Emparawr's page

I have seen some other threads where this idea came up but I am curious as to what others think of this idea. Basically a feat, that raises your BAB, but never past your HD similar to Practiced Spellcaster from 3.5 or any of the other multiclass helper feats. I'm thinking +2 to your BAB, never past your HD though. This eliminates any potential for BAB higher than HD Uber Fighter nonsense but allows for a multiclasser to sacrifice some feat slots in order to take the BAB loss sting off a bit. I look forward to opinions.

My question is has there ever been an official ruling outside of Pathfinder Society concerning a character having multiple familiars or gaining the arcane bond ability from multiple sources?

There are multiple instances of this that I have seen discussed all over the place but have not found any kind of official ruling anywhere. Examples of differen't things that give familiars include:

Tatooed Sorcerer
Arcane Bloodline
Serpentine Bloodline
Eagle Domain
Souleater
Wizard
Witch
Eldritch Heritage (Any of the above bloodlines)
Magus Arcana (Familiar)

While some of these are pretty cut and clear like Eagle Domain, or Soul Eater, many of them are not, such as Tattooed Sorcerer with the Serpentine bloodline. There have primarily been four different arguments it would seem on this depending on what combination your looking at.

1) If you get a familiar from two different sources the levels stack, which poses the issue of how familiars progress past level 20 equivalent.

2) In some cases multiple familiars are allowed

3) You cannot ever have two abilities that provide a familiar

4) You can only have more then one ability that provides a familiar if they stack and if they do stack you cannot ever go past level 20 equivalent for familiar progression.

Anyways I know that in many threads this has been discussed to death in some rather overly heated debates already, so what I'm really curious about here is whether or not there has ever been any kind of an official ruling on this. If not maybe it would be possible to put together a completely comprehensive list of all the different ways that one can get a Familiar so that when they do FAQ we can get a comprehensive answer. Personally im interested because I'm making a character with a Trio of Imps that are important to his storyline (2 familiars and 1 diabolist imp companion) but if there is no current answer it would be good to have one.

Anybody know if this ever actually got an answer from a dev? Because if so I can't find one and this is a pretty big issue and is relevant to a current character im making. Although the last post from this thread is from over a year ago and I don't see any faqs or dev responses. Personally im on the side of multiple familiars but im interested in an official response for sure.

Ok so here is my issue. I'm helping my gf to make a draconic humanoid Antipaladin who focuses on sword and natural attacks. The one thing im struggling with is the Slapping Tail and Tripping Tails options from Advanced Race Guide since we are creating a custom race for her. I originally posted this in the Advice section but with where the conversation went I think it fits better here with the new conclusions. Still hoping to get it FAQd though as clarification is definitely needed.

Creating New Races

Slapping Tail (3 RP)
Prerequisites: None.
Benefit: Members of this race have a tail they can use to make attacks of opportunity with a reach of 5 feet. The tail is a natural attack that deals 1d6 points of damage plus the user's Strength modifier if Small, 1d8 points of damage plus the user's Strength modifier if Medium, or 1d10 points of damage plus 1-1/2 times the user's Strength modifier if Large.
Special: If a Large creature has the reach trait, its tail also gains reach.

Some things are pretty clear but others are not
1) It seems fairly certain that Slapping Tail can only be used for AOOs because otherwise they would not have mentioned the AOO thing at all as ANY natural or manufactured weapons can make AOOs.

2) The reason that it costs three times what a normal natural weapon costs in racial point is primarily because of the higher damage and the higher str to damage modifier. But this doesn't necessarily seem like enough unless you take into account my third point.

3) That when a creature reaches Large Tall size, the tail actually becomes a reach weapon, similar to the Tentacles from Tentacle Cloak. If it were just that the range increased when you became large tall because your Natural Reach increases, there would yet again be no reason at all to even have this section in the text at all. It would be beyond overly redundant and you dont see any of the other natural weapon descriptions written with similar sections.

So my conclusion on this is that it is a higher then normal dmg natural attack, that can only be used for AOOs, and at large tall size becomes a reach weapon. Anybody have any other thoughts on this one?

As far as Tripping Tail goes it seem pretty powerful but then again 3rp is no small cost if your playing a standard range race.

Tripping Tail (3 RP)
Prerequisites: Slapping tail trait.
Benefit: When a member of this race hits with its slapping tail, it can make a trip attack as a free action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity.

This one seems much more straight forward but in case this does get FAQd and responded to I'd like to make sure I get clarification. My understanding is that this means if an enemy provokes an aoo from you, you make your attack with you tail, and if you hit, that you get a free Trip Attempt as a free action immediately following that does not provoke AOOs from threatening creatures. This seem correct?

Emparawr wrote:

Any chance it would be possible to get clarification on this thread? I'm not even necessarily looking for an official faq or anything. Just some clarification on how this was intended to work because I can't find anybody who can make heads or tail of it. If so that would be truly amazing. Thank you in advance :)

Pathfinder: Slapping Tail ARG

It's been FAQed, and I know it doesn't seem like it from that side, but on this side, behind the scenes, it and all other FAQed questions ARE being looked over on a weekly basis as the rules team gets time to do so. They've not had much time lately due to the combination of numerous conventions along with the task of getting Advanced Class Guide up and running so they can get freelancers working on it... leaves little time for other stuff. Like FAQ responding.

Nonetheless, Sean in particular is working on getting some of the FAQ cleared up.

So... patience is the key here.

