Dietrich von Sachsen's page

So my party just encountered the leech swarms in Schloss Caromarc tonight. That was a brutal encounter. And whilst we've had some brutal encounters thus far, this one really soured my players.

So when I was looking at the Leech stat block at the start of combat, I noticed something. Like all swarms, the leeches deal 2d6 automatic damage if they share a space with a character (as expected), and have a DC 15 Fort save for their distraction (again, as expected). They've also got Blood Drain, which deals an automatic 1d3 Str and 1d3 Con damage at the start of each turn. Nasty, but again, reasonably expected for leeches.

But what I didn't expect was the poison.

Poison (Ex) Swarm—injury; save Fort DC 15; frequency 1/round for 2 rounds; effect 1d4 Dexterity drain; cure 1 save.

First of all, are leeches actually poisonous in the real world? I didn't think they were (Though I'd be content to be corrected on that).

But secondly - and this is the crux of my question - why on God's Green Earth (tm) are ordinary, regular leeches dealing ability score drain? The kind that cannot be cured by any magic the 6th-level party encountering them could possibly possession, and that requires a return to town and multiple, expensive castings to deal with?

Is this just a typo, and it should be damage, not drain? It seems excessive for a CR 4 creature.

So recently my group had an interesting discussion about non-magical healing options and using the Heal skill, and so I decided to roll up a 5th level Dhampir Alchemist with the Chirugeon archetype and a ludicrous Heal modifier. However, as a result of this unusual build, I have some questions about how some of these things interact.

1) For the Specialized Healer's Satchel (Healer's Handbook, pg 28), does it comes with all four abilities (Diagnosis, First Aid, Long-Term Care, and Treatment), or does the creator of the bag have to pick one?

2) The Healer's Satchel says:

"The wielder also gains a +4 circumstance bonus on Heal checks when she expends uses of the healer’s satchel to treat poisons and provide first aid (this does not stack with the normal +2 circumstance bonus granted for using a healer’s kit)."

My character also has Surgeons' Tools:

"When used in conjunction with a healer’s kit, surgeon’s tools raise the kit’s bonus to a +3 circumstance bonus on Heal checks to treat wounds or deadly wounds."

Does the bonus from Surgeons Tools stack with the improved Healer's Kit bonus, for a total of +5, or does the +4 bonus overrule the Surgeon's Tools?

3) My character also have a Boline:

"Bolines are hook-shaped knives commonly used by herbalists and spellcasters to harvest ingredients for their craft. A boline’s blade is typically 5 inches long, and is too small and irregular to use as a weapon. You can use a boline to finely slice the herbs in a healer’s kit, so you can treat deadly wounds with only a single use from a healer’s kit rather than two uses."

Does this work with the Healer's Satchel?

4) The Healer's Satchel description reads:

"When the wielder expends 2 uses from a healer’s satchel to treat deadly wounds with the Heal skill, she adds her Wisdom bonus to the amount of hit points restored, and if she exceeds the DC by 5 or more, she adds 2 × her Wisdom bonus to the amount restored."

My character has the Incredible Healer feat, which allows me to heal hp = my Heal Check instead of "the normal amount". Does this extra bonus from the Healer's Satchel apply to the Incredible Healer feat, or is it only added to "the normal amount"?

5) Final question - honest! My character has the Healer's Hands feat:

"You can use the Heal skill to treat deadly wounds as a full-round action. You do not take a penalty for not using a healer’s kit when treating deadly wounds this way, and you can do so on a given creature more than once per day. When treating deadly wounds this way, if your result exceeds the DC by 10 or more, add your ranks in Knowledge (planes) to the damage healed. These benefits do not apply to creatures that are not healed by positive energy. You can use this feat’s benefit a number of times per day equal to your ranks in Knowledge (planes)."

Concerning that last sentence... does that apply just to the adding of the Knowledge (planes) modifier to the damage healed, or to everything (including the use as a full-round action and the multiple times per day treating deadly wounds)?

