Gilfalas's page

Yeah I know horrible title.

I have this idea for a Paladin like character who is fueled by 'Righteous Fury' in combat, basically a rage mechanic.

So I was thinking of doing a Celestial Bloodline Bloodrager but with some class changes to sort of make it a little more paladin like.

I am working with my GM who is allowing me some design latitude in this characters class so I was looking for help and advice from the board on what would be balanced.

The basic idea is to swap the Bloodrager spell list for the Paladin spell list but then I hit a brick wall. I would like to swap out some of the Bloodrager class abilities that would not be needed given the new focus but am unsure what would be balanced.

Honestly I am only really looking to trade out Blood Sanctuary for something from the Paladin since the new spell focus will not be on AOE's but I am not sure what would be a good fit.

Though on second thought perhaps swapping out DR for Lay Hands? If that would be an even exchange?

Open to any suggestions from the masses overall though.

Thank you all in advance for taking the time to read this and any responses.

Title says it all. Thank you all in advance for any help.

So ages ago our GM gave out a magic belt pouch that was essentially a belt pouch sized BoH type affair but if someone tried to steal it or pick pocket you out of it it would start screaming. She has a habit of giving out items from 3.x and Pathfinder 1e but our group cannot seem to find this item.

Does anyone know what the exact name and/or game edition this item was in? Our group spent a lot/stupid of time trying to find it and no one could. All we came up with was the Stone of Alarm but we are all sure this was a belt pouch and not a stone.

Any help would be appreciated from the brain trust. Thank you for your consideration.

My GM is letting me look over NON cleric spells for anything that might be appropriate suggestions to add to the spell list for my Warpriest of Heimdall.

So far he has been focusing highly on the whole 'nothing escapes the senses of Heimdall' and eternal vigilance apsects of his service as he guards the rest of the party on their missions. He explains his Greater Weapon of the Chosen effects as Heimdall granting him visions of the immediate future in battle for example.

So far she has let me have access to 'Keep Watch', so he basically almost never sleeps and is on guard every night (he takes one night per 9 days of rest to honor Odin).

I am looking for suggestions for sight/hearing/perception oriented spells that would be appropriate in this concept.

Thank you all in advance for any suggestions or idea's you can supply. :D

The idea for this ring is that you can cast any self only spell on yourself that has a duration of 3 rounds or more and then the ring will sustain the spell for 24 hours, effectively making the spells duration 24 hours rather than it's normal duration. The ring can only sustain one spell and can only be used once per day.

I am looking for feedback on possible abuses of such a ring to see if it is a straight up bad idea and for pricing on it should it not be a bad idea.

Thank you in advance for any help and input.

So I had a concept for a Black Blade magus that will primarily use 'Dark Magics' IE necromancy, shadow and cold magics and am looking for help on the best spells and feats to use to accomplish it.

I am using a custom human race from my GM's campaign that has access to Mystic Past Life so I can choose any 6 spells to add to my Magus spell list but they must all be either Arcane or Divine. I am tying to do a debuffing style character.

I know I want Enervation and Ghoul Touch as past life spells and was also thinking of Ray of Sickening, Touch of Fatigue, Vampiric Touch and Bestow Curse.

I was planning on doing Rime Spell with Frostbite to cause additional de-buffing during combat since Frostbite gives a number of uses equal to my level and automatically causes fatigue which would combine with Entangle from Rime Spell.

Looking for suggestions on build, spells and feats. So far I have the following but none of it is set in stone beside the race (homebrew human) and the Black Blade Archetype:

Trait: Magical Lineage: Frostbite
Trait: Seeker

Human: Combat Casting
1: Extra Arcane Pool
3: Metamagic Rime Spell
5: Spell Focus Necromancy

Not sure if I am making the optimal choices on feats and am not the best with spell based builds. Any help in the stated guidelines would be much appreciated.

I am playing a (currently 6th level) Human (Champion of the Faith) Warpriest and doing a Vital Strike build. I am looking for advice on feats that could activate on a successful melee attack that I can use with/while Vital Striking.

