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I've been giving this a lot of thought lately, primarily because I've been wanting to run a campaign featuring Razmir as the lead antagonist the PCs will encounter.

I run my games on 15 point buy characters rather than rolling stats. Since Razmir is an impressive wizard, but can't even compare to the likes of Tar-Baphon and Karzoug (whom I believe are both built off of 25 point buy), I'd say he's probably a 20 point buy character with PC-level equipment. Give him a Staff of the Magi artifact for poops and laughs. With as much money as he probably makes running his extortion priesthood, he's probably got few stat-boosting Wishes under his belt as well (again, probably not as many as Karzoug).

Sure, he's a mighty Level 19 Wizard, with everything that entails. His chief stat will be Intelligence, to back up all that arcane magic, and with a fairly decent Charisma as well, to boost up his social interaction skills.

As for feats, I'm thinking Ascendant Spell, a Metamagic Feat which allows the caster to mimic the effects of a Mythic Spell, would fit the theme here, and probably helps lay claim to his "divine power." Probably a few other Metamagic Feats invested here as well, especially Still Spell and Silent Spell. Careful usage of these feats only helps his image that he's doing things on a whim, rather than expending any sort of magical power.

Spells like Overwhelming Presence reinforce the idea of his divinity, as he can simply make someone kneel before him as if he were a true divine power. Explode Head, my favorite new spell out of the Occult Adventures book, makes for a good "shock and awe" divine wrath spell. When that one nonbeliever absolutely, positively has to die.

Explode Head didn't finish the job? Good thing he's got a decent Bluff score. Pair it with Skill Focus up to rank 10, and he's got a +16 Bluff before that impressive Charisma modifier comes into play. If the spell doesn't kill the guy, "I've spared you for a purpose, heathen. Rejoice at the mercy of the Living God."

I like screwing with my players. Once the fit hits the shan, I want them to feel the stress of being on the naughty list of a verifiable divine being (at least until they get to a point where they can reasonably pass saving throws on anything other than a natural 20). Once they are able to start resisting his spells, it'll make them start to doubt his credibility, and it'll start knocking over dominoes.

An additional tidbit I've been working on. Do you like plot twits? Ever wonder how a single man can destroy an entire city overnight? How a single wizard can have the kind of knowledge and foresight capable to convince a nation that he's a god? Why is he after the Sun Orchid Elixir, rather than striving for Lichdom like so many other evil spellcasters?

What if Razmir isn't a single guy? What if there's a cabal of like-minded wizards, all of whom wear the mask of Razmir? Or, maybe the real Razmir died a while back, and by some fluke ex machina, all of his backup clones awoke simultaneously. Suddenly, he can be in more than one place at a time, and via permanent Telepathic Bonds, they can share information regardless of distance, creating a "divine hivemind."

Sure, we've got the guy sitting on a throne in the capital. But he can't just always just vamoose when some divine judgement needs to be handed out somewhere else in the nation. Send in Razmir B to smite the guy. Meanwhile, Razmir C is overseeing battle plans for the nation's next expansion into Ustalav or the Rivier Kingdoms. Suddenly, Razmir can be in more than one place at a time, but all the information is shared between them.

It may be difficult for a level 19 wizard to level a city, but a lot of them, all dressed to look like the same guy? Now that's an interesting story for the survivors to tell. He can't do the lich thing, because each member of the Razmir hive would need a different procedure. But if they could find a way to recreate the Sun Orchid Elixir? It might not be true immortality, but it'd be enough to hold them over until they can find something more permanent.

Also opens up a lot of options when the PCs find out about this plot, and how they might be able to turn one Razmir against another....

So, I dunno if anyone else on these forums has played Red Dragon Inn before, but I'm a huge fan of the game.

For those of you who have not played it, here's a brief rundown: you take on the roles of Pathfinder/D&D-style adventurers. You've all had a long day exploring the dungeon, killing monsters, and collecting loot. Now, you're back in town, washed up, and ready to spend your hard-earned coin relaxing at the Red Dragon Inn. Each player gets a character, represented by a deck of cards, and each person has their own flavor to them. The fighter is very defensive, the rogue likes to poison people, and so forth. The object of the game is to be the last one standing, knocking the other players out by beating them up, drinking them under the table, and stealing away their money.

