Draznar's page

Looking for advice to help a friend. We are looking to put together an adventure were combat has a much more Visceral & Grueling feel to it. His main inspirations are the game, Dark Souls & the anime, Attack on Titan, where in both you always feel that death is a very real possibility.

To be clear, the goal is **not** to just unfairly kill the PCs. But we want their to be the threat of death in nearly all the combat events. If the PCs round the corner and see a goblin with a rusty knife, they still need to use caution.

Any ideas or thoughts?

A PC of mine recently emailed me with a question / request. He is playing as a Changeling Barbarian tho disguised as a human to others. He plans to have the character kick-box of sorts, combining changeling claws(natural) and kick attacks(unarmed). I'm unsure if I'm understanding his issue correctly and wanted to ask if anyone can tell me if my PC is correct about the problems of mixing unarmed & natural attacks or would this work entirely different.

He is also asking me to house-rule a feat (which I don't think I have an issue with) but I wanted to make sure the problem he describes actually exists in the first place.

As you may recall, unarmed strikes are messed up. As are natural weapons. And God have mercy on your soul should you attempt to mix the two! Naturally, I'm here to work on that last one, ja? As you know, my plan is to focus on kick-boxing most of the time, then add in all those fun natural bits during those dramatic times that warrant lovable 'ol Sophitia raging. Perhaps in the future I'll use claws outside of a rage once the others are aware of them, but never where there are humanoid witnesses around (potential exclusions for dramatic rage moments of course). The trick is that mixing natural weapons and "manufactured" ones like my feet imposes all manner of ugly things: all natural attacks are treated as secondary (base attack + str - 5 and damage die + str * 0.5) and all "manufactured" weapons treat as if two-weapon fighting (base attack + str -2 (assuming having the two-weapon-fighting feat and a light off-hand weapon), weapon die + str for main hand, weapon die + str * 0.5 for off hand), considering natural weapons as light off-hand weapons. A handy feat, Double Slice lets you enjoy your full strength bonus on off hand weapons. Sadly this does not affect natural weapons, though it would work for unarmed attacks. Multiattack is another potentially useful feat to consider as it lessens the attack penalty for swinging with secondary natural weapons to -2 from -5. Feral Combat Training comes close, allowing you to pick a natural weapon and use it with feats requiring Improved Unarmed Strike (style feats, Stunning Fist, etc) and even work in a monk's flurry.

So now that there's some background here, I'll get to my proposal: a new feat that would function as Double Slice for otherwise primary natural weapons when mixed with unarmed strikes (natural weapons that are normally considered secondary gain no benefit). The goal is to tear down the ugly wall between natural weapons and unarmed strikes, focusing on simply using your body as a weapon, pointy and not-so-pointy bits alike. By specifying that this only works with a combination of unarmed strikes and natural weapons, we avoid exploiting things by getting swords and other truly manufactured weapons in the mix and also dodge simply making an enhanced version of Double Slice as this will confer no bonuses when say wielding two axes or chakrams as I may well do at some point. The end wording I was thinking of would go something like this:

Snazzy Feat Name!
Prerequisites: Dex 15, Improved Unarmed Strike, Two-Weapon-Fighting, at least one primary natural weapon

Benefit: When attacking using only unarmed strikes or a mix of unarmed strikes and natural weapons, add your full strength modifier to damage rolls for all unarmed strikes and natural weapons that are normally considered primary.

Normal: When attacking with unarmed strikes and natural weapons, add only half of your strength modifier to damage rolls for off-hand unarmed strikes and all natural weapons.

Thoughts?

I'm not sure I understand how to use this ability effectively. Adding intelligence to initiative is a no brainer but the second part is what gets me.

Other than wielding a reach weapon, which doesn't seem like what a kensai Magus would use, how can a Kensai make use of being able to take attacks of opportunity while flat footed and drawing a weapon a weapon as part of that for free.

I get the fluff, but without a reach weapon how does a Kensai take advantage of Iajutsu?

In a similar vein as the thread

http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/paizoPublishing/pathfinder/pathfinderR PG/general/andTheCrappiestFeatAwardGoesTo

but reversed and more positive. What are some of your favorite feats? Stuff that's almost always useful / fun ^_^b

I really enjoy the Dazzling Display line, especially for Bards.