Pertinent home rules: Feats are given for character levels at the same pace as bonus fighter feats: 1st level, 2nd level, 4th level and so on.
All characters receive 3 feats at 1st level instead of one.
3.X material is allowed.
Retraining rules are NOT allowed.
No multiclassing for this character.

These are the feats/traits I have so far:

Traits: Fate's Favored & Divine Warrior
1st Level: Luck of Heroes (3.5 - +1 Luck bonus to all saves and AC), Weapon of the Chosen, Improved Weapon of the Chosen
Human Bonus: Greater Weapon of the Chosen
Warpriest - 1: Exotic Weapon Prof & Weapon Focus: Bastard Sword (Deities Weapon)
2nd Level: Bonded Mind (Teamwork) The whole party has this.
Warpriest 3: Detect Evil (CotF)
Level 4: Precise Strike (3 other members of the party have this as well)
Level 6: Power Attack, Furious Focus, Vital Strike

I am already planning on taking all the Vital Strike & Devastating Strike Feats and am looking at Improved Smite and Extra Smite (3.5) but am looking at what other feats or feat chains I can take that would activate on or boost my Vital Strike. For example, would there be some way to get a trip attempt on a successful melee hit? Open to suggestions as I have a lot of extra feats/combat feats coming.

Thank you in advance for any help you folks can give.

Soon my group will finish the first chapter of their campaign and will need to travel east to cross the sea towards the next chapter. Along the way they will camp in a fairy ring and get transported to the realm of the Fey, where a Fey queen loosely based on Desna will require the party cleric (who is one of her priestesses) to do a service before allowing them to go back to their own realm.

I will readily admit to hitting writers block and am hoping the forum can point me to some adventures that would help.

The setup in game is that 'Desna' is having a snit with the 'The Lost Prince', Desna being Light Fey and the Lost prince being dark (in this home brew world) so a simple one shot would be prefect. Desna pulls in the party as they camp in a fairy ring since her priestess is with them and she needs 'outsiders' to deal with the issue for 'political reasons' (also because she finds it amusing).

Any recommendations? Open to story idea's as well? I will take all the help I can get.

Is there any way to add additional armor abilities to the list you can activate from Sacred Armor? In particular I am looking to add Ghost Touch but if there are other armor abilities that can be added I would be interested in know.

Thanks in advance for any help.

My Gm has allowed a druid in our game to put a Ring of Eloquence on his Gorilla animal companion and suddenly it can now talk.

Is this correct according to RAW and if not what rule covers it?

Am I correct in reading that warpriests can only treat their warpriest levels as fighter levels for their Warpriest BONUS feats (including those bought with the human favored Class bonus) and not their regular level up feats feats from race if they get them?

Assuming you allow the feat Favored Weapon Focus in your game, would it be broken to allow it on a Warpriest?

Now with the success of the Kingmaker game I would love to see a Starfinder, turn based RPG for the computer.

IMO with the success of the Xcom series, turn based combat in a sci fi setting is a viable genre that seems too poorly supported in gaming today and can be successful. It would enable a literal translation of the SF table top rules to the game.

Am I alone in this?

So if I am understanding this right you can place a control module on a mounted weapon and have a computer fire it.

So say I am a level 7 Exocortex Mechanic in powered armor. I have a mounted weapon and control module it to my Expert Rig (which has a computer rating of half my level).

Can my Exert Rig:

A: Basically give me an extra free attack per round or
B: Would I need to use a computer test to do that?

If B would I be able to have my exocortex use remote hack on the Expert Rig for the computer skill check and run it that way?

OK I have this NPC I am making and she is a teacher in her village.

She is a level 4 Skald Half Giant (from the 3.5 Complete Psionics book).

The class, level and race are not changeable for story and campaign reasons so please do not suggest to do so.

One change in this game is she will have 3 feats at level 1 and a new feat at every even level for a total of 5 feats at level 4.

