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So, we have a 5th level Slayer in our Ironfang Invasion AP game. The studied target ability says this:

At 5th, 10th, 15th, and 20th levels, the bonuses on weapon attack and damage rolls, as well as the bonus to slayer ability DCs against a studied target increase by 1. In addition, at each such interval, the slayer is able to maintain these bonuses against an additional studied target at the same time. The slayer may discard this connection to a studied target as a free action, allowing him to study another target in its place.

I read it as the slayer can use his move action to study 2 targets at once. The GM read it as a move action to study one target, then a 2nd move action to study the 2nd target, still able to maintain both targets.

Any hive mind guidance on the correct read?

I would say no attack roll necessary. It's clearly written as a magic missile upgrade, and attack rolls are called out when they are needed.

Awesome, appreciate the input. We started looking at it the same way the more we looked at it.

Myself and my players like to toss in 3PP spells to liven up the game with fresh spells and challenges. Too many times the players know the limits and in/outs of the standard stuff and 'meta' it accordingly.

Today one player's Arcanist cast Force Spikes from Rite Publishing. This is was a new spell for us, never having been used before in one of our games. While overall a straight forward spell, with a lot of stuff going on with it, we probably started overthinking one aspect of it:

Does it require a 'to hit' roll or is it an automatic hit similar to magic missile? If it required a 'to hit' roll, was it supposed to be Touch AC or Standard AC?
Was an automatic hit too powerful for the spell level? Was Touch AC a reasonable option or requirement? Part of the description said the caster 'hurls' the spikes. This verbiage made me lean towards a roll requirement, but the player suggested this is just part of the somatic requirement, also a sound interpretation.

One argument, with sound premises, compared the scaling to fireball, which is 3rd level also.

Boiled down simply, does the spell automatically hit, or need some 'to hit' roll?

Random containers/ spills of assorted poison or acid, experimental constructs or "altered" animals, hunchbacked assistant (optionally names Igor), a "supply procurement team" consisting of foraging, theft and kidnapping specialists, and innocent indentured servants who are working off the price of granny's medicine.

Now that is a grand idea. I do enjoy throwing in gray concepts like the innocent indentured servants you suggest. The paladin rampaging through the house just might kill a decent person.

Howdy,

I'm trying to develop a side-bar quest from the main AP. The heroes are 8th level and one has 2 negative levels. He has found an alchemist of high enough level to remove the levels but it will go sideways and the other heroes (paladin, warpriest, summoner) will need to rescue him.
I have a good map to use: a two level manor house with three basement levels.
The main villain would be a 12th level alchemist (minimum to cast Restoration).
What other challenges could I plug in to make this a fun side-bar encounter? Traps? Out of control experiments? Something else? Any advise/help is welcome.

Would you allow a spontaneous caster to utilize those new spell slots before resting? Can a wizard study his spellbook and prepare spells in these new slots? Can a fighter use his new combat feat? Does the rogue get their new sneak attack damage? If these answers vary why are different classes slighted in this regard?

What happens at the moment of levelling up is kinda vague in the rules, if you want to have PCs levelling mid day (so to speak) you kinda need to make some rulings here. I tend to lean toward decisions that are even across classes, to the degree they can be.

There is this, similar to the rules about divine caster:

When preparing spells for the day, a wizard can leave some of these spell slots open. Later during that day, he can repeat the preparation process as often as he likes, time and circumstances permitting. During these extra sessions of preparation, the wizard can fill these unused spell slots. He cannot, however, abandon a previously prepared spell to replace it with another one or fill a slot that is empty because he has cast a spell in the meantime. That sort of preparation requires a mind fresh from rest. Like the first session of the day, this preparation takes at least 15 minutes, and it takes longer if the wizard prepares more than one-quarter of his spells.

It says "A divine spellcaster selects and prepares spells ahead of time through prayer and meditation at a particular time of day", so I wouldn't allow the cleric to fill the new slots unless it was at that "particular time of day". At other times they can only fill those unused spell slots that they left open, nothing new. That's how I would run it as a DM.

