EskimoSailor's page

Cevah wrote:

For the revised text:

Monkey goblin climbs at 30', and can make a check a -5 to climb 20' instead.

So you're just saying that per RAW a creature with climb speed can't do an accelerated climb because there is no benefit to doing so?

I know it's not written this way but to me the design philosophy is your speed while climbing is normally 1/2 your land movement speed but to move at that you suffer a -5 penalty. You can choose to move 1/4 speed and suffer no penalty. Similar to how to stealth you can move your normal speed with a penalty but half speed at no penalty.

So an "accelerated climb" is actually a creature climbing normally it's just dangerous to do so.

Also, for my goblin speed question I'm inclined to believe if he has a speed of 20 feet and a climb of 30, if he moves 10 ft. he can then climb 15 ft. But I don't know if there is any RAW to back that up.

As per RAW, there are no rules regarding multiple types of movement used in a single turn, especially when they usually are different from each other. They simply forgot to mention it. It is left up to the GM to decide on how to proceed in that situation, either using percent of movement, or subtracting the movement already made from the new movement type being used. The only rule that even remotely mentions this type of scenario is when determining movement speed after making a jump via acrobatics. Otherwise, the rules assume you are standing still before attempting to climb an object.

As for the whole climb speed greater than land speed dilemma, Monkey Goblins were added in after the initial core rulebook release and the developers have not made any changes in regards to these conflicting rules. As for how the bestiary entries are ruled, the DM normally uses those movement speeds as how it is ruled with swim speed, i.e., no checks, acts like land movement but for climbing and swimming. This will end up being a question for the creative director to resolve once and for all to clear up the conflicting rule systems.

Personally I would homerule it to use D8s just to congratulate and reward the player for the creativity used to play something out of the ordinary, but by RAW and RAI the concept would limit the damage to D4s.

Hey,

So I'm considering rolling up a Spellblade Magus/Knife Master Rogue/Arcane Trickster for a Way of the Wicked Campaign.

The idea behind this build is to have a spell-slinging melee striker that can get +2 keen weapons and dual-wield 'em for combat while still being able to pew spells at things that need pewing. The big question mark I have concerns the Knife Master and, specifically, the sneak stab supplement. The description reads:

The SRD wrote:

A knife master focuses her ability to deal sneak attack damage with daggers and similar weapons to such a degree that she can deal more sneak attack damage with those weapons at the expense of sneak attacks with other weapons. When she makes a sneak attack with a dagger, kerambit, kukri, punching daggers, starknife, or swordbreaker dagger, she uses d8s to roll sneak attack damage instead of d6s. For sneak attacks with all other weapons, she uses d4s instead of d6s.

I added the bold here because this is what I hope to get clarified: do spells like magic missle or fireball that do not require an attack roll count as weapons in this case? If not, then wouldn't the Arcane Trickster's Surprise Spells ability apply the regular d6s of damage to flat-footed opponents?

I mean I know a ray counts as a weapon (if I can take weapon focus: ray, it is a self-evident proposition that a ray is a weapon XP) and a touch attack seems to treat one's hands as a weapon, so that also makes sense. But a spell is a spell, and not strictly speaking a weapon, it seems to me. And the descriptor of the archetype points to 'weapon'...

Sneak Stab (Ex)

A knife master focuses her ability to deal sneak attack damage with daggers and similar weapons to such a degree that she can deal more sneak attack damage with those weapons at the expense of sneak attacks with other weapons. When she makes a sneak attack with a dagger, kerambit, kukri, punching daggers, starknife, or swordbreaker dagger, she uses d8s to roll sneak attack damage instead of d6s. For sneak attacks with all other weapons, she uses d4s instead of d6s.

This ability is identical in all other ways to sneak attack, and supplements that ability.

I don't know how to bold, so I'll reiterate the point I want to make below.

This ability is identical in all other ways to sneak attack, and supplements that ability.

Due to this ability modifying your sneak attack progression to D4s unless you utilize knives, I would say that no matter what that any spell you use with AT will only ever do D4s.

