Dr. Guns-For-Hands's page

Is anyone using their familiars for combat maneuvers? I have a lvl 2 wizard and have invested my points in masters form. He's crunchy so I don't use him for this all the time, but I definitely have had him pull off some trips, grapples, and disarms. +6 is not terrible Athletics, good enough that a nice roll can make the attempt.

I would like some more lore love for Halflings.

I read the Halflings of Golarion book and the most it gave me for history of halflings was just "wherever there were humans there were halflings" and that's it. Androids have more origin material than halflings, and halflings have such a central role and flavor to the Pathfinder setting that it's weird.

Like, ask a guy about Elves and they'll tell you about Kyonin, they'll talk about Drow maybe, they'll reveal that elves come from a another planet through elf gates, etc.

Dwarves and Orcs came from beneath the earth, they've got Five Kings Mountain and Belzken respectively, they've got that whole ambiguous 'were the Orv vault keepers involved with their creation' thing going for them, etc.

Humans have so many points of origin and human nations everywhere.

Gnomes have the First World.

But nothing for halflings?

I'd like to know where they came from, something more than 'they're slaves, or wandering vagabonds, or quiet simple folk that live by themselves in countries populated by other races'. I know so much of the material has been expanded upon so it's not like you could drop into Rahadoum 'and the president of halflings is here with a special halfling city founded by halfling for halflings and the halfling race was born here' without people wondering how something that important got left out of the first gazette, but I needs more Pathfinder in my halflings.

I kind of miss how the Pathfinder Society used to be flavored a lot more competitive between Pathfinders for discoveries. Like giving the example that a Pathfinder won't kill another Pathfinder to get ahead, but they might cut the only rope bridge over the chasm to make the other guy take the long way around, or tell the local tribe they'd befriended that the other guy is shady and needs to be detained. That outlook was kind of the foundation of Grand Master Torches back story. Everyone being friends working toward a common goal now probably encourages more cooperative Pathfinder Society Play, but it's a little less exciting.

I also kind of miss "secret" Pathfinder society factions, back in the days when Taldor, Andor, Osirion, Cheliax, and Qadira were assumed to be running completely non sanctioned secret submissions during the regular Pathfinder module. I understand that the Society narrative progressed to where the factions are operating in the open and I bet it helped sessions run smoother to not have every player asking if their secret faction mission was in every room, but it was still a really cool thing to secretly pull off your "secret" mission.

Had a Paladin fall for Lawful reasons in a Kingmaker game:

Okay, here is a cheap, no magic, no stress, no chance of accidental murder to your party way to detect a doppleganger 100%. This will also work on other natural shapeshifters.

First question both party members until they insist they are the real one.

Then separate them, ask them to give you a lock of their hair. You can easily shave a bit of hair with a simple dagger. Take the hair locks and hold them in separate hands.

Then wait.

Your real party member's hair will stay a lock of hair. The doppleganger's hair sample once separated from the body will not be able to maintain the shapeshift, it will revert back to... Doppleganger goo.

I imagine this is how the local peasant community catches a doppleganger in their midst, no fancy magics necessary.

A lot of people forget that Irori has Paladins. They aren't common, but they would be completely on board with stomping out cults to some twisted eldritch gods offering people the type of power that worshippers of Irori are supposed to get through the pursuit of natural self perfection, especially if these people end up mentally and physically mutilated in exchange.

I recommend against Ward. It's useful at low levels, but once you start getting more powerful magics and magic items, the fact that it is a deflection bonus and a resistance bonus is going to get annoying.

It won't stack with your cloak of resistance, your rings of protection, or common spells that give a deflection bonus to AC like Protection from evil or shield of faith. And the whole bonus vanishes after one hit or save failure, so it's too big a risk to use on one party member instead of buying them a cloak and a ring.

Rod of Security

Be a magic boss and bring 199 of your best friends for 200 days to an extra dimensional swanky resort complex where they don't age. It's the vacation stick. Good for those moments when you want to go "Let me stop you right there Ancient Red Dragon, I have a pilates class in an hour".

Want to divide and conquer? Abduct one of you enemies and mercilessly destroy them in a sunny beach setting. You'll really enjoy your swift vengeance when you're sitting next to the sounds of the ocean and drinking your choice of fruit smoothie.

This looks like a job for the internet. I checked to see if there is any evidence of a martial artist using a longspear and striking intentionally with the haft, using it as a weapon.

I found a demonstration of the Shea Da Wei Ba (Dragon's tail) Chinese longspear form.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBOqIpc7F9g

In it you can see that the martial artist demonstrates thoroughly using the spear as intended, focused on striking directly with the intention of spearing an opponent with the piercing end of the long spear. The form predominantly aims to cover all directions swiftly and accurately with the tip of the spear. Each thrust with the spear tip matches what I see reflected in the stats of the longspear (piercing damage).

At the same time, the form demonstration also includes moments where clearly the intent was to hit with the butt or haft of the longspear. Longspear damage is only listed as piercing. While I'm sure hitting a person with the butt or haft of the spear will hurt tremendously, it will not leave the puncture wound that the tip of the spear will. That seems to indicate that whatever is happening when the martial artist strikes with the haft or butt of the spear, it cannot be traditional longspear damage. It's clearly bludgeoning. And the haft and butt strikes use the momentum of the long reach strike multiple times to quickly reverse the length for adjacent bludgeons.

So it can happen. My temptation is to say that since the haft strike from a longspear isn't doing the same type of piercing damage and since longspears aren't double weapons, that striking with the haft is an improvised use of an object, under the jurisdiction of catch off guard.

GM: "Your adventure centuries back in time comes to a close, finished with your task you are now unfettered to return to your normal time. But the Time Dragon who brought you into the past used up his last bit of time travel to take you here in the first place."

PC: "Wasn't the Time Dragon alive in this time? We track down the Time Dragon from the past and have him use his time powers to get him home."

GM: "Uh..."

PC: "What? We know that he had at least one use of time travel left centuries from now. We ask the stranded Time Dragon where he used to live so we can use his time travel. Hey, stranded Time Dragon can ask past Time Dragon to send him back with us!"

GM: "Nooooo! Don't let them touch!"

I'm a little confused about this party. Being afraid to use the artifact seems a little odd three books in.

I've always wondered if there are cults in hell. Just as the idyllic seaside village full of humble folks contains a few cultists to some eldritch evil that they worship in secret ceremonies that hide their desperate taboo, maybe you should see if you can root out the angel or agathon worshipers that give lip service to evil and then whisper sweet songs of love and joy in the quiet brighter corners of the blasted hellscape.

I'd say Woodland Stride is the scariest thing about Druids.

CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATOR AT CAMPSITE:

"Well from the looks of the state of the camp, the mutilated bodies, the claw marks, the bite marks on the wagons, and the shape of the burst marks on the tents and trees, it seems like these campers were ripped apart and crushed to death by the biggest Allosaurus I've ever seen."

"But there are no tracks...."

"Oh god, why is it so quiet?!"

"IT COULD BE ANYWHERE! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!"

I suppose if I wanted to open an investigation into the death of Aroden I would have to begin with cause of death. Was it murder? Were there enough mysterious circumstances to warrant further investigation?

We don't have a body. This would be a missing persons case if not for the fact that his clerics insist that he is dead. We have also received evasive confirmations from Pharasma that he is dead (suspicious). His 'death' seems to have occurred at the exact moment he was to have some sort of triumph, unlikely he would have killed himself. And no god has ever died of natural causes. This is now a murder investigation. Since we don't have a body or clues to how it was done, we have to turn to the previous case files of moments where gods were weakened or killed.

It's unclear what limits are put on a Golarion god, but historically traps seem to be a weakness. I went through all the gods that have been killed or weakened, and made a list of the relevant consequences.

Trapped Gods:

Rovagug- An alliance of the gods barely outmatch Rovagug. Though weaker individually, they overpower the much stronger entity and imprison it. Rovagug is now trapped in an unnamed prison with Asmodeus as warden.

Zon-Kuthon- Allows himself to be imprisoned in the shadow realm so long the sun is in the sky in return for getting something from Abadar's vault, a place where a copy of everything that exists, existed, and ever will exist is hidden. This establishes that one god can make a god powerless against something if the other god submits.

Curchanus- Lamashtu springs a trap and ambushes Curchanus with her personal army. Curchanus is the only other true god than Aroden killed since Rovagug's attack. Overwhelming force was also a component, the gods seem to be unable to kill one another in a one on one fight.

Ydersius- Beheaded in a fight with a Azlanti human. Not killed, just disabled. Extra investigation needed to determine how a human wounds a god.

Arazni- Not technically a true god, but still divine. Overwhelmingly killed by Tar Baphon. Should be noted that Tar Baphon's enhanced abilities were caused when a trap he created to kill Aroden backfired. Unsure if he can kill Arazni because he is so powerful, or if he just has absorbed god killer powers from that trap.

If I wanted to make a god vulnerable based on history:

1. If you can trap a god or lure it into a trap, you have an advantage.
2. Gods who manifest on Golarion are more vulnerable. Curchanus was in Lamashtu's lair on her home plane and it sounds like his death was a monumental battle between him, Lamashtu, and the most powerful demons in the abyss. Ydersius is cut up by a person on Golarion. Arazni is killed by a mortal on Golarion. It's hard to miss that Aroden was killed while executing the most defiant Golarion manifestation by a god ever, seemingly by nothing.
3. Get the god to submit to me. If the god accepts that I have power over it, I have power. Leverage of any kind makes them weak.
4. Be powerful, so powerful that only an alliance of the gods could stop me.

Since no one knows about how Aroden died, I'm leaning towards a divine level player. All the mortals that injured gods became legends, and their traps were messy and public. This might have been eons in the making.

Now we have a suspect profile: The entity who killed Aroden was someone stronger than the Golarion gods, and that someone had professional influence over Aroden as well.

I immediately dismiss all Golarion gods as suspects.

So who has motive? What was their endgame? Lets look at the consequences of a god's death. Lamashtu was a demon before she was a deity, she looted divinity from Curchanus. Legend has it that even though she stole his portfolio, she destroyed the relationship between the world and animals permanently, even for other gods associated with animals. Aroden's death permanently destroyed the reliable power of prophecy, ruining divination even for other gods associated with prophecy. I realize there are other reasons someone could want to remove a force for good that champions humanity, but there are other ways to do that that won't require killing a god. These are the unique results.

Suspect Motive: The entity either intended to steal divinity from Aroden, or to destroy Prophecy. Since no new gods have appeared and no one has claimed responsibility for the death of Aroden, we have to assume the motive was to destroy prophecy. The suspects end game was to destroy prophecy for the Golarion gods.

In a high profile crime like this, there is always a traitor, a toady. The traitor is not always a friend but he is a peer, someone that would be considered an equal. Too many details in Aroden's death revolved around privileged information. Since we've established that our Prime Suspect is someone stronger than the Golarion gods, we have to assume that the Prime Suspect is from off planet. The traitor is a Golarion god that has been off planet. The traitor is Dou-Bral, AKA Zon-Kuthon.

Zon-Kuthon is the only god we know for a fact has been off planet. We know he was captured by an alien entity that wasn't just strong enough to take him in a fight, the entity tortured him, twisted him, dominated him. Zon-Kuthon's alien entity is the Prime Suspect.

So now we need a connection between Zon-Kuthon and Aroden. The Starstone. Zon-Kuthon's freedom from the plane of shadow would come from the insane possibility that the sun would stop rising in the sky. He made that bet with Abadar because he knew the Starstone was coming. The Alien Entity told him so. Aboleths may have called it, but the Alien Entity put his Starstone creation into the asteroid that started the era of darkness. The Alien Entity is powerful, powerful enough to create the Starstone based on the abominable research he did on Dou-Bral. He knows enough about the gods from dissecting Dou-Bral that the Alien Entity can create something that will invest someone into the Golarion pantheon. He is the only fitting player that we know of that has intimate knowledge of Golarion god anatomy, who could design a Starstone. It has to be the Alien Entity.

So what was Aroden? He was the Macguffin. He was made a god just for the purpose of dying and weakening the pantheon. That's what the Starstone is for. If one god dying can destroy a power for all gods, then the divine power of the Golarion pantheon must be connected. The Starstone connects a mortal to that divine field. While it effectively makes them a god, it dilludes the power of all the gods. If the Starstone is the invention of this Alien Entity, it puts their power in subservience to The Entity. If the Entity is a controlling influence to Starstone power, it has the ability to make Starstone gods weaker. The other Starstone gods keep showing up in 1000 year increments, indicating an intelligent hand behind the way new gods are invested by the Starstone. Maybe Cayden Cailean got too drunk and that's why he doesn't even remember how he got to the Starstone. Or maybe time was running out and the Starstone needed to abduct anyone to invest with divine power. Nobody knows what happens in the Temple of the Starstone. Maybe it's full of traps unless you are the right person at the right time and that's the secret to touching the stone.

Suspect Endgame: The Alien Entity that corrupted Dou-Bral wants to conquer Golarion. He had enough time to extract all the information he wanted from Dou-Bral about the various gods, resources, history. He learned from the story of Rovagug and knew a frontal assault would never work. He knew from dissecting Dou-Bral and the story of Lamashtu's divinity how their divinity worked. The gods needed to be weakened, distracted, picked off one by one. So he killed Aroden. He had the leverage to do it. He knew every inch of the power he gave him.