Can a Magus, who can only prepare up to 6th level spells, with spell perfection feat (choosing Vampiric Touch, a 3rd level spell), prepare a Perfected Quickened Vampiric Touch?

This would effectively make the spell a 7th level spell slot, (which Magus can't do), but could Spell Perfection work around that?

Crazy PC is at me again XD

Is it possible to get x2 Swift actions a turn if you are willing to downgrade a Standard or a Move action into a Swift? I think his goal is to do Swift, Swift, Standard.

I don't think its possible, but a PC of mine is convinced its legal. I thought the only real conversions was downgrading a Standard -> Move.

Is this something Pathfinder changed from 3.5? I always thought you could only ever get one Swift action a turn as a hard rule.

I have a PC who wants to hold charges when he uses his Spell Combat, and deliver them next turn. Does this work?

In Round 1 use Spell Combat to Attack with Sword and cast Shocking Grasp but holding the charge.

In Round 2 use Spell Combat to make a Touch Attack with Shocking Grasp spell held last turn. Then cast a Vampiric Touch, and with Spellstrike, attack with sword to deliver the Vampiric Touch.

I'm not sure why he wants this, but does anyone have any thoughts? Thanks for the input.

I am wondering about Words of Power and creating Ray spells.

The Word in question is for Target Word "Selected" and how it works in conjunction with certain effect words. Selected says if a wordspell does energy damage you can make it create a ray. For things like Corrosive Bolt Effect word (which gives no saving throw) it flows smoothly.

But what happens if I try to use the "Frost Fingers" or "Lightning Blast" words, both of which offer a saving throws for Reflex Half?

Would my Rays require a ranged touch attack, only to then allow my foe a saving throw?

Anyone have any insight to this?

How does an Intelligent Item casting spells work in regard to components? Is that just bypassed in general?

The specific case in question is a PC wanted to get an intelligent item that can cast True Strike, but it got me thinking about components needed to cast a spell & intelligent items in general.

Thoughts?

If a Magus has the arcana "Close Range", what happens if you spellstrike a spell with a multiple rays? Like Scorching Ray type spell? Do all the rays fire off anyway, the three rays can have one target?. Is it one hit then all three rays go off on the target of do I roll them separately, or does only one ray even happen and the rest or ether wasted or stored?

When creating an Intelligent Item, who can cast spells, how is the caster level determined? I looked in the intelligent item section but I can't seem to find it. Can anyone tell me how this is determined / point me to where this is stated in the core rules book?

It has become possible this might be relevant, so I am looking for advice...

If Thesing had a son.... what would a good name for him be?

Just asking for a rules clarification on Spellstrike.

Spellstrike (Su): Whenever a magus casts a spell with a range of touch from the magus spell list, he can deliver the spell through any weapon he is wielding as part of a melee attack.If successful, this attack deals its normal damage as well as the effects of the spell. This ability does not grant the magus a free melee attack—such attacks must be made normally. Alternatively, a magus can make a free touch attack with his free hand instead of delivering the spell through his weapon, as normal.

Can Spellstrike be applied to Ranged Touch Attack spells? IE, could I Spellstrike by imbuing Disintegrate into my Sword then having it go off when I hit someone with it in melee?

A PC of mine wants to take Leadership, after looking at the feat it was unclear to me if the stats for the Cohort should be rolled up, or just use a NPC (possibly Heroic Stats) from the Core book?

Or is there another method entirely? Thank you.

I was listening to a Chronicles Podcast from one of the Pathfinder Seminar at (GenCon?) and there was a question about "Things Paizo can't do due to open gaming license legal issues" and I was curious if that would be expanded.

Some specific monsters were referenced that Wizards owns that Pathfinder can't do due to Open Gaming license reasons, such as the Beholder & Mindflayer. What are all the other monsters that Paizo can't do? Is there somewhere I could find a list? Thank you!

I am confused who the adjacent person is this Redirect Attack talent. If Player A attacks Rouge B, can Rouge B use Redirect Attack to have Player A hit themself?

So I am running Council of Thieves and we are in the middle of "Twice Dammed Price". Soon my PCs favorite villain will return. I of course speak of Thesing Umbero Ulvauno. Such a amusing NPC. But to herald his return I want to create some great dialogue for my PCs involving him to enhance the memorable-ness of this encounter.

So if anyone has any ideas for witty remarks / retorts / comments from the great Thesing, as he exists in AP#30, please post em! All comers accepted!