What I am trying to find out is if there are any rage powers/feats/spells that complement the Lesser Celestial Totems Rage Powers effect? Ideally either an AOE healing effect or a healing rage power that does not require an action to use that can be shared with the Rage Song of the Skald?

The concept being if she is using rage song she can boost the healing of those in her charge and heal them as needed while she protects them?

Any suggestions within the parameters would be very appreciated.

From what I have seen so far many think that the Automatic weapon property is a bit lackluster. Would adding another option to the property help?

I proposed you can use it as written OR use a 3 round burst (marking off three shots worth of ammunition as appropriate for the weapon being used) as a full action to get a +1 to hit on a single target.

Opinions?

I have a player in my game who absolutely has to have a menagerie of animals around her hunter at all times and cannot live unless she can carry all the things.

She currently has a wolf animal companion and a mule (I am using 3.5 stats for the mule) she has purchased to haul her gear and loot around and at one time also had a war trained pony as well, but it was killed in battle and she has not been to an area where she can replace it yet.

She has decided to make a travois for the mule to allow it to haul even more things, but I can find no stats for anything like this in the Pathfinder materials I have access to or on a google search.

How would you stat out something like this?

I was thinking there should be a set weight limit that can be loaded onto it, perhaps 100 pounds. The weight of the gear loaded onto it would be only counted as half against the carrying capacity used up on the mule but the travois itself would slow the mule by 5 feat while equipped and by 10 feet if it was loaded with more than 50 pounds of weight.

I would love to hear other idea's though.

Assuming the character has the appropriate knowledge skill for the creature being identified, is asking what it's weak save/s is/are a valid use of the skill OR do you make the roll and take whatever information the GM gives you?

Or is it some combination of both?

In game knowledge skills are supposed to represent study of broad sections of information, including about monsters. Since thousands of years of magic training have established in game that magic attacks the mind/will, the body/fortitude or can be dodged/reflex, would it be reasonable to ask what spells types most often work on a creature your facing?

Are they known to be super nimble vs magic (good Reflex save), inherently resistant to magic of the body (good fort saves), or have strong minds (good will saves)?

Would finding out that be one piece of information or 3?

OK me and my SF GM have been talking and we came up with these rules for Maze Core Weapons, Crafted Weapons and Fusions.

Throwing them out to the community to see if they can be abused somehow that we have not seen and to see if they are roughly balanced. More minds are usually better.

Crafted Weapons: The effective level increase (+2) to Toughness and HP on crafted weapons also counts in the players favor for Weapon Fusions when considering what level of weapon fusion can be installed and how many total levels of Weapon fusions a weapon can have.

Prices for these fusions are as per the weapons actual level or the lowest cost for a fusion of it’s level, whichever is higher.

Example: An Azimuth Laser Rifle is a level 1 weapon and normally could not accept the Holy Weapon Fusion since that fusion is level 2. A crafted Azimuth Laser Rifle would be considered level 3 and could accept Weapon Fusions rated level 3 and lower and have a level ‘capacity' of 3 for the total levels of installed Fusions.

You could install a Holy Weapon Fusion into it and when working out the cost to apply the fusion it is as if the rifle is level 2. Since the Holy weapon fusion normally has a minimum level of 2 you cannot pay less than that level to install it. If the rifles actual level was 2 or higher you would instead use that value to calculate costs.

The crafted rifle at this point would have 2 of its 3 ‘levels’ used by the Holy Fusion. A level 1 fusion of other type could still be installed and it would cost the same as installing into a level 1 weapon.

Maze Core Weapon Fusions: Standard weapon fusions (not fusion seals) installed onto Maze core weapons cost 10% more if both maze core items are weapons. Weapon fusions that are not valid choices on any of the Maze Cores items will not work on those forms.

Example: A disruptive Weapon Fusion will work on the ”Comet Hammer” powered blunt weapon form of a Maze Core Weapon but not on the “Aphelion Laser Rifle” form since the Rifle is not a Blunt Melee Weapon, which is required for the Disruptive weapon fusion.