If I wanted to attack a planet, I would ideally make sure they didn't know I was coming. If I could only kill one god and rob them of one power I would choose prophecy. Then I would make sure in the aftermath that there were some distractions that could be explained as the death throes of a god, things like a wound in the earth ripping open throwing demons everywhere, or a giant hurricane forever.

We're right, Aroden died to destroy prophecy, but not for the reason we think. I'd like to believe it was a noble act, but the story would harm no one to know. It would be a rallying point, but not an extraordinary one. But people don't go mad prying into gentle stories. A noble death doesn't release a hoard of demons. It's too much of a coincidence that the rock that frees Zon-Kuthon, a rock he knows is coming, also contains the Starstone.

No prob, I'm always happy to help, I will be rooting for you Derek Vande Brake and I genuinely wish you the best in your efforts to become reemployed. You deserve better. A good company deserves you.

Welp, sounds like you already have plenty of help with the 'player interaction' part of this conversation. Let's talk employment.

Currently you sound like you're either out of work, or working a job that you wish you weren't. Even with advantageous education background, work history, willingness to relocate, connections, etc. job hunting can be a long and unpredictable process. It's easy to focus on the negatives of job hunting, the rejection, the resume rewrites, the constant evaluation, the time devoted.

Think about the positives. Imagine how great it would be to have a job that pays you real money, that challenges you without draining you, that has potential for advancement and raises, that surrounds you with people that are your intellectual equals. You may feel burdened sending off those resumes and interviewing when you don't get the job, but remember, you only have to succeed once. You need to start thinking about your priorities. This is where your focus should be.

Make clear to your friends when you put the game on hiatus that whether or not the blow up happened when it did, this is about taking care of yourself, getting a job, not a retaliation. They are your friends, they will understand. You don't have to quit gaming altogether, gaming is a great release, but it sounds like this game isn't that for you anymore. Be a PC for a while, let someone else run a game. You don't win anything, it's not them versus you. You did some things, they did some things, let it go. You'll feel better, and you'll need to feel good to focus.

See if you can do nine complete job submissions each day. If you use an Objective statement, incorporate the name of the company and their mission statement into every resume. Each resume needs to be different, identify key words from the job listing and respond to them directly in your resume. This will be more work and feel like a dramatic slowdown, but the average job listing on a monster.com style website costs a company in the range of $400 to post, the words they use are not a coincidence.

I would argue that the Endure Elements is an addition to the ioun stone resonant power, not a clarification that the item is only based on Endure Elements.

The item puts the Druid under Endure Elements. It also protects the Druid from the vacuum. It's not 'the item puts the Druid under endure elements and only protects the Druid from as much vacuum as the limitations of the Endure Elements spell'. The vacuum part is an added power.

It's like if someone made an item that 'put the wearer under the effect of freedom of movement, as well as lets the wearer walk through stone walls'. Freedom of movement lets you resist a number of obstacles from magical and natural rough terrain to grapples, but it doesn't let you move through solid obstructions like walls. It puts the wearer under freedom of movement. It also lets the wearer walk through stone walls. Otherwise they wouldn't really have a reason to add that part about the vacuum. You're never going to find a vacuum without extreme temperatures in the technology level of Golarion, so I'm not sure why the assumption is that this item was made for all those vacuums without extreme temperatures out there.

Don't worry, I'm not trying to make this into an item that makes you immune to fire or ice damage (nor physical damage, as someone who was actually strong enough to resist the extreme pressures of deep sea would probably be). I'm still seeing 'magic spacesuit'. Blowtorch or put liquid nitrogen on a space suit, or hit it with a Vicious Greatsword and that space suit will not protect you. A space suit will protect you from temperatures outside in space, but would disintegrate as fast as anything if you tried to float into the sun. All it does is insulate you from the harmful effects of the vacuum. That's practically the definition of a spacesuit, it protects you from exposure to the vacuum of space.

If the wayfinders really are these devices based on Azlanti magical technology, and the Resonant powers from putting ioun stones into wayfinders is an expression of that technology, and we know that the Azlantis explored space, it makes sense that they would have a magic spacesuit.

Then again, what is the temperature in a vacuum, and what would happen to a Druid exposed nonchalantly to a vacuum? Since there is no such thing as a perfect vacuum, (even the vast emptiness of the dark tapestry has sparse particles) we have to assume that we are referring to the only naturally occurring near vacuum: space.

If we continue the Golarion / Earth physics parallel, we rely on our closest estimate of the temperature average of space, which is 3 Kelvin or roughly -454 degrees fahrenheit. Now if an item boasts "protection against exposure to vacuum", it would have to account for temperatures of zero Kelvin at least, the actual temperature (or lack of?) in a true vacuum.

And while momentum would certainly be lost in space due to the incidental amounts of matter floating in the vast emptiness, a Druid would be able to coast with the amount of momentum generated by flying full run for a sprint, much like how the average space shuttle fires it's boosters in bursts rather than burning fuel at a constant rate. Astronauts allow for complex predictive mathematical algorithms to use bursts of speed to redirect the momentum of the ship like an arrow to it's target. I assume that with a Druid capable of reaching 50 mph the same principle would apply, allowing the Druid to sprint, coast for a long time, sprint, coast for a long time, etc.

With the Air elemental needing air to fly, I suppose the assumption is the elemental's flight is based on having an atmosphere. This brings up an interesting question, does an air elemental create it's own atmosphere? Let's look at Call Lightning, a spell that becomes more powerful due to the stormy whirlwind of a large sized or larger air elemental. Storms are one of the simplest byproducts of atmosphere, for an air elemental to be able to charge a Call Lightning spell it would have to be able to ionize in order to carry that charge, it would have to have some facsimile of water vapor and various other gases to ionize itself.

If this is true, the air elemental would be producing it's own atmosphere. It wouldn't be a tremendous leap to say that it can fly because it carries it's own atmosphere with it.

I had been hoping that this was the final piece of a canon 'magic spacesuit' that can be used while wild shaped since I have been considering the fact that while there are certainly other classes that have abilities that can help them get to space, the Druid seems to be the most practical choice for entering Golarion's orbit. Combined with the Ring of Sustenance this would be everything you would need for a prolonged journey.

If the 'magic spacesuit' works, and we assume that the Pathfinder solar system is relative in distance, A Druid wild shaped into an air elemental with longstrider doing a full run action every round can move 264000 ft in an hour, exactly 50 mph. This means that a Druid moving at top speed can reach the Karmin line in the Thermospere (the 100 km/65 mile minimum distance you would need to be from the planet to orbit with the space station in total weightlessness.) in roughly an hour and fifteen minutes. At this point the Druid would be able to watch Golarion spinning under their feet. At this speed, the Druid could reach any location on Golarion in less than 24 hours.

