You could probably just load them up with alchemical weapons. Acid, Alchemist's Fire, Burst Jars, Bottled Lightning, and the like. There's also the Syringe Stirge Alchemist Discovery. You make a tiny construct with which to deliver your bombs. Seems easy enough to flavor them as being clockwork teeth.
The Gun Tank archetype for Gunslinger gets an ability called Bullet Defection, which lets them add half their armor bonus to their touch AC against firearms. They also get heavy armor. I just finished an Iron Gods game running a Gun Tank/Warpriest and it worked great dealing with firearms. Bullet Defection (Ex): A gun tank is adept at modifying and using her armor to stop firearm attacks. Starting at 2nd level, a gun tank wearing medium or heavy armor gains half the armor’s bonus plus the armor’s enhancement bonus (if any) as a deflection bonus against any non-siege firearm or splash weapon attack (including the alchemist’s bomb class ability). This ability has no affect on spells, spell-like abilities, or supernatural abilities that make a touch attack. This ability replaces nimble.
Looks like there are a few threads on it over in the Iron Gods forum. Here's one in particular.
The rules aren't going to help you there, really. There've been past discussions of it, and they largely boil down to the coup de grace stuff above, and plain GM fiat. At some point, though, it comes down to realizing that some types of story beats just won't work well in Pathfinder, especially at higher levels. If you want that moment to have dramatic tension, just stabbing the NPC won't cut it. They need to be doing something grand enough that the PCs can't deal with it. A scroll of Destruction or Disintegrate. Drop them into a a vat of acid. Banish them to another plane. Feed them to a pack of werewolves. Anything that doesn't rely on something as mundane as stabbing someone to death. You'll hit a point where the PCs have the spells and resources they need to raise the dead, at which point most hostage scenarios lose a lot of their tension. Travel will become moot due to teleportation or flight. Long before that, most 'PCs vs. environment' stories are trivialized by Endure Elements and the like. You'll need to up the stakes beyond what would be a threat to normal humans like you and me.
I'd guess 'Resolve' comes from bulls' reputation for being stubborn. Based on the wiki, Asmodeus threw him into a supposedly unsolvable labyrinth, but through cunning and persistence managed to not only solve it, but steal it from Hell. He also worked his way up in Lamashtu's court through deceit and seduction, and continues to use those tactics to gain power among the Demon Lords. They list conspirators, minotaurs, and secret societies as worshipers. To that, I could also add as possible worshipers:
Interestingly, one of his anathemas is:
Edicts include:
Ignoring the alignment system, his anathemas and edicts don't seem at all evil. You could add a few based on those.
I think it's interesting that, even though minotaurs are basically the poster children for being big and strong, that's not reflected in his tactics or lore. He was, in fact, considered one of the weakest of Lamashtu's court. So we could add:
DungeonmasterCal wrote: It's a tough question! Because of my love for the music of Ronnie James Dio, I would almost certainly be a Wizard (Universalist). By the same token, Michael Moorcock's "Elric Series" would make me a 20th level Bladebound Magus. I can't imagine reading the Elric Saga and coming away _wanting_ his life. :)
Melkiador wrote: The problem is that Paizo probably had to accept the new OGL to make content for 5E, but now that's endangered their hold on stuff made under the old OGL for original Pathfinder. The 1.1 OGL isn't out yet; this was a leak. It was supposed to be released Wednesday, I think, but was not, so the leak may have delayed it. From the Roll for Combat stream with a contract lawyer, people would still be able to release 5e stuff under the 1.0a OGL, despite any language to the contrary in 1.1. That seems consistent with various versions of open source licenses in the free software world. Melkiador wrote: I also assumed that fear of this is what prompted the creation of Pathfinder 2E, though I'm not sure if 2E still falls under the OGL or if it became original enough to not need it. The PF2e Core Rulebook includes a copy of the OGL version 1.0a, so I don't think it was created to get away from it.
We went with Mythic for a while in my GM's homebrew. We only got to tier 2. I think the only thing particularly OP was the bard with Display of Charisma, who was already very optimized before Mythic, so he could roll 60+ on a Bluff check. The plan was to remove the Mythic bits after we completed the story, but we ended up wrapping the campaign and starting a new one instead.
It says, 'attempting to use the runeslave cauldron to transform a good-aligned giant who volunteers', so I'd read that as 'attempting to convert the good-aligned giant in the same manner as any other giant', thus they'd need to be dead. It does say that 'the method of killing the giant is incidental', so you could figure out a humane way to finish them off.
For actual Touch spells, it says 'You can touch up to 6 willing targets as part of the casting, but all targets of the spell must be touched in the same round that you finished casting the spell.'. Dimension Door, however, specifically says 'All creatures to be transported must be in contact with one another, and at least one of those creatures must be in contact with you'. So it's not like a touch spell where you're tapping people on the shoulder.
Hero Lab has a sale going on this weekend, so if you want to catch up on your Pathfinder stuff, now's a good time.
Not Vigilante, but the Master Chymist prestige class lets you have two alignments, with the only restriction that they be different. It's basically the 'Jekyll and Hyde' class.