'Particular time of day' would suggest some type of daily devotional. A quick example that pops into mind is Muslims facing Mecca three times a day to pray. Maybe that's a poor example as they do that three times per day and likely to confuse the discussion. But, a daily devotional at a set, traditional, or habitual time. Most commonly one immediately thinks of when the PCs arise from rest to prepare for the adventure day.

My players and I were having a discussion regarding this ruling about leaving spell slots open. The rule is clear, assuming a PC/NPC deliberately leaves slots open after a rest period. It came up when they leveled up to 7th level and the divine caster wanted to step aside to take an hour to learn his new gained spells from leveling up without taking an 8 hour rest period. The discussion was whether this was possible or not. As the GM I was leaning away from it, but I could see where one might read into it that a divine caster could do this as there were now open slots with no intention of immediately taking a long rest period to recover spells, etc. Thoughts or Opinions?

Spell Selection and Preparation: A divine spellcaster selects and prepares spells ahead of time through prayer and meditation at a particular time of day. The time required to prepare spells is the same as it is for a wizard (1 hour), as is the requirement for a relatively peaceful environment. When preparing spells for the day, a cleric can leave some of her spell slots open. Later during that day, she can repeat the preparation process as often as she likes. During these extra sessions of preparation, she can fill these unused spell slots. She cannot, however, abandon a previously prepared spell to replace it with another one or fill a slot that is empty because she has cast a spell in the meantime. Like the first session of the day, this preparation takes at least 15 minutes, and it takes longer if she prepares more than one-quarter of his spells.

Can anyone name a sport on Golarion other than boundball?

Yes, I believe it is called Ruk.

This plug-in is very good. Will this be the only plug-in for the associated adventure path?

I've always enjoyed LG's plug-ins, currently using Heroe's Blood between Book 3 and Book 4 of the Red Queen (Curse of the Crimson Throne) AP. My players are loving the adventure also!

This came up in conversation during our game today. When a paladin gains his Aura of Courage ability does it make him immune to the Shaken condition (and the frightened and panicked conditions)?
"Shaken is a less severe state of fear than frightened or panicked."

I found an old thread from like ten years ago and it was more focused on Intimidation so was not clear and there were a host of opinions on the topic.

From a simplistic viewpoint, it would appear they are immune to those conditions but I could be wrong.

Oh wow, a lot of options I just didn't recognize. And I've now sorted out how to make the adjustments in Hero Labs.
Currently leaning towards 'Mummified Creature' but it's still early. Though I think a Juju Zombie familiar or a Vampiric Creature familiar would be hella fun too.

Howdy, we are gearing up to play Hell's Vengeance soon. My player is going to be a human wizard necromancer and wants an undead familiar at 1st level. Which sounds like a ton of fun.

I was looking to see if there was an undead template to use for something like this but currently not seeing one.

Another option I had was for her to have her PC take Improved Familiar, hand-wave the prerequisites, and give her a Beheaded.

But, she did favor the cat familiar, a family pet, that is now 'undead'. I guess we could do some customization for it but if there was a template out there, can someone point me to it?

This is great to know. I had thought I had missed something in a module or AP. I'm now excited to learn how that story is told.

I saw in the new campaign book that there is a new lord-mayor of Magnimar. How did that come about?

It's all how the GM wants to run it. Town A may have peace bonded swords and licensed spell casters while his next city, Town B, may not give a hoot who comes through the gate as long as they pay the local tariffs. My thoughts run along the lines of closer to Town B, until the person(s) break the local law. Magnimar may be closer to Town B, while Korvosa may be closer to Town A (it is described as a very law oriented town with a lot of regulations).

How many game scenarios have a city encounter? A lot. It'll make for great gaming and role play if the PCs are being considerate of the surroundings, both property and persons, during a street market, back alley, or manor house fight. And if they unintentionally break the local law using a spell or magical effect on someone, it'll be great role-play dealing with the resulting complaint and investigation. It would be no different if they were trying to hit someone with an arrow and hit a bystander instead. While they could run and hide and attempt to evade an official inquiry, one could also see the a PC stand firm and hold himself accountable for his actions (this would be very alignment specific I bet. paladins/rogues).