If we are to also to use our moon as the model for the Golarion moon Somal, then Somal would be on average 235000 miles from Golarion. This means a Druid moving at 50 mph under their own power (not using Golarion's orbit to slingshot it to Somal) would on average take 4700 hours or 196 days to carry a wagon full of corpses and a fake journal describing a doomed Oregon Trail style journey through space to the surface of the moon.

So I have been looking at the resonant powers of the Iridescent spindle when you put it in a wayfinder. The regular power of the ioun stone is just not needing to breathe. The resonant power is this:

"Endure elements, as the spell, as well as protection against exposure to vacuum and underwater pressure."

So I want to make sure, since the vacuum of space is kind of an uncharted area in rules and concepts whether or not this phrase and the previous not needing to breathe = Can survive in space. And if so, should I assume similar details to our own Earth, such as the 100 km range you would have to reach above the planet to break or achieve a sustainable orbit and become weightless?

So ship to ship combat eh? I don't know what your caster level will be when you go into ship to ship combat, but I highly recommend Warp Wood.

It will be a subtle blast, and since most ships are colossal you will need to probably use three castings (maybe even quickening warp wood), but you can single handed wreck a ship in a couple of rounds. Then the choice is yours: Do you go in wildshaped into an aquatic form, wreck the ship from underneath, and then signal your crew to move in? Do you come back to the ship and tell them to wait like vultures at a safe distance from the wreck until the hopelessness, dwindling supplies, and inclement weather weaken their resolve?

Otherwise I'm a big fan of the Whirlwind, Resist Energy Electricity, Call Lightning Storm combo. You basically start sucking up enemies and targeting yourself with 5d10 worth of lightning. Call lightning storm sounds weak until you're shocking an army of boarders sucked up in your whirlwind, plus you'll be bludgeoning them every round.

To really understand the place of Druid casting, you have to differentiate it from other magic both philosophically and artistically. If cleric casting is a prayer, and wizard casting is science, where does that leave Druid casting?

I posit that Druid casting is poetry. It has syntax and rhyme, each Druid spell is part of a larger whole, lines soundless and coarse until placed in the context of it's stanza.

Take the plant domain, one of the most iconic Druid domains, and one of the domains almost entirely populated by Druid spells:

Domain Spells: 1st—entangle, 2nd—barkskin, 3rd—plant growth, 4th—command plants, 5th—wall of thorns, 6th—repel wood, 7th—animate plants, 8th—control plants, 9th—shambler.

I have heard the Plant domain spell list described as one of the least powerful, and most incidental. That is because the Plant Domain is not meant to be nine different spells, it is one single spell. Wall of Thorns is a fine spell, creating a cage of thorns that bite you unless you remain perfectly still. Suddenly, Entangle. The thorns begin to twist and constrict with reckless abandon, becoming a meat grinder made of vines. You animate the Entangling Wall of Thorns, turning it into a massive plant monster or a collection of smaller monsters. You Command and Control your massive Animated Entangling Wall of Thorns. You can empower every numerical value involved with your Controlled and Commanded Animated Entangling Wall of Thorns by four with Plant Growth. Because of the peculiar definitions of plant creatures as objects, you can drop your Controlled and Commanded Animated Entangling Plant Growth Wall of Thorns on a wary target from a distance with Repel Wood after they have been grabbed and constricted by the Shambling Mounds summoned by the Shambler spell.

So I have been hearing rumors that a Bestiary 4 is coming in the general future. I don't know if anyone else thinks of this when a new Bestiary comes out, but I always look forward to seeing if there are any interesting new Wild Shape options. Plant shape is particularly fun, and is one of the only ways for you to get Regeneration as an ability for any amount of significant time and without emptying your wallet.

Unfortunately, out of three Bestiaries there is still only one viable Druid Plant Shape that gives you Regeneration: the Tendriculos. Not that the Tendriculos is a bad monster or shape option, it's pretty cool. But when there is only one option for something like this, I can't help imagining how weird that must be to be taught as a Druid how to eventually get Regeneration. It's not really 'You can assume the powers of plants that regenerate much in the way that you can assume the scent ability of animals' as much as 'You can assume the powers of all these plants and the Regeneration powers of only the Tendriculos. Only the Tendriculos has this power, and there are other powers that other plants have that we don't learn, but we all love Tendriculos Regeneration.'

I'm not interested in gaming the system, I just no longer want to imagine every Druid standing around the water cooler saying 'Isn't it weird that we must all have been taught how to turn into a Tendriculos since it's the only way we could get plant regeneration? Isn't it weird that while there are certainly wild shape favorites, all of us know the Tendriculos transformation regardless of climate, regional background, and social background because it's the only way we could learn this power?'

So I want more plant monsters with Regeneration, just so I no longer have to imagine an army of druids saying "Alright, we just got done turning into a menagerie of different animals and creatures that can grab opponents. Our new orders are to change shape into something with Regeneration." And then all the Druids turned into the exact same Tendriculos.

Am I the only one that wants more plant monsters with Regeneration for the sole purpose of Plant Shape? Was there a reason Paizo never made more than one, or is it just a coincidence?

So I have a Druid conundrum. Once again, it involves the Powerful Shape feat, the Ant Haul spell, and the herculean amounts of weight that a druid can carry. It stems largely from an incident that happened recently in one of my games.

The setting: The Druid and the party were entering a castle keep to warn an important NPC. They knew a prominent bad guy had dispatched assassins to specifically kill this NPC, and may even be making an appearance himself to make sure the job gets done. The party gets there at the same time as the assassination team. The assassination team will stop at nothing to kill this NPC, and while they do want to kill the party too, they are going out of their way to kill this weak NPC first. The druid is in T-Rex form, because he also has Wild Speech and likes to be a talking dinosaur.

Since there are a lot of assassins, and a full attack from any one of these assassins could mean death for this weak NPC, the Druid stuffs the entire NPC in his giant T-Rex mouth, effectively making it impossible for the assassins to get at the NPC without first getting through a few layers of T-Rex. After a round of assassins trying to get through a few layers of T-Rex, the Druid sees an arrow slit, turns into a humming bird, and flies out through the arrow slit.

What happens to the NPC? Wild Shape works like a polymorph spell in that equipment and anything that you carry meld into the Druid when they Wild Shape and become inaccessible, effectively putting all of the Druid's possession into a "Druid Dimension". Because of the way Powerful Shape, Ant Haul, and the strength of the Druid affect carrying capacity, this is a humming bird capable of carrying with minimal difficulty 345 lbs, putting the frail NPC well within the Druid's carrying capacity. This NPC is a living person completely willing to let this Druid go to extreme measures to protect him from murder.