Is it possible to use a Vital Strike on the Charge?

I know an "attack action" is a Standard Action but I'm unclear on the wording here. Whats the verdict?

Thank you!

Is it a typo or am I unaware of a rules issue but certain monsters in the Bestiary have the feat dodge, but it seems to not be in their AC in the stat block. Two examples being "Azata, Ghaele" on pg 25 & "Demon, Nabasu" on pg 64. Can anyone clarify this for me? Thank you.

When creating an Intelligent Item, who can cast spells, how is the caster level determined? I looked in the intelligent item section but I can't seem to find it. Can anyone tell me how this is determined / point me to where this is stated in the core rules book?

Is there any way to alter the slot an item takes up? IE. Making an Belt of Giant Strength occupy a different slot besides belt?

A PC was telling me he thought in original 3.5 this was possible (for an added cost), but I'm not sure it can still occur as I thought Pathfinder specifically consolidated those items to prevent abuse.

I am currently the GM for my group in the Council of Thieves AP, and I am also a new GM looking for advice.

My group and I just finished AP # 26 "The Sixfold Trial" and we had a great time. But there is a lot of fluff / background information for many characters / settings (the Asmodean Knot for example) that I have access to as I get to read the AP that my PCs do not. Things like the background fluff for the Knot creation, the importance of Jabe, and the background to the Bearded Devils who were imprisoned, etc). I want to be able to give my PCs as much fluff / flavor as possible, without just blatantly stating things. The Imp section with Livia was a great addition but none of my PCs asked about the knot or background for Devils or whatnot.

Another quick example is at the beginning of each AP they have the "Adventure Background Section", are my PCs supposed to have access to those things? I realize a lot of this is up to my discretion but still I'm not sure on lots of these fluff things. There seems to be much fluff that would add a lot to the experience, but I don't know whats good to give / how to give it. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you much!

I'm having a problem where I have too many PCs. I feel 4-5 is ideal, with an upper limit of 6. I am currently running the AP, Council of Thieves. This is the first time my group of friends has role played in a while so when we started I had 5 PCs.

Now others have show up out of the woodwork with either someone who doesn't show up a lot, or bringing along a sibling and now I have about 9 people interested in playing. Its just too much. There is only so much soup to go around so to speak, and with 9 PCs I can give any of them the time / attention they deserve and I feel like the quality of campaign I can physically run is less with so many people.

I try to increase the mob count to keep the CR appropriate but everything just drags... The idea of splitting into two separate play groups has come up but people aren't there consistently enough for it to be a long term solution.

Has anyone had similar problems? What can I do? I'm really stressing so any advice would be welcome. Thank you much

So I've read the rules for grappling, and I wasn't sure if I understood them so I wrote out an example as how I understand it after looking at the rules. If someone has a flowchart, or can explain it better for me, please let me know what I have messed up in my understanding, thanks.

A monk will grapple the wizard. The monk makes a CMB check, rolls a D20 and adds his bab + strength + size + feats. In this case, lets assume that the monk is 1st level with improved grapple and a 14 strength.

Let’s also assume that the wizard is also 1st level and has a 10 strength and a 14 dexterity but no relevant feats to improve his CMD. In this case the wizard’s CMD = 12 (10 + 0 bab + 0 strength + 2 dexterity + no feats)

The monk rolls a D20 and adds +4 to his roll (+2 strength, +0 for bab, +2 to improved grapple). If the monk rolls a 10 then his CMB (14) is greater than the Wizards CMD(12) and he has successfully grappled the wizard. Now both the Monk & the Wizard gain the grappled condition.

Now it is the Wizards turn. He can try to break the grapple by Making his own CMB check vs the Monk's CMD or an Escape Artist check vs Monk's CMD. If successful, he can either choose to become the grappler (which means he is in control and can release grapple at any time) or break free and act normally. Instead of trying to escape, he can take actions that require only one hand, such as casting a spell(this is difficult) or attacking with a light or one handed weapon.

Now its back to the monk. He makes a check again, his CMB (this time with an additional +5 circumstance bonus) vs Wizard CMD. Upon success, he has various options. He can either move both himself and the wizard, do damage, or pin (a pretty nasty status to be in) the wizard. Once pinned he can also tie the wizard up. If he fails, he lets go of the wizard.