The company that makes this game also came out with a 3rd-party supplement for Pathfinder all about how to make/run your own inns and taverns in a campaign, along with rules on how to make food and brew alcohol (among other things).

Anyways, I'm getting off topic. I've been tinkering around with the idea of dropping this tavern into a Pathfinder game at some point. Similar to the anime Fairy Tale, the Inn will act as kind of a home base and backdrop between the PCs adventures, allowing them an opportunity for some inter-party roleplaying that isn't combat-centric. Along with this, the characters from the card game, I believe, would translate wonderfully into Golarion.

I guess the idea behind this post, for the people who have played Red Dragon Inn before: how would you stat up those characters using the Pathfinder system?

Alright, I think I've got a better understanding of it now. I guess for straight HP bleed my best choice is probably going to be the Bleeding Critical feat. Thanks for all the help guys. :)

Okay, so let me ask this, regarding bleed damage: when and how can it stack?

As per the Bleed condition in the PRD: "Bleed effects do not stack with each other unless they deal different kinds of damage. When two or more bleed effects deal the same kind of damage, take the worse effect. In this case, ability drain is worse than ability damage."

So, if I understand this right:

The Bloodletting feat requires a piercing or slashing weapon, so the resulting bleed damage would match the weapon type.

The Bleeding Attack rogue talent requires a successful application of Sneak Attack, which if I recall correctly deals precision damage.

If this above is true, these two abilities should stack their bleed damage together.

However, the Bleeding Critical feat requires a successful critical hit to inflict bleed damage. Critical hits also being precision damage, would not stack with Bleeding Attack, correct?

Also, in regards to the Cruelty feat: "Whenever you deal bleed damage to an opponent...you gain a +2 morale bonus on attack rolls and weapon damage rolls for 1 round."

When, exactly, do you deal the bleed damage to an opponent? Is it the initial attack that causes/stacks the bleed, or would it be from the opponent's turn when the bleed effect takes place?

Sorry about all of these questions, but I haven't really played around with bleed a whole lot and I want to make sure I have a concise understanding of the rules before I bring this character to the table.

So, I'm trying to build a recurring Kuthite villain for a player with the Nemesis story feat. In trying to keep with the Zon-Kuthon theme, I'm thinking his primary damage output will be from sneak attack and bleed. Here are my thoughts so far:

Human Slayer (possibly with the Stygian Slayer archetype). Two-Weapon Fighting, using a pair of kukris. High Bluff skill with Improved or Two-Weapon Feint, to utilize Sneak Attack without necessarily needing a flank. Capitalize on bleed damage as much as possible.

That last bit's proving a bit difficult, and I'm looking for options. The game isn't at a high enough level where I could justify Improved Critical/Bleeding Critical, nor can he yet afford to purchase Wounding weapons, though both of these options will come into play as soon as the campaign level allows for it.

The Slayer/Rogue talent Bleeding Attack seems viable, causing bleed damage after a successful Sneak Attack. There's also a Bloodletting Feat in Inner Sea Gods that allows bleed damage whenever you threaten a critical hit (no confirmation necessary). These are the best two options I've found for a low-level bleeder build, but does anyone else know of any options? Perhaps some overlooked feat, class ability, or alchemical item?

I don't think it'd necessarily allow him access to class features any earlier, but the ones he does have that are dependent on caster level will become more powerful. In the case of summon monster, the creature will stick around for an extra round.

So, I've never really played around with incorporating traps into my dungeons before, and I feel like it's time to start. However, I find the trap designing section of the Core book to be kind of...confusing, at parts. I have several questions, but since I'm sleepy at the time of this posting, I'll keep it simple for now.

I've never been a mathematical expert, but when trying to determine the CR of the trap, the table indicates that the CR raises for every 10 points of average damage the trap can dole out. How does one determine the average damage when you're creating something from scratch?

GrayJester23 wrote:

James Jacobs wrote:

GrayJester23 wrote:

With the introduction of Kaiju presented in Bestiary 4, and hopefully some expansion on that subject in the future, I hope this book presents at least a baseline for Mecha so I can run a Pacific Rim inspired game on Golarion.

Mecha are well beyond the scope of this book. In fact, vehicles of pretty much any kind are beyond the scope of this book. At 64 pages, we had to focus in pretty much on just elements that directly impact the Iron Gods Adventure Path and Numeria itself, and fully functional technological vehicles, especially giant ones, are not really a part of either.