Does the NPC get folded into the "Druid Dimension"? Can the NPC get out of the "Druid Dimension" by choice if he changes his mind? Is there air in the "Druid Dimension"? Does the NPC have a bird's eye view of whatever part of the hummingbird he has been warped into? Does the NPC become inert? Does the NPC come bursting out of the Druid's animal body screaming 'The miracle of life!'as the size transformation takes place? Do they form an amorphous half hummingbird half man monstrosity begging for the sweet release of death?

All these and more are the mysteries of the "Druid Dimension". What are your thoughts?

18,432,000 pounds translates to roughly 10598 tons. Do you know what weighs almost that much? A Seaborn Cruise Line Vacation ship! The same type of cruise ship that was used in Sandra Bullock's magnum opus Speed 2: Cruise Control. Truly Wilhem Defoe's greatest role as a lvl 20 expert who dumped all his ranks into Profession: Cruise Line Technical Support. Your Dragon Disciple Druid Barbomination would be able to push a luxury cruise liner down main street with almost 600 tons of strength left to spare. That means you could do this and still have a backpack full of tanks. Y'know, for sandwiches.

This brings me back to my original question. Carrying capacity doesn't have any checks associated with them. If a gnomish wizard decides to put on some fullplate, he doesn't make checks every round to make sure he can move, so long as it is under his heavy load he merely takes some encumbrance and move speed penalties and can go on his merry way. He can move, or the Fullplate is too heavy and he doesn't. Destroying things does require checks, but at the same time there are some objects you can break without making checks. For instance, if I want to eat a sandwich at a tavern, I do not have to make break checks to bite through the bread and cheese and ham and lettice. It just happens. You can pick up dishes and wash them without having to make a strength check. You have multitudes of strength within your capacity above what is needed to pick up that rock, so there are no checks, you can pick it up and carry it automatically.

Once you can move 10,000 tons, we enter a murky realm where a PC has multitudes of strength within his capacity above what is needed to knock over a liquor store. Normally, there would be a break DC. But there are no break DC's for sand castles, it's understood that a sand castle is nothing compared to average person strength. The PC with 10,000 tons of drag would have more than enough strength to pull Sandra Bullock, Wilhem Defoe, Not Keanu, that guy who wouldn't stop talking about eating gristle, and the entire cast of the non stop ocean thrill ride Speed 2: Cruise Control to their watery graves. Do these checks become automatic?

So I have been looking at the Powerful Shape feat for druids:

Prerequisites: Wild shape class feature, druid level 8th.

Benefit: When in wild shape, treat your size as one category larger for the purpose of calculating CMB, CMD, carrying capacity, and any size-based special attacks you use or that are used against you (such as grab, swallow whole, and trample).

I've never really considered carrying capacity once you get to a high level druid because there comes a point where the weight of your own gear becomes a moot point. But then I sat down and started doing the actual math.

A druid with Wildshape high enough, Ant haul, and the Powerful Shape feat can move disturbing amounts of weight.

Sample: A druid with a 16 strength starting. He gets a belt of +4 strength, bringing his score to 20 strength. He wild shapes into a huge earth elemental, bumping that strength up to a 28.

On the chart, a max heavy load for a medium sized creature is 1200 lbs. But you've wild shaped into something Huge, which means you are treated as Gargantuan for your carrying capacity because of this feat. You're a solid stable rock, not standing on two legs, so you get the quadrupedal bonus. Multiply that 1200 lbs. by 12 = 14,400 lbs. Casting Ant Haul on yourself triples this amount: 43,200 lbs. You know what weighs almost that much? A 0-4-0 saddle tank steam locomotive. A druid can carry a solid iron steam locomotive on his back with some strain over long distances.

This gets crazier when you realize that a character is allowed to lift and carry at 5 feet around as a full round action double their maximum capacity. New amount: 86400 lbs. Do you know what weighs almost that much? An 18 wheeler super semi truck complete with 40 ft. trailer.

Then we get to push and drag. The druid can push or drag 5 times his maximum load. 43200 lbs times five = 216,000 lbs! Roughly 108 tons. Do you know what weighs almost that much? AN A380 AIRBUS JUMBO JET. I'm talking the modern, bigger than the Spruce Goose, multiple floors for seating, has a conference room, engineering marvels. The Druid can drag this jumbo jet without wheels.

So I guess my question at this point is, in this world of wooden, brick, and stone houses, what if this druid wants to do things like push over small buildings, yank the support pylons from a dock, drag a ship under water, etc? I know there are some checks for bursting objects, doing damage to objects, and so forth, but they all seem directed at smaller things, like knocking a door off it's hinges. The break DC for an Adamantine Door is 40 for instance. Impossible for even the brawniest raging Barbarian, but this druid has a +9 strength modifier and a +12 bonus for Gargantuan size while a huge Earth Elemental, he is capable of taking a 20 and folding that Adamantine Door like Superman. I feel like there is enough math for me to entertain the Druid's attempt at pushing over a house seriously.

What is the verdict on this? Is there a check for doing something within your weight limit? Can a Druid like this just decide to push the Blacksmith Shop down the street or literally knock over a liquor store?

While I have already stated my theory about direct intervention weakening or killing the gods, Traps seem to be a fundamental coincidence concerning the death of Curchanus and Arazni.

Curchanus was lured to an area that Lamashtu had trapped beforehand with monsters and demons. Though the gods are treated as equals except where Rovagugg is concerned, the ambush seemed to tip the balance enough that Lamashtu was able to finish Curchanus.

Tar Baphon was once a mortal Necromancer who decided to kill Aroden coincidentally depending on a trap. He built a great well on the Isle of Terror and just kept filling it with power from the negative energy plane. His hope was to commit such dark acts of debauchery and evil that Aroden himself would descend from the heavens and try to stop him, at which point he would unleash the stored reserves of the negative energy plane on Aroden, hopefully having enough to kill the god. Tar Baphon's trap backfired, killing him and eventually morphing him with enough negative energy to kill a god into a lich. Tar Baphon ends up killing Arazni, but only after absorbing god ending amounts of negative energy. So there is a question whether Tar Baphon's ability to kill Arazni may be unique because he is an unliving embodiment of that negative energy trap.

Traps and ambushes lend a new theory to Aroden's death. Aroden seemed primed for ambush. Everyone knew where Aroden was going to be and when. If someone wanted to lay a trap for a god, they would need those exact details.

Plus, we already know that the gods can be trapped literally, imprisoned like Rovagugg and Zon Kuthon. Perhaps the gods remain distant due to fear of such a trap or ambush?

Since he specified written, the briefing takes the form of skywriting.

