry Potter tearing at the character's soul, but "you shake it off" If they save against dominate person, I let them know that they momentarily felt like a puppet on a string, but they regain control.
Snowblind wrote:
Getting hit in the face with a cricket bat evokes some strong real world feelings. That doesn't mean that it's a good idea for the GM to break out an impromptu paddlin' session just to make their Pathfinder game a bit more "memorable".
Spring Attack's specific phrasing "without provoking ANY attacks of opportunity from the target of your attack" seems very strong to me, and I initially was in favor of the strong reading negating any AoOs during the attack.
But upon further consideration, it does not seem clear that it is intended to shield against AoOs that come from things beyond Spring Attack's ordinary usage, i.e. leaving a threatened square even multiple times.
It would seem to be an overextension of Spring Attack to render the attacker totally immune to AoOs during the attack, which can come in an incredible number of ways.
Entering an opponent's square?
Enabling the use of any and all combat maneuvers, AoO-free, without the feats normally needed to do this?
Fail a trip by 10 or more, knock yourself prone adjacent to someone with Vicious Stomp and avoid the AoO?
Safely Spring Attack someone with Broken Wing Gambit going?
I won't expect to be able to do all these things, even though the wording of the feat could be interpreted that way.
I've run (not played) the first ten levels of Emerald Spire, and it's been enjoyable for the group. Each level is relatively independent of the others, though they are loosely tied together by the overall story, but this can be ignored without detracting from the experience.
One thing I would suggest, since it is a superdungeon and space is at a premium, is to not build characters that will clog up the map with figures. It will get cramped.
Even though i love the person playing the Summoner, i think ill hold up to the rules on this one.
i advised him to get an additional head+bite untill he reaches level 9, then he can get limbs+claws and enjoy the bonuses from the feat/evo that makes those atttacks stronger.
Eidolons are amazingly powerful even when following the rules. The opportunity to rebuild every level is terrific on its own.
The Way of the Wicked evil AP starts with a prison break. The prison is a backwater and the jailers are incompetent and distracted. If they don't come up with any ideas on their own, you can always give them opportunities by moving them from one place to another, or having some powerful entity extract them from the situation in exchange for a favor to be repaid at a later date (many plot hooks can attach here)
You understand correctly, and i missed "This evolution can only be applied to the limbs (legs) evolution once"
But, going with this i instead added a set of "Limbs (Arms)" and attempted to get the "Clawed Hands", i couldn't do this after adding "Limbs (Legs)" + "Clawed Feet" (or the other way around)
I then thought to myself "Maybe, i can't get over 4 POSSIBLE attacks at level 4 (instead of having a possible 5, including the head and use only the claws) - so i raised the Eidolon to levle 9, where he should be able to get 5 attacks (2 legs, 2 arms, 1 head) - PCGen allowed it then.
so the only issue is the MAX AVAILABLE attacks? (can't find the line that claims this in the rule books) would you as a DM allow the player to "bypass" this, forgo the head and take additional claws/hands instead?
To my understanding, yes. The maximum number of attacks is the main reason not to pile on many pairs of limbs. This is in Table: Eidolon Base Statistics
Quote:
Max. Attacks: This indicates the maximum number of natural attacks that the eidolon is allowed to possess at the given level. If the eidolon is at its maximum, it cannot take evolutions that grant additional natural attacks. This does not include attacks made with weapons.
"Effect: At 1st level, the witch can use feather fall at will and gains a +4 racial bonus on Swim checks. At 3rd level, she can cast levitate once per day. At 5th level, she can fly, as per the spell, for a number of minutes per day equal to her level. These minutes do not need to be consecutive, but they must be spent in 1-minute increments. This hex only affects the witch."
What is the action to activate feather fall? It won't work if it's standard. Personally, I think you actually cast that spell as a spell, components and all, but it's very vague.
It is an odd one, to be sure.
I suppose technically RAW it should be a standard action since the default of a (Su) ability isn't specifically overridden, but it makes no sense to have it not function, so I have a strong preference for RAI here. I wouldn't say requiring spell components is warranted.
If the prevailing group dynamic includes acceptance or even encouragement of routinely talking out of turn, then you may just have to start accepting that, and live within it. You might gain some concessions for a while out of a desire to minimize conflict, and keep the game going, but people usually revert to their natural ways. It's as difficult for outgoing, dominant personalities to hold back as it is for thoughtful, quiet types to speak up. That's not to say they can't play together, or even complement each other, but sometimes they just clash too much for mutual enjoyment. Good luck with your group.
As silly as this can be, it is not as consistently overpowering as an optimized archer full attacking from anywhere on the map, and way more interesting.
There are several ways to deal with this bit of trickery.
Put weak mooks in their face.
Separate the allies or otherwise control their movement
Stun
Crit immunity
Total concealment, including invisibility and blindness
Disarm combat maneuver
I'm starting to see hints that some think you can AoO cycle. Care to clarify what combo leads to a cycle?
(the usual culprit is a misunderstanding of paired opportunists)
Setup:
Two allies flank an enemy, with Combat Reflexes, teamwork feats including Outflank and Paired Opportunists, and some way to get them simultaneously, such as Gang Up, Pack Flanking, or the ratfolk swarming trait.
Ally 1 confirms a crit.
Due to Outflank, this causes the target to provoke from Ally 2.
Because target provoked from Ally 2, due to Paired Opportunists, target also provokes from Ally 1.
Since attacks of opportunity are considered to interrupt the normal flow of events, they are resolved in reverse order. So if Ally 1 crits again, this triggers a whole new series, that could conceivably only end when someone runs out of Combat Reflexes.
Paired Opportunists doesn't trigger infinite recursion on its own. It needs some help, but that help can come in a heck of a lot of different ways.
I too targeted the barbarian for Shayliss' advances. Ven Vinder's improved unarmed strike and power attack had my party convinced he was some kind of badass monk.
Actually, it should allow the crit fisher to get a crit he doesn't need to pass, and with outflank, it will provoke again, and the opponent should be annihilated.
So, just a thought. If you're looking for something to fill those dead levels (gained at level 5 and every four levels after that, it looks like), I didn't see anything that provides resistance against hostile polymorph or transmutation effects. That could be a neat ability.
Polymorph and Baleful Polymorph both state:
"A creature with the shapechanger subtype can revert to its natural form as a standard action"
Seems like this is even better than resistance, and would be baked into the class at level 1.
Genocide is incredibly overpowered. Sacrifice a hundred or so helpless victims and you can go to war with +100 to hit and damage.
Funny that it should be called Genocide. Genocide, a PVP MUD, had a vampire class that worked sort of like this. The vampire started weak, but with every kill, would get stronger. By the end of each match, the vampire could be absurdly powerful. Thankfully, because the game was match-based, every single thing would reset in between matches. Such a concept does not work for games in which your progress saves.