One would need to make sure it doesn't slow the game down enough to be distracting from the original plot line.

From what I'm gleaning from the entirety of this thread:

1. A special arcane investigative 'squad' of the local city law enforcement specializing in dealing with magical crimes, whether they are assaultive, invasive, manipulative, or what not.

2. Casting in public would be circumstance specific: a priest at worship might be expected to cast some sort of divine blessing at the ceremony. A magical street duel would be highly frowned upon as innocents nearby could be hurt. Invasive magic, like detect lies, alignment, etc, would be frowned upon as rude unless consent is given and could result in even a small fine.. A thrift shop may have 'mending' used all the time.

3. Penalties for destructive magic use would probably be severe and swiftly enacted.

4. Spell casters could be required to register themselves in the city. Or, have a 'license'.

5. Counter measures would be in place. Chimes or alarms to alert others magic is being used nearby. Ant-magic shells used to help apprehend casters.

6. Some of this would also apply to magic items, not just casting. A fighter with a helm of blasting may have it confiscating pending trial when he attempted to blast a thief and missed and killed a merchant's prize mule.

7. This concepts could be region specific. What is law in Magnimar may be tolerated in Kaer Maga.

So many great thoughts, suggestions, and ideas to work thru. One of my PCs wants to be a summoner and asked about summoning and I happened to mention it might not go too well in a municipality (Magnimar) depending on circumstances.

I would think any caster in a city would be held accountable by investigation if anyone claimed to be victimized by a caster. There could be a whole investigative specialty in the city guard for this type of thin.

Great response. Thank you.
I think I will 'house rule' if you will, that the AC needs an intelligence of 3 benefit from this feat.
I can easily see it going either way but my rational mind wants to think someone, or something, has to be more than just animal intelligence to benefit.

here is a question I think fits this thread.

My player has a Hunter PC with a wolf animal companion. Intelligence may be either a 2 or a 3.
If the Hunter takes the feat Combat Advice can the benefits of that feat be applied to attacks made by the animal companion?

Great feedback, I appreciate it. She's keen on the orca, which I think is fine. Like you said, I can make some buffs to help it along.
I may need to make some modifications to the AP to more make it more aquatic friendly.

So, I have a player wanting to play a druid for this AP. Great! I love druids. She wants to have an orca as a companion. Again, great! A water based animal companion should go well with the aquatic nature of this AP.

Then I got to thinking. A fair amount of this campaign is submerged. Will an animal companion that needs to breathe air still flow well for this AP?

Are there better choices or suggestions?

This could be a great location to plug in a 3rd party AP called the Northlands Saga from Frog God Games. I was excited to find this old thread. I was scratching my head trying to figure out what was between the Stormspear and the Rhimethirst.

Will this get supported on Hero Labs? Or is it already?

I can work with that; just surprised there's no magic item or alchemical item that covers this.

I didn't think about the manacles limiting the somatic. For some reason I got to thinking of needing some form of magic item to suppress the magical abilities. Or maybe an alchemical drug that would do the same.

Howdy,
My players are a few months away from starting a Skulls & Shackles game. In the beginning of that game there is some time where the PCs are not trusted and limited on access of the ship, etc.
One of my PCs is an oracle and I was wondering how one would suppress the divine magic an oracle has access to. I.e. an item (or spell) that limits spell abilities or spell casting?
Is there something like that already in the Pathfinder system?

So, a technical question arose from our last game session. Our heroes were confronted by a lich who cast Chain Lightning at them. One of our heroes is a wizard with Spell Turning cast upon himself. The wizard was third out of four struck by the chain lightning.
The question arose whether the spell turning would turn back the chain lightning upon the caster when the wizard was a secondary target and not the primary target of the spell.

Any help is appreciated.