Everyday the clouds are reshaped to deliver a gigantic report on all the ships in a 100 mile radius. Since it is skywriting, every ship for 100 miles can also see this report. Also, the PC ship counts as a ship within a 100 mile radius.

From all of the stuff that I have read from various gazettes, the old setting book, and Gods and Magic, I have at least Sean K. Reynolds explanation for why the gods refuse to take an active role.

It starts first with a non aggression pact. In the battle with Rovagugg at the dawn of Golarion, the entities that survived became the original pantheon of Golarion gods and godesses. While some minor entities were killed in the battle, the gods that survived and manifested their divinity with Golarion assumed they could not be killed. Still, the gods knew that each had their own domains, were of equal power, and each agreed that open war between deities must not be done lest they rip asunder dimensions in the crossfire. They would limit themselves to visiting, acting through agents, and rarely making direct deific contact.

(Supposition: I've always suspected that the reason the gods usually relied on imprisonment rather than going for the kill for gods like Zon Kuthon and Rovagugg was through this assumption that killing gods of Golarion couldn't be done.)

Then Lamashtu, an upstart god, killed Curchanus, the ancient god of beasts and travel. Not only was Curchanus dead, Lamashtu actually stole his power over travel by killing him. No records indicate whether there were any tense standoffs in the cosmos when the gods realized that not only could they be killed, but by killing other gods they could steal their power. In the end, the gods agreed that while it was a surprise that the gods could die, logically a god could kill another god. The non aggression pact was maintained, the gods were just more wary of each other and still assumed that they were safe from everything but each other. (It should be noted that Ydersius is not listed as a dead god in Gods and Magic, but a living god separated into two halves and made useless, simply waiting to be rejoined).

Then Tar Baphon, the Whispering Tyrant, a mortal man twisted by a necromantic trap into something hideous and new to unlife, fought the goddess Arazni. She manifested bodily to kill a mere mortal, something that was still allowed. Tar Baphon didn't just kill Arazni, he humilated her, tortured her, then discarded her corpse like a piece of trash.

A god had been killed by a mortal. This was impossible. If a mortal could kill a god once, it could happen again. The gods would only act through heralds, followers, and obscurity from now on. They were afraid.

Except Aroden. Aroden was gonna show em all. He was gonna come down bodily and usher in the human moral utopia. Not only that, he posted the date he was gonna show up, the location, the place settings, after party etc. "Come at me, bro!" Aroden shouted to the universe. Everyone including the gods were watching on the hour he was supposed to arrive. The hour came.

THEN HE DIED INSTANTLY. Not only that, but his death destroyed the power of prophecy permanently, even from gods specifically tied to prophecy. The gods had never lost power before. It was also hard not to make the connection that Aroden died effortlessly during the most defiant act of Golarion manifestation in the history of time. He was seemingly killed by nothing. The gods are afraid now of not only dying themselves but of a reckless god dying and destroying another shared power from the domain of the gods. Now even direct use of power by a deity is considered taboo between the gods.

That's all I know. Nobody really knows how Aroden died, why gods died, whether they are getting weaker, whether divine intervention exposes the gods to danger, etc. This is just paraphrasing gleaned from multiple sources but mostly Gods and Magic by Sean K. Reynolds.

When I think about a character willing to pay 2315 gold for a +1 longsword, I never imagine a person walking up to the counter and buying any sword. A magic sword is a rarity (high level campaign encounters notwithstanding), and was a masterwork weapon with a name and a history before it was magical. Or it was a sword made specifically for the person buying it, meticulously crafted to order, poured out of the steel to fit one person's stance and style. Or it spent years as the dread blade of a famous villain, obvious to the observer on sight and resplendent with reputation for whoever claims it from them.

Mechanically though, it costs the same amount of money for a +1 longsword bought off the shelf as it does to order a craftsman to make the weapon for you. And while we can debate how arbitrary the half price resale amount is, it makes perfect sense to me that a resold weapon is worth much less to a merchant.

A player can try to sell a weapon at list price, but the value of it has been tainted to a merchant. This +1 longsword with a history of power and triumph is now stained with the defeat of it's master. It couldn't possibly be as good as the 2315 GP sword on order; can you imagine comparing a new sword with an unproven legacy to a sword previously owned by a loser, a sword that ended in the owner's death? If you buy this used sword, and get killed using it, you only have yourself to blame. Might as well sell a boat, sinks sometimes when most inconvenient. The merchant can order a sword to be built to the exact specifications of a buyer, but the only person in the world that called this longsword the extension of their arm is dead. The merchant is forced to do the work of waiting until someone close enough to the original owner or indifferent enough to the motifs buys it. Also, most players don't know the history or specifics of a magic sword they found other than "Got it off a hobgoblin". It then becomes the responsibility of the merchant to discern details such as whether it is made of the finest Taldan steel, the former weapon of a Lion Blade Captain, used in the second campaign against Qadira, out of production and rarely sold since they represent the family honor. Some of the merchant's skill in divining these details is represented in the mark up. A player adventurer does not account for all of these variables, they exacerbate them. A merchant earns their keep correcting the reputation of the +1 longsword.

Heavy Armor Proficiency is especially good for Dwarven Druids.

Stone Plate is designed specifically for Dwarven Druids and is pretty much 'Fullplate druids can wear without losing their druid powers that you don't have to skin a dragon for'. It weighs 75 lbs, so only Dwarves can really wear it comfortably without major load penalties.

If you want to be a really interesting Druid, a late level feat you might consider is Deceptive. At level 13 you will receive Thousand Faces as a druid power. You can look like anyone, effectively getting a +10 on disguise checks. Combine that with a bluff check (maybe with the help of an int +2 ioun stone or headband enhancement), glamered armor enchantment, and ranks in disguise you could be an effective infiltrator. The +4 from the feat will help a lot. You will be suddenly be able to shadow the rogue or the sorcerer in many ways much more effectively than a rogue or sorcerer.

Combine that with Wild Speech and hilarity ensues. You are the magic fish that promises three wishes to the person that caught you. You are the magical talking animal that encourages the young farmhand to pick up the sword and become a hero. You are the raven that screams 'Death to everyone in this village!' as it flies overhead. You are every Disney sidekick. You are the squirrel that whispers on the edge of the windowsill 'kill, kill, kill, kill' and then wanders off.

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/wondrous-items/r-z/amazi ng-tools-of-manufacture

This is the only item I've ever found that improves the progress of your crafting and is a non 3rd party item (advanced race guide). It has some pretty hefty restrictions:

-costs 12,000 gold to buy
-each set only applies to one craft skill (not spellcraft, things like craft weapon, armor, carpentry, jewelry, etc.)
-gnomish specific item, so some GM's may be reluctant to let you make or have them unless you are a gnome
-you need to have at least 6 ranks in the tool's craft skill to activate the useful powers of this item, no one rank dipping.
-requires craft wondrous item AND master craftsman to make the tools for yourself

On the bright side, you can make any item that uses your craft check that costs less than 2000 GP in one hour. And once a day on items that cost more than 2000 GP, you can make 2000 GP of progress on the item in one hour.

