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Death Attacks

Source PRPG Core Rulebook pg. 562

In most cases, a death attack allows the victim a Fortitude save to avoid the effect, but if the save fails, the creature takes a large amount of damage, which might cause it to die instantly.

- Raise dead doesn’t work on someone killed by a death attack or effect.
Death attacks slay instantly. A victim cannot be made stable and thereby kept alive.
- In case it matters, a dead character, no matter how he died, has hit points equal to or less than his negative Constitution score.
- The spell death ward protects against these attacks.

Are these rules meant to be applied after the fact to new abilities as they come out, even if those abilities do not identify as death attacks?

The question spawned from the Demilich ability, Devour Soul , which appears to check all the boxes for a Death Attack, and was used against a character with Death Ward active.

- failed fortitude save leading to instant death
- raise dead is ineffective

Additionally, I have found only one other ability that self identifies as a Death Attack, the 19th level gunslinger ability Deaths Shot which actually contains the phrase, "this is a death attack." This ability came out well after the CRB which gave us the Death Attacks section.

So the question is, are we to be applying this to every spell we think might be a death attack to see if the bonuses from death ward (when cast) can be applied?

A search of everything so far seems to indicate that death effects have been pretty clearly defined, but it seems like everyone ignores this one section of the CRB for some reason.

Does death ward protect against something like the natural attack of a Banshee?

Death Ward says:
"The subject is immune to energy drain and any negative energy effects, including channeled negative energy."

From the Banshee stat block:
Melee incorporeal touch +26 (14d6 negative energy plus terror)

Nowhere does it say that the banshee attack is a negative energy effect, it's the damage type for its natural attack.

Would someone with death ward active take damage from this attack?

A character with the "Snatch and Drop" feat

When you succeed at a grapple combat maneuver check as part of a flyby attack, you can move yourself and your target up to half your remaining fly speed. You must drop your target before the end of your turn, or both you and your target crash to the ground immediately and take 2d6 points of falling damage each. A dropped creature takes falling damage as normal. You can’t use this feat on creatures whose weight would exceed the amount you can carry as a heavy load.

drops a character with "Air Walk" cast on them

The subject can tread on air as if walking on solid ground. Moving upward is similar to walking up a hill. The maximum upward or downward angle possible is 45 degrees, at a rate equal to half the air walker’s normal speed.

A strong wind (21+ miles per hour) can push the subject along or hold it back. At the end of a creature’s turn each round, the wind blows the air walker 5 feet for each 5 miles per hour of wind speed. The creature may be subject to additional penalties in exceptionally strong or turbulent winds, such as loss of control over movement or physical damage from being buffeted about.

Should the spell duration expire while the subject is still aloft, the magic fails slowly. The subject floats downward 60 feet per round for 1d6 rounds. If it reaches the ground in that amount of time, it lands safely. If not, it falls the rest of the distance, taking 1d6 points of damage per 10 feet of fall. Since dispelling a spell effectively ends it, the subject also descends in this way if the air walk spell is dispelled, but not if it is negated by an antimagic field.

over a deep (100 feet) chasm.

Does the character with Air Walk fall, if so, how far, and how much damage would they take?

I need to know how high above the surrounding ground the tower is, and I can't seem to find it anywhere. Thanks!

"Upon command, a flaming weapon is sheathed in fire that deals an extra 1d6 points of fire damage on a successful hit. The fire does not harm the wielder. The effect remains until another command is given."

It says that the weapon is sheathed in fire. Does that fire give light like a torch or heat? Can you use a flaming weapon to start a campfire?

I tried searching everywhere and couldn't find a ruling on this. Thanks guys!

Simple question:

When using the spell Stone Shape, is there any restriction on the minimum size of any of the 3 sides of the cubic feet?

For example, with 20 cubic feet, could someone manipulate 50'x50'x1" of stone? What about less than 1" to expand the other dimensions even further using simple cuts or crude shapes?

I have looked everywhere I can think of and I can't find anything on this. Does anyone know if the Sklar Quah Sun Shaman in book 4 has a canonical level anywhere?

We just finished book 1 in my group and we're going to be running a brief dream sequence encounter in between because one player had to miss consecutive sessions.

My plan is

The players involved are all level 4. Wizard, paladin, rogue, and house drake Majenko.

I'm concerned the fight will be too easy even though it looks like a CR 7 or 8 encounter. Has anyone else done a foreshadowing encounter like this or have any suggestions to make mine better? Thanks!

Some of my PCs are interested in going to Vencarlo for sword training. What's the best way to handle that in terms of increasing their ability as a result of training. Would it require X number of sessions to gain some sort of stat increase? If so, is there a stat increase/training hours formula? Thanks in advance!

So I've looked through several long threads and seen a lot of argument on this but haven't seen an official ruling on this. I'll put the question as simply as I can:

Is a paladin's animal bond limited to the creatures named in the RAW (horse, pony, boar, camel, dog), the full druid animal companion list, or something in between?

The section on this seems slightly open ended ("more exotic mounts are also suitable") but it also seems limited by the word "mount". Is there an official ruling on this?

FWIW I'm actually a newish GM running a game of CotCT. There's no argument at the table on this right now but I'd like to get a feel for it before we get there.

My PCs rescued Majenko last night. We're using the updated book which has a fantastic picture of him next to an expansive stat block.

My question is, are there options for leveling/enhancing him somewhere? The wizard in the party is the one who has him and I haven't been able to find anything about leveling house drakes.

I remember reading here before about people giving Majenko levels in various classes but I don't know where the rules for that are. Thanks in advance!

I'm running CotCT for the first time and I've got a minor issue. Apparently I've got a blind spot in my Google fu. I can't find stats for Vencarlo anywhere.

I assume there's a stat block on him somewhere but I can't find it for the life of me.

I'm just looking for any stat block on him for either the old or new build. Thanks guys!

Hey guys, I'm a first time GM running runelords for a group of experienced players. I've only been a player for a few years myself and it's my first experience with Pathfinder.

The issue I'm having is that they're slaughtering their way through everything so far. I've searched already and tried maxing HP and increasing the number of all the bad guys and it just made them level faster. We're currently halfway through Thistletop and I'm concerned they're gonna wrap up chapter 1 without breaking a sweat. They dispatch 800xp monsters with no effort and I've had to get multiple 1200 xp enemies going at the same time to challenge them.

Is there an easy way to increase the CR of an encounter/bad guy to give them a bit more of a challenge? I appreciate all the help you guys can give me!