I suppose that's fair. Don't wanna complicate things too much. Respect.

A bit off-topic, perhaps, but going back to my original post: will there be more Kaiju entries released in the future? :P

Well... the list in Bestiary 4 certainly proves that there are more kaiju to stat up, yeah? ;-)

James, you just made getting out of bed worth the effort today.

I don't think Paizo is going the whole 'technology is incompatible with magic' route, or they probably would have mentioned it somewhere. As it stands, my understanding is this AP is about what happens when you mix magic with technology, so it's not going to be a case where one causes the other to malfunction or something.

If technology were incompatible with magic, we wouldn't have the spellslinger wizard archetype.

GrayJester23 wrote:

With the introduction of Kaiju presented in Bestiary 4, and hopefully some expansion on that subject in the future, I hope this book presents at least a baseline for Mecha so I can run a Pacific Rim inspired game on Golarion.

Mecha are well beyond the scope of this book. In fact, vehicles of pretty much any kind are beyond the scope of this book. At 64 pages, we had to focus in pretty much on just elements that directly impact the Iron Gods Adventure Path and Numeria itself, and fully functional technological vehicles, especially giant ones, are not really a part of either.

I suppose that's fair. Don't wanna complicate things too much. Respect.

A bit off-topic, perhaps, but going back to my original post: will there be more Kaiju entries released in the future? :P

With the introduction of Kaiju presented in Bestiary 4, and hopefully some expansion on that subject in the future, I hope this book presents at least a baseline for Mecha so I can run a Pacific Rim inspired game on Golarion.

Cool. Now, when you say 3 traits and 2 drawbacks, does that mean a potential for 5 traits total?

Neat. Might need a day or two to plan out the character's stats and background. What's the best way to submit my character sheet?

I'm in. What level do you want to start at, and what are the stipulations for character creation (ability scores, traits, archetypes, hero points, etc.)?

Seems interesting. What kind of campaign did you have in mind?

Don't know much about the city, but I did envision him being a Varisian, descended from one of the Sczarni families. XD

Hello all. I'm an experienced Pathfinder player/GM with a new character concept I want to try out. Currently GMing my own game on Sundays, and have another game I'm playing a barbarian for a couple nights per month, so I'm looking to find a PbP game for this guy to take part in. The character is very heavily influenced by Vito Corleone from The Godfather films.

Lawful Evil human rogue, worshiper of Norgorber. Not looking to play the "outright stab my fellow PCs in the back and take their stuff" kind of evil rogue, but is willing to team up with fellow adventurers to further his own goals. I'm very intrigued by the downtime system presented in Ultimate Campaign, and would like a chance to use it to start businesses and organizations. He isn't a diehard adventurer, but sees the benefits the lifestyle holds for obtaining power in his home community. Very loyal to friends and family. Looking to start out as a lowly thug or street urchin and progress through the game with the goal of becoming the head of a criminal organization he's built from the ground up.

Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to be clear about what I'm looking for in a game. If you are a GM starting up a PbP game for Pathfinder and feel this guy would make a good or interesting fit for your game, please feel free to contact me.

I haven't found anything in the rules regarding these two subjects, so I'm curious: can someone use a combat maneuver as an attack of opportunity? I could see maybe restricting it, saying that maneuvers requiring movement (bull rush, overrun, etc.) are out of the question, but what about using your AoO to start a grapple or disarm the opponent? Is that a viable option?

Thank you guys so much for all your help. I feel like I've got a better grasp on how to deal with the situation, and I sat down with my druid player earlier in the week to discuss how things will be proceeding with the animal companion, which we both appreciated. :)

First of all, let me apologize in advance if the questions I am about to ask have been asked before.

I started a new game with some friends a couple of weeks ago. Among them is a druid with a tiger animal companion. I've never had a druid in my group before, the player is still relatively new to the game, and we're running into some complications with the tiger companion. I've done some further reading on the subject from both the Core book and the Bestiary, and there are still a few issues I need resolved.

First of all, correct me if I'm wrong, but the companion does not necessarily act as a secondary character, correct? I mean, I'm leaving the majority of the tiger's actions in the player's hands, but certain actions should still be resolved using the Handle Animal skill and its associated tricks, right?