Surprise Spells
At 10th level, an arcane trickster can add her sneak attack damage to any spell that deals damage, if the targets are flat-footed. This additional damage only applies to spells that deal hit point damage, and the additional damage is of the same type as the spell. If the spell allows a saving throw to negate or halve the damage, it also negates or halves the sneak attack damage.

This specifically references the specific ability called Sneak Attack, so, when Sneak Stab alters the progression of Sneak Attack to D4s, it is assumed to inherit the new progression rather than keeping the old progression. This is due to the precedence set by several other abilities not working with archetypes. If a feature replaces or alters the original feature, feats and features that reference said ability is altered or negated due to the original feature being altered or replaced (making it non-existent).

You're correct; there's no way for PCs to gain access to that feat barring an exceptional circumstance.

However, a rhino companion or another animal companion that gets powerful charge would be able to take that feat.

In order for you to take it legally, other than as you have pointed out, there is a pretty easy way to do so. Those with the ability to Beast Shape or Wild Shape technically meet the prerequisites for taking this feat due to being able to transform into said creature that has this monster ability.

However, as the rules for feats state, if at any point you lose access to a prerequisite for the feat you have selected, the feat becomes inactive until you either regain the prerequisite ability/feat, or you take the time to retrain the feat into something else that you qualify for. Therefore, the feat would only be usable while in those forms that grant Powerful Charge. It'd be a waste of a feat IMO since it'll only be useful for as long as your spell or wild shape lasts. Very situational.

As for legality in a player obtaining this, all you would have to do is use the feat retraining ruleset and learn the feat while in said form, thus meeting the prerequisites. It's a roundabout way of doing so, and I would probably rule it to allow the player to obtain it without having to waste the time and money to do it.

JJ:

Will more Magical Item Set Bonuses come out? Interesting option would be for Sarenrae's magical items since there are a ton to choose from and could easily make a 5-set bonus out of it.

If you have reclaimed the Dawnflower's Kiss and reunited it with it's scabbard, would anything interesting happen?

Can specific/artifact magic items be upgraded past their initial values using the same rules for enchanting weaponry and armor? I.e., Increasing a Catskin Leather to +5 (Is a +1 Shadow Leather armor).

If so, does it increase the acting value? I.e., the +1 shadow leather goes to +2. Or does it increase the armor itself, I.e. Catskin Leather +1?

Will we ever get to see additional specific magic or mundane bullets?

How much can you curl with those tiny Rex arms of yours?

Why is there no Colossal 3-headed T-Rex of Doom roaming in Golarion?

Is he your Grandpa?

So, I was reading the aforementioned adventure path and have decided to make a campaign following this book. Seems relatively straightforward in how to go about this campaign. However, there is only one question I would like answered if at all possible, does the normal Hell Knight bestiary stat block work for this campaign? I was unable to find within the book a stat block for Hell Knights. It gives the stat block for the Armigers, but not the Hell Knights. However, when I looked at the Hell Knights stat blocks from the bestiary, there is a bit of discrepancy regarding them. The stat block (for NPC Hell Knight (Human Fighter 5/Hell Knight 6)) states that the Hell Knights have Pentamic Faith as a discipline, which is supposed to be for order of the godclaw hell knights, not the order of the rack in which the hell knights in bastards of erebus are supposed to be from. Should I just use the stat block as is except for just changing pentamic faith to another, more appropriate discipline? Or is there a more appropriate stat block I should be using for the Hell Knights for this part of the adventure path?

For further background, I am referring to the "first" potential encounter the PCs could have just after starting the campaign. It is just after they listen to the recruitment speech from Janiven at Vizio's Tavern. "There are six Hellknights and a dozen armigers (new inductees in the organization that serve the Hellknights as squires and porters) in the streets surrounding Vizio’s Tavern. They are numerous and heavily armed, and further bolstered by a reputation for ruthlessness and strict adherence to their own charter to strike down all suspected rebels." The campaign states that this would be the first encounter for the PCs if they don't side with Janiven and decide to stay and either "talk" things out with the Hell Knights or try to fight them off. Knowing my group, this is a very real and potential thing to happen and I just want to be thoroughly prepared.

Thanks for the time and consideration folks.