Duncan Forsyth's page

Hmm. Am I missing something here? Small ice elementals have a strength of 12, and the feat Power Attack has a prerequisite of strength 13. That's in order for the feat to be selected ... or used.

So ... why do small ice elementals have the Power Attack feat?

So ... immersive harmful mindscapes ... such as created by 'Create Mindscape' ... 4th level spell for a psychic ...

It's an illusion which allows for real damage to be done. So it makes me think of spells like Shadow Conjuration and Shadow Evocation. But those spells have very clear limits, and Create Mindscape, doesn't seem to.

Other than Rule 0, what's to stop my ever-ingenenious players declaring that:

... their target is immersed in lava (20d6/round), while the caster stands at the volcano's edge?
... their one believable creature is the tarrasque, who immediately attacks at (+37, 4d8+15) ?

I wondered if I should use the Psychic Manifestation rules to handle such attempts ... but they're very explicit about those being used only in a binary mindscape, not an immersive one.

What text am I missing that will give me a handle on this?

Is 'flame jet burst' a wordspell?

A wordspell containing 'burst' has a minimum level of 1. 'Flame jet' is a level 0 word.

Up to today, I have understood those rules to mean, "'flame jet burst' is a level 1 wordspell", but a friend's reading of the same rules is that 'flame jet burst' is not a wordspell.

Can anyone settle this one, or throw some light on it?

Link to the relevant but ambiguous rules for target words: http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/ultimateMagic/wordsOfPower/targetWords.h tml

It seems pretty clear from RAW that for many characters your effective dexterity when pinned is higher than when merely grappled.

This is because the grappled condition applies a -4 Dex modifier to both the controlling grappler and the controlled, but then the pinned condition removes the penalty from the controlled grappler. In place, it removes their Dex bonus.

I think this has some weird (but corner case) effects.

Someone with poor dexterity might prefer to pinned than grappled when there's an incoming fireball.
Someone with the feat agile maneuvers, and dexterity less than 14, and intending to escape or reverse a grapple, would prefer to be pinned rather than grappled.

(There's really a not of things you can do with your dexterity when pinned, so it really is corner-case stuff)

So my question is ... have I missed something foolish?

Or does this need (a very low priority) patch?
e.g. apply a -4 Dex penalty to the pinned condition in addition to the loss of the Dex bonus.

Relevant rules below -

From the glossary:

[...] Grappled creatures cannot move and take a –4 penalty to Dexterity. A grappled creature takes a –2 penalty on all attack rolls and combat maneuver checks, except those made to grapple or escape a grapple. [...]

http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/glossary.html

[...] A pinned creature cannot move and is denied its Dexterity bonus. A pinned character also takes an additional –4 penalty to his Armor Class. [...] Pinned is a more severe version of grappled, and their effects do not stack.

http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/glossary.html

From the FAQ:

When a creature is pinned, it gains this more severe version of the grappled condition, and the two conditions do not stack (as described in the pinned condition). While this means that you do not take both the penalties for both the grapple and the pin, this also means that pinned supersedes the grapple condition; it does not compound it. For this reason you only need to succeed one combat maneuver or Escape Artist check to escape either a grapple or a pin.

http://paizo.com/paizo/faq/v5748nruor1fm#v5748eaic9o3t

The new spell components are interesting. As they are more internal, I just know my players are going to ask how this will affect the ability to cast a spell without anyone noticing.

I appreciate that it's not a new question as to how to cast charm person or sow thought without being noticed. But I haven't previously spotted any official advice. With a complete absense of the caster gesturing and muttering, I think it would be useful to have some official ruling.

"At 1st level, 2nd level, and every four levels thereafter, a master of many styles may select a bonus style feat or the Elemental Fist feat. He does not have to meet the prerequisites of that feat, except the Elemental Fist feat. Alternatively, a master of many styles may choose a feat in that style’s feat path (such as Earth Child Topple) as one of these bonus feats if he already has the appropriate style feat (such as Earth Child Style). The master of many styles does not need to meet any other prerequisite of the feat in the style’s feat path.

This ability replaces a monk’s standard bonus feats."

As I understand it, I think that the example of Earth Child Topple isn't as helpful as it could be as that's the second of the feat tree. I think the intent was to give access further up the feat tree, for example to Earth Child Binder.

So, can a Master of Many Styles with Earth Child Style take Earth Child Binder without first taking Earth Child Topple?

Please vote for this to be included in the FAQ.

The lovely people at Hero Lab have developed a very good character generator, however they read the answer as "no" and, quite reasonably, will only be convinced by an official response.