I know it's a lot of questions, but I want to make sure I've done this build correctly.

This is going to sound like a very minor niggle, but it's been something that's bothered me for a while. This came about largely from a one-off game I was doing where the players were playing their Pathfinder alternate selves (think of the old D&D cartoon), and I was purchasing armour for my cavalier character.

Now, for full disclosure, I am an armoured fighter in the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA), and I fight in a maille hauberk. I *adore* chainmail, and think it's great. Whilst SCA combat certainly is divorced in a lot of ways from actual combat, the wearing of armour is one part that is - or can be- very authentic.

I also want to point out that I'm aware of the dangers of trying to apply real-world physics and logic to D&D.

With that said... I think the design of Medium Armours is really wonky.

If we look at Light Armours, most of them are pretty well designed (except for Leaf Armour... I can think of no reason why you'd shell out 500 gp for armour that is functionally identically to Masterwork Studded Leather or Parade Armour, which only costs 175 gp).

At the top end of the light armour, we have Chain Shirts at 100 gp, which is quite a bit more than most other armours, but it's the only one that gives a +4 armour bonus. It's a bit heavier than the others, but only by about 5 lbs, which is reasonable. It's slightly higher armour check penalty also means that some of the less protective but less encumbering light armours remain in play, depending on build and stats. The Armoured Kilt is also a nice option for customizing armours. Personally, I think that the Quilted Cloth should only a 5% Spell Failure, as the 10% makes it worthless to the people most likely to wear it - Arcane Spellcasters - but overall, I think the designers did a good job here. There is a enough variety in Light Armours without making most of the armours here rubbish.

Heavy Armour is also fairly well balanced. The only thing that raises an eyebrow is Field Plate. I like the mechanics, but it's overpriced - 1,350 gp is a heck of a price to pay just to have 1 fewer Armour check penalty over Masterwork Banded Mail, which is 400 gp. (And even more minor niggle... why is Iron Lammellar more protective than Steel Lamellar? Surely Iron is softer and more brittle a material... but I digress). Splint Mail is really the only red-headed stepchild of the lot, but it's designed to be the super cheap heavy armour option, so I give it a pass.

But Medium Armour?

As I've said, I adore maille. I would also point out that maille was THE armour for most of the medieval period, as well as in late antiquity, and it was used almost world-wide. But in Pathfinder, you'd have to be stark raving mad to choose chainmail as your character's armour.

Let's compare chainmail to a breastplate. The breastplate is 50 gp more expensive than the maille, which makes sense - after all, chainmail is demonstrably less protective than a solid steel plate. But why on earth does the breastplate weigh less, have less armour check, and less Arcane Spell Failure? Yes chainmail is supposed to be the "budget" option, but at only 50 gp difference almost every character is going to wait for one measily encounter to scrape up the difference and then buy breastplate. Either breastplates need to be more expensive so it's worth it to buy chainmail ever, or else chainmail needs to be improved.

It keeps even more bonkers when you start factoring in the eastern armours. Why would someone dish out 150 gp for chainmail when you can get the exact same thing in Four-Mirror armour for 45 gp? Yes, it weighs 5 lbs more, but for a 105 gp discount I'd take Four Mirror over chaimail any day. (This gets sillier when you realize that, historically, Four-Mirror armour was worn OVERTOP OF MAILLE.) Steel Lammellar has the same problem - it costs the same as chainmail at 150 gp, but is either identical or better than chainmail. So why would you EVER buy chainmail?

Since I'm on the subject, Horn Lamellar and Scale Mail are completely identical stat wise, but Horn costs twice as much. Finally, Mountain Pattern Armour is beyond useless. It's either equal to or worse than a breastplate in every way, and it's 50 gp more.

Pathfinder is, on the whole, a brilliantly written and overall well-designed game, and commend the people at Paizo for so much. However, I can't help but feel this small area of the game desperately needs a rework of some kind.