These Amazing Tools are expensive, so it's great for parties where money is no object and time is the only limiting factor. It's the only way I know to make additional progress in a day while adventuring without making a spreadsheet of all my hours, access to rings of sustenance, and adjacency to demiplanes.

Well, mithral Banded Mail weighs 17.5 lbs. Two mithral Breastplates weigh 30 lbs. If we're going by the pound, that leaves 12.5 pounds of mithral leftover.

At the same time, the difference in mithral price between heavy armor and two medium armors is 9250-8400=840gp.

I don't think it's unreasonable for him to craft heavy armor by melting down two medium armors so long as he has enough mithral from the medium armors to do it. If he invested the skill points to be a good enough crafter to do this, it feels like a reasonable application of this skill, especially since crafting through practical blacksmithing reduces the cost by a third.

Compared to the cost of mithral banded mail, 840 gp doesn't seem like a lot. If you want to make a decent compromise, you can say that the additional 12.5 pounds of mithral were consumed in the crafting process because of the impurities associated with melting down and reforging armors.

Without getting spoilerish, one of the adventure paths has a major boss fight that relies heavily on Freedom of Movement protecting the boss from the effects of high winds.

So as much as the wording is a little vague, there is precedent from an adventure path supporting the idea that Freedom of Movement protects you from winds.

I don't buy cost and time as limiting factors. In game, a lvl 1 wizard can spend 100,000 gold if he is given 100,000 gold. No one will stop him til he buys out the store. With time, if he is given one hundred days, he can craft all one hundred days (probably scrolls and potions, but there you go). But a level 1 wizard can never cast a fireball from his own spellbook. No amount of money, time, or skill DC can make this happen. He has to wait until he's a lvl 5 wizard.

I'm the only one who thinks there is something a little odd about interpreting the rules so a lvl 7 wizard can make a Ring of Three Wishes? He can duplicate Wish, matching the power of a 17th level caster, while being ten levels lower than he should?

No red flags raised at all that there is a misinterpretation about the crafting rules? Lvl 7 Wish?

A couple of other crafting conundrums:

Necklace of Fireballs Type 7. To cast a fireball that does 7d6 damage like the largest necklace bead, you have to be a level 7 caster. By the rules laid out here, you could ignore the CL and spell requirement to make a Necklace of Fireballs Type 7 at lvl 3 with craft wondrous item that will have a 7d6 fireball bead in it by increasing the DC by 10. How did the wizard make the item that casts a fireball four levels higher than he could ever cast? How did he do it without fireball? This is not an item that can really be hand waved as coming from a different source than fireball, at least at lvl 3. What seems more reasonable, that a wizard just +10 thought harder to figure out how to make something impossible for his ability, or that the +10 represents the difficulty that a wizard has crafting using a spell cast from another higher level caster helping him make this necklace?

Ring of Three Wishes. Even though the book sets the CL at 20, I will for argument sake say that since the earliest you can cast Wish or Miracle is CL 17, you can make a CL 17 Ring of Three Wishes. So the DC for a lvl 17 wizard who knows Wish and has Craft Ring is DC 23. Now we go to a lvl 7 elven wizard using 20 point buy. He could conceivably have a 20 int to start. We will also say just for grins he has a headband of int +2, bringing that int up to 22. He took skill focus spellcraft as a feat. He took the Theoretical Magician trait to give himself an additional +2 to spellcraft. Whenever this wizard crafts, he casts crafter's fortune to give himself a +5 when he's crafting rings. His skill check is 10 (trained skill) + 6 (int) + 3 (feat) + 2 (trait) + 5 (spell)= 26. Now level 7 wizard needs to increase the DC by 10 to make a Ring of Three Wishes, raising the DC to 33. So, by the description I've heard, the level 7 wizard does not need that level 17 wizard who knows wish in the room with him. This level 7 wizard takes a 10 and gets a 36 on his spellcraft check. Since he could take a 10 to beat the DC on a Ring of Three Wishes, I can only assume that an average challenge for a level 7 wizard is to duplicate the effects of Wish.

I'm the only one that sees a problem with this? GM's in the thread, you would allow this interpretation of must? That the only thing keeping a lvl 7 wizard from having three wishes is money? How does the wizard, conceptually, sit down and duplicate the effects of Wish? The only things that duplicate the effects of Wish are Wish or Miracle. There is no other spell. He just sits down one day and thinks really hard 'Ah, now I get bending all of existence to my will after sitting in this quiet room, but after I'm done making this I guess I'll go back to summoning one medium fire elemental as befits my spell capability.' That's why when it says These prerequisites must be met for the item to be created, all of them have to be there. The guy crafting the item doesn't necessarily have to be the one providing the caster level and spell, but someone standing over his shoulder while he works, has to.

What about crafting an amulet of natural armor?

The spell required is Barkskin. Wizard's don't know it. He can logically know of the existence and effects of the spell through Spellcraft. He can even watch a druid cast Barkskin, and have the druid explain in full detail how he does it. But no matter how much he tries, he can't write Barkskin into his spellbook. Barkskin just isn't on his spell list and it is beyond him.

But you're saying that just this once, a wizard, by himself, no help, just thinks really hard and is able to manifest barkskin into the amulet? If the wizard could really do this, I see no reason why barkskin isn't in his spellbook. He clearly understands it enough to cast it in closed quarters.

I always assumed that with the Master Craftsman feat, the crafter could only by himself make enhancements to the weapon or armor bonus since there is no spell requirement to do so, but if another spellcaster was there to cast fireball, he could do the +5 to the DC to make a Burning weapon, etc.

How does a level 3 wizard create an item that registers as caster level 8?

How does a wizard manifest say, cure light wounds, a spell he doesn't know, into a cure light wounds wand?

I'm not asking if someone said that this was okay, and that a wizard can do this because devs said so, I'm saying how does he do it? I don't buy that +5 to spellcraft means a wizard casts cure light wounds to make a wand.

Here's how it works:

Steve the human crafting wizard wants to create a Headband of Int +2. Caster level to make a Headband of Int +2 is 8 and requires the spell Fox's Cunning. DC is 10+caster level for a level 8 wizard to make this, so DC 18.

Steve is level 5. He has max ranks in spellcraft and an 18 int, so his base spellcraft roll is +9. He has the feat craft wondrous item, which he MUST have to even attempt this.