So our GM has very few home rules for Starfinder so far, but one is (I think) possibly a big change. He decided that getting 4 attribute boosts every 5 levels did not jibe for his view and so is instead giving one attribute boost every level past first, with the caveat that you can only increase any particular stat once per 5 character levels.

Obviously this is not only going to result in 3 more overall attribute increases (19 as opposed to 16) but it also means that we will get higher stats consistently sooner across the board.

I am looking to get other peoples opinions on this? Will this be a bad decision? Will this seriously affects level balance? Do people like it?

I am honestly undecided at this point. Obviously it is nice to have been able to boost my Int and Dex by 2 each by third level on my Mechanic but I am not sure how that is going to effect overall balance.

What do you guys think of this rule change? Perhaps other eyes on the idea can reveal things I have not thought of?

Found this Starfinder RPG Ship Builder while surfing Facebook and it is really fantastic so I thought I would share it here.

It is all drop downs and everything is summed and calculated for you. Really, REALLY makes doing different starships easy.

This is NOT MY WORK. I am just recommending it. The page is on the authors blog space.

So at third level all characers get weapon specialization with the weapons their class gives them proficiency in. Now normally Engineers are not proficient with heavy armor and longarms but if you take an exocortex it gives your those proficiencies.

Does that mean at 3rd level you gain longarms specialization?

At first I did not really think much of the Engineer but after reading it it seems this is your go to class if you want to be a cyborg.

Just curious what people think about these PF options that seemed popular. As the game finally gets out there do people think these will still be valid options for the new system or are they not needed?

I, personally, am on the fence with both.

With Background skills because lets face it, it always seems like you have too few skill points and Hero Points seem like Resolve may somewhat take this niche in many ways.

I am interested to hear others views on these.

But it seems combat situational awareness is not one of them.

Perception is NOT a class skill for the modern soldier? I really am curious to the reasoning on that?

OK so the largest starships average in at shy of 3 miles long but are only about 8000 tons?

By way of real world comparisons, the newest US carrier the Gerald Ford is only 1,092 feet long and it displaces more than 100,000 tons.

Has lightweight super materials really gotten that good or are there some 0's missing in that chart? :-)

Given what we have kinda seen about how weapon damage ramps up as levels increase, I am wondering if DR and Energy Resistance will be the same scale as they were in Pathfinder or will they be higher?

Considering that Weapons Specialization is a partial/counter to both defense types (IIRC) are they even going to remain viable?

Curious to hear others thoughts on this.

Also, off the top of my head, I don't remember seeing any DR or Energy Resistance values posted so far, though I am sure I have missed some photos of product from the cons etc.

New Gameinformer article with Verces planet preview! Go here

Looks like I know where my techno loving Android who spurns biologics is coming from. Definately a member of 'The Augmented'.

I know the actual classes, powers and spells are still a few weeks off but based on the fact that your caster level grows with every caster class you take (so if you take 5 levels of Technomancer and 5 levels of Mystic your Caster level is 10 for ALL your spells), will taking a dip in the 'other' caster class be as detrimental as it used to be in 3.PF?

Thoughts?

Given the overall reduction of complexity and the designs so far revealed seeming to make combat faster do you think the that there is a likelihood of Starfinder games going more than to level 12ish, where most people seem to stop in Pathfinder/3.X?

Most of the time the big complaints are the level 7-9 spells, too many attacks to work out and so many abilities slows the game to a less than fun pace but it seems like a LOT of that has been addressed in SF.

Will higher level play become even common?

I think perhaps Starfinder might be a perfect rules set to use for a game based in Bungie's Destiny setting.

Wonder if that would be a possibility?

I have a table rule for my game that states when the group levels up I won't ref another game until I have copies of their updated characters.

The reason I instituted this rule at the start of my game was 2 fold:

1) There are players in our group who never do it and will wait till game day to level up their characters. Though they have been playing for more than a decade our usual GM will help them on game day and sometimes the group sits there for hours waiting for one or two people to get leveled.