So my players have started heading Eastward after having made contact with Maegar Varn and set up an embassy there. As they've been running around exploring things, I noticed that at the very bottom of the Nomen Heights Random Ecounters chart (on page 79) there is this:

1 Silver Dragon (CR 14, Bestiary 110).

What the...

Maybe it's just me, but the idea of of a silver dragon being a "random" encounter seems really, really odd to me. Not only should a dragon of that power have a name and a lair nearby, but given that there's a certain unspoken assumption that your players are good aligned, and are not likely to just attack a Silver Dragon. Even if they are a bunch of evil bastards, the silver dragon isn't likely to know that and isn't likely to attack. (In fact, it isn't even likely to land...)

Anyone have any thoughts on how to run this encounter?

So I recently discovered the Magic Altars from Inner Sea Gods this evening from the Archives of Nethys (I don't know how I missed those earlier, I've owned the actual book for like two years at least...) and frankly, I think it's a really cool concept, and one my Oracle of Life, a devotee of Sarenrae in my Kingmaker game, will enjoy.

However, something got me thinking: how neat would it be to have said Altar of Sarenrae, instead of hiding in a church, be mounted on the back of a wagon, similar to the True Cross the crusaders had a the Battle of Hattin in 1187 CE, or the Caroccio Standards of Venice and Milan?

However, this little bit came up from Inner Sea Gods:

"An altar is always fixed in place; it cannot be moved without losing its magical abilities. Most altars are secured to the floor, and a successful DC 25 Strength check is required to uproot or move them (or a higher DC, depending on their size and weight)."

I know this may be munchkin-ing quite a lot, but does the altar count as moving if it's secured to a wagon?

One of my players is playing a Fighter with the Dragoon archetype. Dragoons get Armour Training 1 at Third Level, but do not get Armour Training 2, 3 or 4.

The wording of Armour Training says:

Starting at 3rd level, a fighter learns to be more maneuverable while wearing armor. Whenever he is wearing armor, he reduces the armor check penalty by 1 (to a minimum of 0) and increases the maximum Dexterity bonus allowed by his armor by 1. Every four levels thereafter (7th, 11th, and 15th), these bonuses increase by +1 each time, to a maximum –4 reduction of the armor check penalty and a +4 increase of the maximum Dexterity bonus allowed.

In addition, a fighter can also move at his normal speed while wearing medium armor. At 7th level, a fighter can move at his normal speed while wearing heavy armor. (Emphasis mine).

7th level is when a Fighter gains Armour Training 2.

My question is this: Is this 7th level ability tied to having Armour Training 2, or is it just cogent on having Armour Training and being 7th level? Can a 7th Level Dragoon move at full speed in Heavy Armour?

Hello Everyone!

So I'm trying to create a unique monster for my Kingmaker game -specifically Wilendithas the Eternal Hag, the Green Hag Lich Cleric of Gyronna described in Shadows of Gallowspire.

I'd like to give her more powerful stats as a baseline, rather than just taking a bog-standard Green Hag and applying templates and class levels. Is there a way to figure out a monsters racial ability scores?

Also, does the Caster Level of spell-like abilities improve with Class levels, or is it just the racial hit dice?

So I've been looking into starting a seafaring game (not exactly S&Sh, but something like it) for a little while now, but one thing that kind of bothers me is how limited ship variety is. Sure, you can buy modifications, but that really doesn't cover the broad range of ships that I'm sure are sailing about in Golarion.

One thing I always liked about the old 3.5e Stormwrack book was the decent variety of ships you could get. Not just the default "sailing ship", but cogs, pinnaces, drommands, and the like. Especially at low levels, having the PC's commanding a Pinnace means they could command the thing all by themselves and not need more than a couple of crew,

Does anyone have any pointers about how to convert these ships into Pathfinder rules? In particular, determining Base Save, hp, total squares of sail and rigging, etc.