So, how does the wielder deactivate the weapon so he/she can reuse the ability? And if only the wielder does it, what if the original wielder was killed? That would mean the only methods of overcoming the anchoring is to Dispel Magic, Freedom of Movement (but still having the item attached), liquid, gas, incorporeal, or destroying the weapon?

-Fighter quaffs his potion of gaseous form and escapes the anchoring short sword. It's now just suspended in the air where he once was. Fight is over and the BBEG is dead. The party wants that short sword.-
Would spellcraft and UMD be sufficient to take control of the weapon and the anchoring?

This is this one line in the description that makes that tough to do, though I like your interpretation.
'This anchors the target to the weapon, preventing it from moving away from the weapon.'

So, I'm looking at the Anchoring ability of magical weapons. Rules for it seem straight forward enough until I get to wrapping my mind around how someone 'anchored' would try to escape the ability.

Scenario: fighter goes up against the BBEG and gets struck with a shortsword. BBEG activates the anchoring ability of the shortsword upon striking the fighter. Now he's stuck in one spot unless he can pass a DC 30 strength check. This allows the BBEG to leave the fighter in one spot while he mops up the cleric and wizard.

Couldn't the fighter just un-impale himself from the blade? Or could he take control of the shortsword and deactivate it somehow? Would that require a Use Magic Device check? Immovable Rods have a button. Would the shortsword have such a button?

The rules seem to imply the anchoring is controlled by the wielder, but if he lets go of it to leave the fighter anchored, is he still the wielder? If the anchored fighter takes ahold of the shortsword is he now the wielder?

Any suggestions or rules clarifications are appreciated!

These are all good thoughts and ideas. I could see some harsh penalties for violating any municipality laws regarding magic use w/o consent or w/o due regard for safety.
Now I wonder if I should sit down and write up a generic 'magic penal code'.

Magical Assault! I like it. Local ordnances with actual penalties for violators and such. 'Eldritch Probing' or with say Detect Evil, 'Aura Scanning w/o Consent'.

In general I could see spell casting of any sort in public places as being unacceptable as most would not realized what was being cast and assume the worst and possibly panic.
For the specific scenario mentioned above I was thinking there would be some form of social etiquette in place.

I was wondering on the thoughts of others regarding the use of spells in public and its social acceptance.
More specifically, I have some players that want to cast 'detect evil' on a noble woman and then 'discern lies' while dining with her at a public restaurant.
Since I'm the GM, I have to take into consideration the NPCs possible reaction. These spells require verbal and physical gesturing to cast so casting them on the sly seems unlikely.
My first thoughts are a noble/aristocrat type NPC would probably find such an action as rude and presumptuous. Maybe the NPC would terminate the conversation immediately and leave the area: whether good or evil or indifferent of align or honest intentions...

It would compare to wanting to talk to a person but hooking them up to a lie detector machine first. Or doing a background check on someone while you're speaking to them at a social event and they are fully aware of your actions.

My other thought would be the person may not know the spell being cast and react with preventive hostility.

I am curious to see if others have dealt with this type scenario before and how it was handled.

The PC might be more likely to start a tax relief fund for those in need of assistance. It would create a more one-on-one situation for public relations purposes.

I'm thinking he's wanting his PC to cover the taxes that are coming due from the Taxfest (holiday of Abadar).
i.e. cover the taxes due from the township and the surrounding populace.
In the game we're playing the town and the local population have suffered a series of hardships that are wreaking havoc on the ready cash supply of the mundane farmer and shop keeper. i.e. having the rebuild burnt down houses.
Governments are normally very reluctant to forgo taxes and it could become a stressful situation for both government and locals. It's assumed in this game that Sandpoint sends the collected taxes to Magnimar with a percentage remaining for the Sandpoint government itself.
The PC's motives have some self-interest as she's wanting to run for mayor of Sandpoint the next election.
So, what we're looking for is some sort of rough number to go by or some method of calculating such number.