He does not have the right caster level to make this headband, so the DC to attempt this increases by 5 to 23. He MUST provide a spell caster to cast an 8th caster level Fox's Cunning for the spell, and this spellcaster MUST be present while Steve is making the headband. Since the headband costs 4000 gp, it takes 4 days to craft.

If you have a buddy 8th level or higher spellcaster that can cast Fox's Cunning willing to sit the four days with you for free, the +5 to the DC is all you have to worry about (that and making the roll). However, most players don't have higher level spellcasters to help for free. Then you have to pay a spellcaster as the Spellcasting and Services rules in the Core Book page 159. This isn't so bad for low cost items, but if you make an item that costs 30,000 gold, you may need to hire a high level spellcaster for a month. That could get costly. Also, you may be in a place that doesn't have that level of spellcaster available. Just because a city has 20th level spellcasters does not mean they'd lower themselves to work 125 days to help you build a vorpal amulet of mighty fists.

What increasing the DC does NOT do is let you manifest a higher caster level or a spell you don't know on your own. That would be way too powerful. The rule restrictions are there for a reason. Getting magic items for half price is powerful, especially since you can tailor them to your own needs and strengths. A player that argues for ignoring these restrictions will severely imbalance your game. Plus, item creation is not supposed to be automatic. There is a skill check to roll. Steve won't make the 23 DC by taking a 10. He could roll and fail the check to make the +2 Headband of Int, wasting a portion of costly materials. I've seen a lot of players who think that you just put ranks in spellcraft, then they show me a build so broken powerful with all their caster level 15-20 items they bought with self crafted items even though they are only actually caster level eight. It looks like cheating because it is. The only reason anyone gets mad over it is because they want a broken build, but nobody lets Fireball be a save or die spell because a player wants it that way. It is what it is.

This is a part of the challenge, the authors and playtesters knew what they were doing when they wrote the rules for item creation. And remember, Item Creation is still really powerful. It doesn't need any help.

I've had this happen in one of my games, where there was a sincere gaming interest in taking an improved familiar, but the player could find no reason to dismiss someone that had been the closest thing to a piece of themselves that exists to welcome a slightly more powerful stranger. He began to worry about it, because they were in a foreign land where there were no other Dwarf Caimans. Plus, since they were about to rise through the icy frostbitten crown of the world (Jade Regent), abandoning his familiar would be a death sentence. I told him to take the feat and I'd work it out.

What happened was the familiar evolved like a pokemon. Making a familiar is just pumping your own magic into an animal until it becomes magical right? Over the next couple of sessions each time he went to bed and I knew he wouldn't have any combats, he'd wake up and discover that any unspent spell slots were gone when he woke up. His familiar was eating them in his sleep, absorbing the magic. Eventually, his little caiman sprouted fairy wings and became a fairy dragon caiman when he hit 7th level.

I prefer this to just dismissing it, since Improved Familiar automatically provides the familiar without the 200gp per caster level cost. I makes sense that it's the same animal.

If you're looking for an example of a good soul with a single minded need to accrue wealth, look no further than Scrooge McDuck. Race cars, lasers, aeroplanes - it's a duck blur. You might solve a mystery or rewrite history.

Have your Druid cast Magic Stone for you. Now your rogue has three touch attack stones that can deal 2d6+2 damage to undead before sneak attack.

Scribe scroll. It's an amazing feat that lets you have a stack of paper with every situational spell you need so you can use your daily spells to buff your offense and defense capabilities. Plus, very cheap (12.5 gp to craft a cure light wounds scroll). You'll never come up against "Well, I can cast Remove Disease, but I don't have it memorized".

A method I've seen used well combining ranged touch with sneak attack is the rogue minor magic trick. Take a cantrip like acid splash or disrupt undead and snaek attack heavily armored foes.

If you are going to be a beast shaman, I strongly recommend the feat Planar Wildshape. It's a feat that allows you to spend two uses of your Wildshape to turn into a Celestial or Fiendish version of any animal based Wildshape.

While there are a lot of benefits (1/day smite evil, SR, resistances, DR, darkvision) the main reason you'll want this option is story. What often happens to melee wildshape druids when they get higher level is they rely more on their Elemental Body/Plant Shape Wildshapes rather than animal wildshapes because EB/PS shapes quickly outclass the benefits of your animals. Planar Wildshape allows your animals to grow with your increasing challenge rating so you won't run into the problem of "I'm Krull of the Spirit Wolves, master wolf shaman, wolf brother to the tribes, and I turn into... a Treant."

Also, remember that if you have a blinded character intending to move, he can move at half speed normally, but moving at your full speed while blinded requires a DC 15 Acrobatics check or you fall prone. This same mechanic applies when a character cannot see, such as characters without Darkvision in the dark with no light source, or Deeper Darkness.

Here's the problem with Hero Points from a GM perspective:

As GM's we imagine our players using hero points for dynamic actions and theatrical roleplaying decisions.

Unfortunately, your players will catch on that no use of action points is more powerful or useful than 'You spend two hero points to go to -1 hitpoints rather than die'. That's all they will use it for. It's boring. You will be bored and annoyed when they save up hero points for this purpose.

My biggest suggestion is the feat Planar Wildshape. The earliest you can get it is 5th and you have to have knowledge planes at five ranks, but it allows you to become a celestial [or fiendish] version of animal wild shapes by spending two wildshape uses.

Don't think of this as a feat that gives you a template. With one feat you get instant darkvision, elemental immunities, spell resistance, and damage reduction equal to a creature of your level. Most importantly, your natural attacks are treated as magical and either good or evil aligned. You even get once a day smiting as a paladin/anti-paladin.

Don't forget the hands down best aquatic wild shape:

The Giant Octopus (9 attacks, 20 ft reach, grab, ink cloud, poison)

Don't know if you're still allowed to use 3.5 stuff but if you are, the Draconomicon has a ton of really useful stuff in it for fighting dragons.

If you're specifically looking to get the drop on the dragon there is a seventh level spell called Hide from Dragons. You could spellcraft the scroll and it would protect your whole party from all dragon senses for a couple of hours with one casting.

Other than gunslingers and alchemists, I guess I would just suggest recuperating in areas the dragon's size can't get to, such as under the earth in a narrow cave system.

Luring it under the ocean after casting water breathing is another option. Red dragons don't breathe water, don't have swim checks, and without water breathing cannot cast spells with verbal components. Limited Wish might solve the dragons problems under water, but then it's wasting time and spells on making itself into an aqua dragon. Creatures like Giant Moray Eels, Orcas, and Large Water Elementals would have a tactical advantage as each of the dragons physical attacks would deal half damage under water. The rest of the party should have some sort of Touch of the Sea (APG) to keep them mobile. The dragon would have to either take a tactical risk to fight you in an unfriendly environment, or leave you alone to make more preparations.