You really need to look closer at your subject line. :) I don't know of any. You'd probably want to look for more general options around changing the stat your supernatural abilities are based on. Breath weapons aren't something PCs normally get. If 3pp is on the table, maybe just ask the GM if you can use a different stat.
Dale McCoy Jr wrote:
It can fail for other reasons, too, like the soul not being willing. Maybe they decide to move on out of spite, or maybe they're in on it and have made their own arrangements with someone else. Either way, the PCs may be in trouble.
There's a saving throw involved in a coup de grace if they survive the damage, which would leave them dead regardless of HP if they failed. That wouldn't matter when it comes to Breath of Life, mind you, but by the time they have 5th level spells, they're probably beyond a challenge like that anyway. That said, it's completely appropriate for the subject of such a situation to be upset about being literally dead. I can't imagine that having your throat slit is a pleasant experience, even (especially) if you survive it.
Pizza Lord wrote:
Getting it above 0 removes the 'sinking' condition, leaving it at 'broken' until it's above half, at least in the Skull and Shackles Player's Guide. A sinking ship can't move or attack, and sinks in 10 rounds, and every 25 hp it takes takes away a round. If it sinks to the bottom, it's considered 'destroyed' and can't be salvaged or repaired. You can save it with 'make whole' or similar. Skull and Shackles Player's Guide wrote:
Not sure if that's reprinted anywhere or is superceded by something else, but it's a free download on Paizo's site. Sadly, no mentions of capsizing anywhere that I could find, but maybe there's something in the AP itself (which I don't have, or I would check)?
We were discussing this in the Know Direction Discord. The download filters seem to be very messed up. I have a 3rd-party 1e product (The Very Last Book About Mounted Combat) which seems to be categorized as (at least) part of Agents of Edgewatch and as a 'Flip-Mat Classic'. Apparently only 3 of the downloads are categorized as PDFs (including the mounted combat book previously mentioned). If I filter on 'Lost Omens', I get a ton of random 1e books, including things like Bestiaries.
Insightful Advice does nothing for you, but being able to give everyone else in your party an all-day +2 to a skill is pretty nice.
I don't know that there's a clear 'RAW' answer to this, but here's what I'd say. Typically, if the damage from an attack is negated (by DR, for example), the 'rider' effects (poison, bleed, etc.) are also negated. Death ward prevents all of the negative energy damage, and the Con drain is listed as a 'plus' effect on the attack, so I would expect it to fall under that and thus the Con drain would not happen. Not because it's negative energy, but because it's a rider to an attack that didn't do anything. Whenever damage reduction completely negates the damage from an attack, it also negates most special effects that accompany the attack, such as injury poison, a monk’s stunning, and injury-based disease. Damage reduction does not negate touch attacks, energy damage dealt along with an attack, or energy drains. Nor does it affect poisons or diseases delivered by inhalation, ingestion, or contact.
We used to joke that the citizens in City of Heroes were all super high level heroes who had retired or were in their secret identities, since they were basically invulnerable. Maybe the PCs start taking on responsibilities to fit their station. Running a kingdom, starting their own Guild, or the like, and start turning into the people who give out quests (possibly to the group's next party of level 1 characters). If you're lucky, you'll have a group with its own goals and aspirations, and you can just ask them what sort of stories they want to see next.
Buildings have a lot of hit points. If they want to burn all their channels fixing one up, after spending 10,000gp on a magic item, I say let 'em. Other things to consider:
Some spells give a condition under which the target can end the spell, such as Qualm. Qualm wrote: The creature takes a –10 penalty on its ability checks, skill checks, and concentration checks, until the duration ends, or until it spends its entire turn doing absolutely nothing (it spends a full-round action gaining focus). Spending an entire turn doing nothing discharges the spell. Does the target automatically know they can do that, or would they need to make a Spellcraft check or something?
Jeff Alvarez wrote: Accusations that I have used offensive slurs about members of the staff are categorically FALSE. Many LGBTQIA+ members of the Paizo staff are close friends of mine, and I would never talk that way about anyone on our staff or in our community. 'I can't be homophobic, I have gay friends' is not, and never has been, a free pass. We have at least 2 people corroborating this. You're going to have to do better than 'I didn't do it and it's absurd to say that I did'.
Since Mythic is an option, Seven-league Leap might work. You move a mile per round. Drawback is it takes a minute of running before you make your jump, and you land nearby, so it might not be quite what you're looking for.
How do you deal with something like 'Antimagic Field'? It's a 10' emanation centered on you. Assuming you're standing on the ground, does that mean it extends to 10' above the ground? You're supposed to pick a grid intersection. Do you treat it as though there's a 5' vertical grid as well, so you can choose to center it there and get it to 15' up? If you're over 5' tall, can you go higher, or are players treated as 5' cubes?