I personally feel if you have time for the game then you should make time out of game for some of the busy work so the whole table is not waiting during group play time. We only get to play maybe 2 times a month so table time is precious, especially as I only get to GM my game about every 6 weeks, the rest of the time our regular GM runs one of her games.

2) Those same players have almost no system mastery and are nearly constantly using wrong values, be it saves, BAB/attack values, spells, class abilities or what have you, almost universally to their detriment. I like to make sure the whole group is properly leveled and has their gear written down, etc so when we play we don't have to stop and question why the cleric is only rolling 2D6 on her channel at level 10 or why the Paladin saving throws are so bad when they have a 20 charisma, etc.

Note that I gave out a 3 page word doc of the home rules I was using and rules I was changing before characters were made or play started and this was listed in there and everyone agreed. But now I am waiting almost 2+ months for some of the players to get me their updated sheets.

When asked together and individually if they still want to play the game, all the players say they want to play and are having a great time.

Am I being unreasonable with this rule? Any suggestions on how to motivate people to send their sheets in a timely fashion?

Improved Unarmed Strike, Monk HTH progression, and +1 CL advancement (in specific for a Sorcerer) + whatever if there is more, no biggie if not.

Is there any class or PrC that can supply this with a one level dip?

Whirlwind Attack strips you of bonus or extra attacks from other feats but the extra 5' reach is not an extra attack. Or is it?

Before the game launches lets come up with some broken concepts that a space fantasy setting could have so that the dev's can prevent them from happening or fix them for balance.

Would a multi armed, multi pistol wielding character with rapid fire and two weapon fighting be too much? In a technological setting guns would need to be reloaded less often then missle weapons currently do.

4 pistols on a 4 armed race, rapid shot, two weapon fighting and dex loading could = 6 attacks at level 1 from 4 weapons? Evem assuming only 10 rounds per pistol careful shot rotation could mean firing for 5 or 6 rounds at full rate without needing to reload.

Even worse at higher level when the feats and BAB advances.

What potentially broken stuff can you come up with?

So I have long wanted to play a primarily melee oriented character who uses a simple quarterstaff as his main weapon. The idea is the Qstaff is so versatile with it being simple and therefore super plentiful if one is lost and can be used one handed, two handed or even with TWF as needed.

I was thinking of starting with Slayer as it has a nice mix of BAB, skills, stealth, and other abilities.

I would prefer that the character lightly armored and relatively mobile for concept reasons.

The one funky build rule is my GM gives 3 feats to everyone at level 1 and you get new character level feats at every even level instead of every level divisible by three.

Twf would be a definite part of the build but hopefully not the sole focus. Would like to be able to trip and use Lunge as well.

Any idea's you guys come up with would be appreciated.

Playing a Paladin and about to hit level 5 and and going to be taking Divine Weapon Bond so I was wondering 2 things:

1) Is there any way to make the Weapon Divine Bond something faster/better than the standard action it starts out at?

2) Are there other ways (items, Feats, etc) to improve the Paladin divine bond?

No third party products please but nearly anything that Paizo itself publishes is ok with my GM.

The character is an Angel Kin Aasimar, vanilla paladin.

What age category would you say a dragon would have to be to use it's skull to make an appropriately sized helmet for your average medium sized creature?

Is it possible to cast 2-3 spells a round if you are using spells that naturally have Swift and Immediate casting times without using Quicken Spell metmagics?

Example say you could cast the Feather Fall, Litany of Sloth and Greater Stunning Barrier spells (lets assume one character is leveled and classed that this is possible).

Could you swift action Litany of Sloth, cast GSB as a standard action and then use actual movement as a move action to step of a cliff and finally use Feather Fall as your immediate action (using up your swift from next round in the process)?

This is just one example but I think it gets the idea across.