This is spectacular information!! I totally forgot about the PFS stuff that involved Lissala and Krune.
And, you mentioned something I hadn't considered too: another interested person/group that hired the rival PCs to obtain the shards also.

I'm not familiar at all with Fantasy Grounds. It sounds like from the aforementioned posts that it's supported by Paizo now and it's not free?
I've only used Roll20.

You could consider giving each of them a Sin theme. Maybe the cleric has the pride them, and her followers each have a different one, for example. Perhaps gluttony for the wizard, envy for the tattooed sorcerer, wrath for the slayer, and greed for the rogue? This doesn't have to be a mechanical thing, but it might help you in the process of selecting mechanics for them.

Now that's a very good idea. I will definitely take a look at that concept.

So, probably right after finishing Runelords (almost done with book 4) my players plan on generating PCs and starting Shattered Star with me as the GM.
To add some juice to the AP, I thought I would add a rival adventuring party that are also attempting to recovered the Sihedron Shards.
I'm thinking of the leader of this group to be a cleric of Lissala (LN, domains Runes and Knowledge) of the original Lissala concepts before corruption to the Runelords version.
While not an evil group they are determined to recovered the shards for religious reasons and this alone would be enough to make for some hard choices and decisions that may cause serious conflicts with the PCs.
My thoughts are that the Runelords AP caused a minor resurgence in interest in Lissala and things related to Thassilon.
While I'm solid on the cleric of Lissala, my other NPCs in that rival group are less so. I'm considering a five person group, probably a Wizard of the Thassilonian Schools, a Tattooed Sorcerer (unknown bloodline right now), a Slayer and a Rogue.
I plan on having the NPCs as non-threatening contacts in Book 1, perhaps a love interest, a research partner, childhood friend, or family member, etc. I'm striving to create a situation where the parties are at odds with each other but not so much they'll just kill each other on sight.

What I'm looking for are suggestions or related experiences others might have had for including Lissala in the AP and suggestions on properly themed archetypes or bloodlines or classes or other ideas for the rival party.

These are awesome. Thank you for sharing!!

As the GM running that game I had finally decided to allow the breathe weapon since the spell specifically said the creature can still breathe. It seemed to go hand in hand. But, I was planning no using the breathe weapon only as a means to break out of the icy prison. It just seemed like a more reasonable interpretation. It's moot, though, as the dragon rolled high enough on a strength check to defeat the icy prison and break out.
My other concerns were with the 'helpless' designation. Did this mean the dragon was unable to use the Frightful Presence aura? Did this mean the dragon was unable to cast 'at will' spells or use 'spell-like abilities'?
It was clear the dragon would have been unable to use melee attacks. That fell well within the definition of 'helpless'. But the 'helpless' designation along with the spell description seemed to indicate only a PHYSICAL helplessness.

Does 'Helpless' include not being able to use the Frightful Presence ability?

Huh, hadn't seen that one. Very interesting.
Thank you.

I was reviewing this spell and think very highly of it. Is there a magic item incorporating elements of this spell into its design? Ring of Grace, etc?

Wow, hadn't even thought about double weapons. But, I'm thinking about it now!

It had crossed my mind to go TWF with a buckler and battle axe. Seems to be very flexible.

But, there are some great ideas presented here and I'm going to really look hard at these suggestions and discuss them with the GM.

Recommendations here indicate a weapon focus is more important than say Two Weapon Fighting combined with Two Weapon Defense. I'll take a hard look at that too.

So, we're looking at starting the Ironfang Invasion in a few months. Tentatively, the other PC choices are Hunter, Psychic, and Warpriest.

I was saying I'd like to play a Slayer but have never done so before. I noticed they didn't get Disable Device as a class skill but I found a trait (criminal) that would make up for it.

Big question is what type of melee build should this type of class be? I've seen a mix of opinions on it. It 'seems' that it should be a two-weapon fighting build, but what about sword & board?

And archetypes: is there one in particular that I should consider or just straight slayer?

Feats: are there any must haves starting out? (PC would be human)