Kurald Galain wrote:
No, I mean including him. One could argue that it counts as 'channeling from a non-mythic source', to which he's immune, but you can just as easily call it 'positive energy damage', from which he takes half. Ultimately, it's the GM's call on whether it blows him up. They asked for ideas on stuff to do as a followup. 'TB vs. Titan' sounds like an interesting one. I don't have the module that describes Synchrony, but I think someone said that its detonation tears open the barriers between planes, releasing the Hekatonkheires, so I'd expect it to show up wherever the bomb went off. Based on the Hekatonkheires writeup, the 3 originals are adrift 'in the unknown expanses between planes', and the CR24 writeup are their 'lesser spawn'. If Synchrony really does tear down the barriers between the planes, then it may have been intended to be one of those original 3, who'd probably be at least a match for TB. If you do want this to be 'them offing TB', but still want there to be more work to do, then maybe when Synchrony blows up, it tears down the barrier between planes, leaving TB's demiplane wide open because his frequent travels to it left it 'adjacent' to the Isle. The PCs have one shot to take him out permanently, and face unknown dangers as they break into the demiplane, fighting the clock before he revives.
Artofregicide wrote:
Presumably, all this happens in rapid succession. TB's sitting around, minding his own lich-y business, when BOOM, everything in a 500 mile radius (including him) gets vaporized and a Titan shows up in the midst of it. TB reforms wherever his phylactery is, checks in on what truck just hit him, and finds a Titan laying waste to Golarion. Unless the PCs signed their bomb, that seems like a pretty good reason for TB to think the Titan was responsible. While TB will reform at his phylactery, none of his stuff will. That all got blown up. His magic items (aside from actual artifacts), everything he's been working on, his armies, basically all of his current plans, up in smoke. Seems like the sort of thing one might take personally. And unless he has reason to dig into it further, he might never even know the PCs were involved. After all, what's more likely to try and take him down, a random group of nobodies off in Azlant, or an actual Titan?
I'm not sure if it's supposed to release a 'standard' CR24 Hekatonkheires, or one of the 3 originals, but either way, Tar-Baphon and a Hekatonkheires duking it out could be interesting to watch from a safe distance. Hekatonkheires can bypass DR/epic, and can literally jump between planes, so might have a chance to get to that demiplane if it really wanted.
Something to keep in mind is Attacks of Opportunity. If you're going for heavy armor, you're probably going to be in melee range. Both reloading and firing provoke attacks of opportunity. At lower levels, you're probably going to want a melee backup weapon. So you probably don't want to tank your Strength. Targeting touch AC means that Deadly Aim is pretty much free damage. Most people ditch out of Gunslinger at 5th level, but at 7th they get Targeting, which provides a variety of debuffs (trip, Confusion, disarm) with no save whatsoever. So no matter the level of the enemy, succeed at a touch attack on their head and there's a 75% chance they won't get their planned action for the round. They're wielding a wand or magic weapon, even 2-handed? Touch AC to force them to drop it, no combat maneuver required. They're running away? Shoot them in the leg for an easy Trip. I think this deed is more powerful than most realize.
Being a dwarf and not having to worry about the movement penalty from heavy armor was also nice. Get some boots and you're moving the same speed as everyone else. The Armor Training helped with the Max Dex, and Celestial Plate Armor let me take full advantage of my 22 Dex. Celestial Plate was reprinted in the Curse of the Crimson Throne hardcover in a PF version, so it's not just a 3.5 thing anymore.
Reloading needs a free hand, so if you stick with a tower shield, you'll need to find a way to deal with that. Either setting the shield as Cover and shooting around it, the Juggler bard archetype, or something magical that reloads for you. I made a Gun Tank/Warpriest (with the Forgepriest archetype). We ended the campaign around level 13 (might pick it up post-pandemic). I stuck with my own pistol and kept upgrading it with Distance and Greater Reliable, but ended up using a Dwarven Waraxe as my backup weapon until I got Deft Shootist Deed so I could reload and fire in melee without provoking. I eventually managed to construct Celestial Plate Armor which I paired with a buckler (so I could reload). Warpriest gave me some extra ability to buff my armor and weapons as needed, and Forgepriest increased how much I could boost it by as long as I was using something I crafted. I pretty much couldn't be hit by anything less than a 20 if I didn't want to be, and buffing myself with Fervor spells didn't provoke.
Joesi wrote:
Fireball actually does start things on fire in Pathfinder. The fireball sets fire to combustibles and damages objects in the area. It can melt metals with low melting points, such as lead, gold, copper, silver, and bronze. If the damage caused to an interposing barrier shatters or breaks through it, the fireball may continue beyond the barrier if the area permits; otherwise it stops at the barrier just as any other spell effect does. I agree that a normal bomb wouldn't generally start a fire, though. I'd treat it as an instantaneous fire, as described in 'Catching on fire'.
Algarik wrote:
No need for the contingency, Sending lets you 'answer in like manner immediately'. So this could basically turn into the PCs spending 10 minutes to text the enemy, they reply with 'No u', repeat until the PCs get bored. There's nothing about the spell that suggests that receiving the message is distracting or anything, so I'm not entirely sure what they're hoping to accomplish aside from taunting the villain, who's free to completely ignore their message.
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