I was wondering how much to price one before giving it as treasure in one of my games. I know it is not as simple as making a permanent duratrion cost off the item chart give what force effects do vis a vis etheral and out of phase targets and so forth so I am looking for other opinions on what to price it at.

The concept item is a small rod made of mithril, long enough to fit both hands if necessary, that has a simple on/off toggle jewel to activate and deactivate the blade as a free action. The top 4" of the rod would split into two halves and fold down to horizonal opposites and then the blade would spring forth from this 'crossguard'.

Ideally it would be available in three varieties of +1, +2 and +3 at Caster Levels 3, 8 and 13 as per the spell.

What would you price such an item at?

Here is the spell for reference.

My GM is starting a new game at 4th level. For RP purposes (and because the bonus' are good) I am playing an Angelkin Aasimar Paladin.

She is allowing 3.5/Forgotten Reams material as well as Pathfinder with the caveat that if a class or feat is in both the Pathfinder version is always used. The game is set in a home brew modification of the FR setting.

She also give a LOT of extra feats. 3 at First level and then one more at every even level (like the fighter bonus track).

That said I was planning on taking Battle Blessing from 3.5 (makes Standard Action Paladin spells Swift and full round action Paladin spells Standard) and Unsanctioned Knowledge along with Fey Foundling for the healing boost and EWP: Jovar from the 3.5 Planar Handbook (Basically it is a 2 handed sword with an 18-20 crit range).

Looking for feat suggestions that would help out a Paladin. I know Power Attack HAS to be in there somewhere eventually. The Paladin has 13 intelligence for feat purposes should it matter.

Looking for suggestions going to level 20. At this point I am picturing him as 'utility infielder' hopefully doing a few things well instead of a one trick pony doing one thing exceedingly well.

I looked over the alternate class options and decided to stick with core Paladin.

tl;dr : Want feat suggestions to 20 on an Angelkin Aasimar core Paladin where race and class cannot be changed at this time. 3.5 and Pathfinder material is allowed.

Simply, do 'hands' limitation come into play when someone is using unarmed strikes and two weapon fighting if their actual 2 hands are full?

Since unarmed strikes can be done with more than just the actual fists is there any reason they cannot use their hands to hold other things?

Relevant Example:

In a game I am running a Level 1 Human Brawler uses their Martial Flexibility to get Two Weapon Fighting. His hands are holding a torch and a potion.

Can he two weapon fight with the rest of their striking surfaces or are their 'hands' full for the purposes of combat?

I am inclined to say that they are able to fight and use TWF.

Would this work to allow you to put armor on your Eidolon and self at the same time or would it still be prohibited?

Or is the armor slot not prohibted, it just has a negative that is involved with it?

In either case would this feat allow non penaltied simultaneous armor use on an eidolon and it's summoner?

Extra Item Slot

You are able to wear magic items more easily than other creatures of your kind.

Prerequisites: Non-humanoid body shape.

Benefit: Choose one magic item slot not normally available to creatures with your shape. You can now use magic items in that slot.

Special: Feats that are meant for familiars can be switched out for a familiar's default feats (as listed in the familiar's statistics) if the familiar meets the prerequisites. Such feat replacements must be made when the PC first acquires a new familiar, and-like all new feats from supplemental sources-the new feats should be approved by the GM before being integrated into play.

Or can a wolf try to literally trip anything it can hit no matter the size?

I have a Wolf Animal companion (not optimal but was a 'gift' of that characters deity so not changing it for the time being) and it has gotten to the level it has a BAB of +4 so I want to train out the Power Attack I took at level 5 on the animal companion for Improved Natural Attack. The increase in damage along with using Enlarge Person on it will be more damage and accuracy than the Power attack at this level would with enlarge person alone.

Problem is all the retraining rules talk about the character and retraining the feat requires a teacher with the feat you want to learn (which means my character, an Animal Domain Inquisitor, cannot do the training himself as he has all the other training on his wolf).

Can you even do it on an animal companion and if so would it be done as retraining a feat on the AC or would it count as changing a class feature?