And that would continue until the grapple stops. This is how I understand the rules after reading them. One thing I am iffy on is if the monk has to wait a turn until he can deal damage / pin or can it happen the turn he initiates the grapple. Am I missing something? Can anyone explain or clarify anything that I have messed up? Thank you.

A PC of mine is using Book of Nine Swords and is playing a Sword Sage of Diamond Mind. I had heard a lot of hype about Sword Sage being somewhat overpowered, but my PC really loves the class, and since all the Pathfinder classes got a bump up, I wanted him to be allowed to give it a shot.

So far everything seems ok mostly, he seems really strong but not broken. While leveling up he shows me this power a maneuver that allows him to make a concentration check for damage. This seemed a bit much, especially for like 5th level getting D20 + 12ish dmg. I wanted to know if others had any experience with this at all. Is this in fact overpowered? If so, any good ways to balance it out? Is there an errata / update I need to be made aware of?

Thoughts? Comments? Input is appreciated, thank you!

I am just curious if anyone has ever done a convert of the 3.5 class, Swordsage? It is one of my PCs favorite classes and I am looking for info for him. Any advice or recommendations are also welcome.

I am trying to find more ways to make combat more interesting. In my group of friends, I feel combat all too often turns into a lot of repetitive actions. I believe there is a lot of untapped potential to make combat more interesting and exciting. Especially for warrior type characters, I see all to often they just run up to the monster and hit it. In a sense, yes that's what characters like that do, but there should be more to combat than, 1 - Move to a Monster, 2 - Stand still beating Monster until it dies, 3 - Go back to Step 1. I feel there must be a lot of options that just aren't being used. Yes, there are things like combat maneuvers, but friends feel like while options like that are there, it tends to be "more effective" to just smash face and hit things.

I've focused a lot on melee, but its not just them. Same goes for magic casters in the sense of, I'd like there to be "things to do" other than 1: Cast Most Powerful Spell, 2: Cast Next Most Powerful Spell, etc. This is a lot less of an issue for Magic Casters because every spell they have is a "different option" they have available. I just feel melees often suffer from "I just hit it with my sword" syndrome.

I didn't mean to focus so much on warrior type specific issues for this post. I'd also love any tips, tricks, advice to make combat, in general, more engaging, and less of a repetitive grind. Perhaps more ways to use non-combat skills, inside of combat? Something to spice it up and give players options that are worthwhile.

Thank You for the Help!

First I'll start with the set up. My first character I've designed is a level 5 wizard. As we know, caster level is an important aspect of being wizard-y, so when looking through the traits I noticed 'Magical Knack' on pg. 5 of the pdf. "Pick a class when you gain this trait—your caster level in that class gains a +2 trait bonus as long as this bonus doesn’t increase your caster level higher than your current Hit Dice."

Pretty cool right?

Now here's where the question comes in. On pg. 224 of the rule book it states that:

"Caster Level: A spell’s power often depends on caster level, which is defined as the caster’s class level for the purpose of casting a particular spell. A creature with no classes has a caster level equal to its Hit Dice unless otherwise specified."

So if your caster level is always equal to your Hit Dice, and the trait gives you +2 to your caster level as long as it does not bring you above your hit dice, what use does the trait have?

I feel like I'm missing something here, so if someone could point me in the direction of what I'm over looking that would be awesome d~^_^~b.

I recently picked up the Pathfinder book, and I am trying to get some skeptical friends interested in trying Pathfinder over 3.5.

We have only glanced at things so far, and I think it looks great. However I am trying to assemble a good list of reasons to "sell it" to a skeptical friend.

I don't remember his exact issue, but he had some concern with skills. It may just have been a "if its not broke no need to fix it" type of thing. Can anyone help explain why Pathfinder skills work out better, if they do?

A general issue he had with 3.5 is that it always seemed so easy to get attack bonuses, and it was much harder to get a stronger defense. He took one look at fighter in pathfinder and frowned since he gets even more ways to easily hit now. In general to the system, has offense and defense buffs been changed or balanced out at all?

We had a concern about cross-classing not having any penalties anymore and the way you get +3 on skill checks to your class skills. It seems really easy for someone to just take a couple levels in various classes and then just have +3's to skills around the board.

Those are all the semi specific concerns I remember my friend having. Any additional information that might help convince a skeptic would be appreciated. Thank you for your input!