I could offer you my personal take on how to deal with it but I'm not gonna post that on the other thread. It's out of my direct jurisdiction, and I don't want to step on toes.

That's very good to hear. I've only actually been playing and reading up on pathfinder for a few months now and had no idea previous to this as to whether or not most FAQs get looked at. I mean I would assume it would be a priority thing based upon the number of requests but its good to know that the Paizo team does put a solid amount of effort into addressing faqs as much as is possible based on limited staff and time.

I'm more then willing to be patient as far as an actual faq goes. That's not a problem. Realistically i'd love to hear your opinion on this. Or if you were able to ask someone who had a semi direct influence on this particular ability that would be great. Im really not so much concerned with an "official ruling" as I am with just knowing what the intentions were behind its creation. How it was intended to function ya know? I mean this is a pen and paper RPG fueled just as much by imagination as by the rules contained in the books. GMs change things all the time on a whim to enhance the experience :) so I'm really just more interested in hearing a more educated opinion on how it was meant to function, that's all. An official FAQ can come along in its own time. Anyways thank you so much for your attention on this matter. It's so nice to have a line to actually contact someone at Paizo so directly. It makes me love this game even more. Good luck contacting Wizards with an issue lol.

Ok so here is my issue. I'm helping my gf to make a draconic humanoid Antipallie who focuses on sword and natural attacks. The one thing im struggling with is the Slapping Tail option from Advanced Race Guide since we are creating a custom race for her.

Creating New Races

Slapping Tail (3 RP)

Prerequisites: None.
Benefit: Members of this race have a tail they can use to make attacks of opportunity with a reach of 5 feet. The tail is a natural attack that deals 1d6 points of damage plus the user's Strength modifier if Small, 1d8 points of damage plus the user's Strength modifier if Medium, or 1d10 points of damage plus 1-1/2 times the user's Strength modifier if Large.
Special: If a Large creature has the reach trait, its tail also gains reach.

So from the description this sounds like a natural attack that can ONLY be used for AOOs and also only has the normal reach of 5ft like all weapons unless your size increases which increases your natural reach with ALL weapons.

I cannot figure out why this ability is written so strangely. Why even mention that it has a 5ft reach when ALL attacks have a 5ft reach unless you are larger then medium or using a reach weapon. Or is it that it becomes the equivalent of a reach weapon when you are Large.

Also why have a natural attack that can ONLY be used for AOOS that costs 3 rp when you can get other natural attacks for only 1? This makes no sense at all. It costs 3 times as much but can't make normal attacks, only AOOs?

Ok so what I need to know is if there is any way to make it so that group of people will be treated as undead as far as how channeled energy effects them. I have an Anitpaladin in the group and two of the characters are already treated as undead and hence healed by negative energy but im wondering if there is a spell or something out there that can make it so everyone in the group is treated as undead or just flat out healed by negative energy for a period of time. Any ideas?

Ok so here's the deal. I'm playing in a campaign where the setting is essentially one enormous virtually world wide city, and within this city the casting of enchantment spells or telepathy powers is completely illegal and hence, I have to do everything I can to prevent my casting from being known by either observers or my targets because my sorc/psion/cerebremenacer is allllll about Mind Alteration. Here is what I have so far.

1) Through the use of various different disguise related spells on magic items it will be nearly impossible to actually discover my characters real identity. Even his allies don't know what he really looks like or his real voice, let alone his name. So this will make it quite a bit easier if I have to escape from a hairy situation without being id-ed. Or at least if I do get noticed nobody will actually know who did it because the second I'm gone I change into someone else.

2) I'm taking one level in Oracle and taking the Deaf oracle curse which applies Silent Spell to all my spells cast in all classes for free which means no verbal components. Thankfully though by manifesting Sense link on my imp familiar I can use his sense of hearing to make up for the being deafened. I was thinking of creating a custom magic item via the magic item creation rules for this but im not sure about the concentration part of it. Need to talk with my GM.

3) Im going to create an item with permanent Illusion of Calm which not only prevents me from incurring AOOs for casting/manifesting but my GM also agrees would completely cover up my somatic components as onlookers would only see my illusion and dont even get a save for it unless they hit me. So no need to worry about somatic components.

4) Eschew Materials from my Sorcerer levels negates the need for basic material components. So no worry there

5) For manifesting my psion powers all I need to negate any Displays is a DC 15+spell level spellcraft check.

6) According to the rules for psychic powers "Failing a Saving Throw against Mind-Affecting Powers: If you fail your save, you are unaware that you have been affected by a power." I'm still looking to see if there is a rule like this for spellcasting or if it would just carry over via the psychic magic transparency rule.

7) Even if they do make their save it doesn't really give them any information. "Succeeding on a Saving Throw: A creature that successfully saves against a power that has no obvious physical effects feels a hostile force or a tingle, but cannot deduce the exact nature of the attack. Likewise, if a creature’s saving throw succeeds against a targeted power you sense that the power has failed. You do not sense when creatures succeed on saves against effect and area powers."

So the way I see it is with all these factors combined the only way anybody could discover that I had even manifested a power or cast a spell would be if someone in the area was actively casting Detect Magic and even then that would just tell them (if I succeeded in casting on my target) that that particular person had an aura of enchantment on them. Not what spell it was, where it came from, or any other details about it.

So what I need to know is, can anybody come up with any ideas on how I could end up having my cover blown with this combination? Any spells or abilities that could be used against me to detect what im doing? Although this campaign isn't starting up for awhile I really really really need help with this so thank you in advance for any help anyone can give.