For RP reasons changing AC's is not an option at this time. The Enlarge Person is done through a single use magic item invented by the party's mage who has Craft Wondrous Item. They are ribbons that work like scrolls but anyone can use them as swift actions. Pull on the ribbon while thinking to activate the spell contained within sort of thing. She makes them and gives them to the party for things like gravity bow, Enlarge Person, etc. So my Inquisitor keeps one tied on his Breastplate and uses it with Share Spells to increase the size of his AC.

The GM has ruled that since the spell Enlarge Person can be used by Summoners that this use of Enlarge Person is fine and satisfies the line "Spells cast in this way must come from a class that grants an animal companion" in Share Spells.

Was just trying to think of ways to encourage my players to use more combat maneuvers in my game and thought what about a feat that removes the attack of opportunity the enemy gets when making any combat maneuver?

It gives no bonuses to any combat maneuvers other than the target cannot make an attack of opportunity against you.

Something like:

Maneuver Generalist

You have had more advanced training with many types of combat maneuvers. While you are still far from a master with them you have learned to no longer leave openings your enemies can exploit when performing them.

Prerequisites: BAB +2, ???

Benefit: Choose 4 Combat Maneuvers. You no longer give attacks of opportunities when performing those maneuvers.

Special: This feat can be taken multiple times. Each time you choose another 4 combat maneuvers.

Too good? Not good enough? It is an initial thought. Perhaps it should not even be a feat.

Is it balanced for it's level? Too strong? Too weak?

Fire Shackles
Level: 4
School conjuration (creation), Fire
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S, M (fragment of lava rock)
Range medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level)
Target One Creature
Duration 1 round/2 level (D)
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance no

This spell causes a patch of elemental fire to appear below the target while searing chains made of elemental fire shoot up from the patch and try to restrain it. The elemental chains end in shackles that attempt to connect to the targets limbs and neck.

The creature is the target of a combat maneuver check made to grapple each round at the beginning of your turn, including the round that Fire Shackles is cast. The shackles do not provoke attacks of opportunity. When determining the shackles CMB, the shackles use your caster level as their base attack bonus and receive a +4 bonus due to Strength and a +1 size bonus.

If the shackles succeed in grappling a foe, that foe takes 1d6+4 points of crushing damage + 1d4/2 levels of fire damage (Max 7D4) and gains the grappled condition. Grappled opponents cannot move without first breaking the grapple. All other movement is prohibited unless the creature breaks the grapple first. The Magma Shackles spell receives a +5 bonus on grapple checks made against opponents it is already grappling, but cannot move foes or pin foes. Each round that fire shackles succeeds on a grapple check, it deals an additional 1d6+4 points of crushing damage +1d4/2 levels of fire damage (Max 7D4).

The CMD of Fire Shackles, for the purposes of escaping the grapple, is equal to 10 + its CMB.

The shackles created by this spell cannot be damaged, but they can be dispelled as normal. The entire area of effect is considered difficult terrain while the shackles last.

If I add the Zombie Lord template to a level 4 Human fighter is the final creature CR 5 or 6?

Zombie lord adds 2 racial hit die and if I am reading it correct that negates the -1 CR generally given to NPC's who normally have no racial hit die and get them only from class levels.

Trying to make a Pathfinder 'Race Point' total for the 3.5 Half Giants and Goliath's. Was looking for opinions on how many RP's the powerful build ability would be.

I was thinking 4 RP's but wanted other opinions to make sure I am not far off base.

It would seem given the nature of many animal companions and the fact they start as animals that they should be, IMO. I mean most animals hunt to survive, live in the wilds and attempt to intimidate both other predators and prey in their hunting/daily survival.

No this is by far not an important question but one I am curious to see the reasoning behind.

For instance the Wolf AC. It can barely feed itself if left alone to hunt (survival), going hungry most days really, cannot scare off any creatures whatsoever given how unimposing it is (Intimidate and Cha 6). I suppose I should be happy it can even try.