Secondly, the entry for the tiger companion in the Core book lists it has having 2 claw attacks and the rake ability. The entry for the rake ability in the Bestiary implies that the claw attacks are only available while grappling, and that the target must already be grappled in order to perform the claw attacks.

A) Does this really mean that the claw attacks cannot be performed without first grappling an opponent?

B) When the entry says "2 claws" (and this can apply to any monster with similar attacks), are both claws considered the same attack? Do they both use the same attack roll and the damage roll represents both attacks hitting simultaneously? Or do you roll attack and damage separately for each claw?

C) Does the tiger get its own initiative count in combat? We've only had two sessions so far, and I've been having the tiger act on the druid's turn after the druid's actions. Should I instead be having the tiger have its own initiative roll at the start of combat?

D) Assuming the tiger starts its turn grappling an opponent and uses the rake ability, is another check required to deal damage, or does the initial combat maneuver roll to maintain the grapple count as the attack roll for this ability?

So, I've been planning an adventure for some low-level characters involving goblins mounted on goblin dogs. Neither my players nor myself have really played with mounted combat rules before, so I have some questions.

Most notably, while attacking in melee, is the mount allowed to attack as well as the rider? The Core Rulebook probably says something about it, but I can't find the exact ruling. Maybe I'm just overlooking it.

That's kind of how I was leaning, but again, I don't do much with creature customization so I wasn't sure if it would skew the balance in any way.

So, my friends recently corrupted me with the anime Attack on Titan. For those of you who are unfamiliar with it, the plot details humanity's fight for survival against a race of creatures called Titans.

The titans look human, more or less, except for their gigantic size (most ranging approximately from 9 to 45 feet tall). They exhibit mindless behavior, their only real "need" being to seek out and eat human beings. They ignore all other life forms, and can seemingly continue to exist without eating humans for decades at a time (if not indefinitely).

Watching this gave me a direction to go in for the early-mid levels of my next Pathfinder game. Take creatures of the giant subtype, and make them zombies of varying flavors. One thing that caught my eye was the brain-eating zombie variant presented in Classic Horrors Revisited, which gives the zombie a bite attack with the grab special ability, with no increase to the zombie's CR.

I'm not really all that familiar with creating or customizing monsters outside of the presented rules, so I'm wondering if taking Large or bigger brain-eating zombies and giving them the Swallow Whole ability (limited to creatures at least two size categories smaller than they are) would increase the CR or not. What do my fellow GMs think about this? Any help on the subject would be greatly appreciated. :)

So, in my upcoming Carrion Crown game, I have a character who wants to play a dwarf barbarian. This is a refreshing change for me, as most of my players are used to playing human, so I don't get a lot of racial diversity in my games.

However, in reading through the dwarf racial traits and the barbarian class features, I stumbled across something I'm not sure how to deal with.

The dwarf racial trait "Slow and Steady" reads: "Dwarves have a base speed of 20 feet, but their speed is never modified by armor or encumbrance."

However, the barbarian class feature "Fast Movement" reads: "A barbarian's land speed is faster than the norm for her race by +10 feet. This benefit applies only when she is wearing no armor, light armor, or medium armor, and not carrying a heavy load. Apply this bonus before modifying the barbarian's speed because of any load carried or armor worn. This bonus stacks with any other bonuses to the barbarian's land speed."

So, I'm looking for clarification on how these two abilities interact with one another. Does the dwarf now have a base land speed of 30 feet, which is not modified by armor or encumbrance? Or does he lose the benefit of the barbarian's fast movement due to heavy armor or encumbrance, but then his dwarf base speed of 20 isn't penalized any further for being encumbered?

Any help on this matter will be much appreciated. :)

Just a couple of questions I'd like cleared up regarding this topic.

In regards to potions, the Core rulebook reads: "PCs can sample from each container they find to attempt to determine the nature of the liquid inside with a Perception check. The DC of this check is equal to 15 + the spell level of the potion."

However, in the chart under the Perception skill description, it reads: Identify the powers of a potion through taste: 15 + the potion's caster level."

So, which is it? I'm inclined to think spell level as opposed to caster level, but I'm wondering if there's been any sort of official ruling on this.

Also, under the description for the Detect Magic spell, the third round of studying a particular area reads: The strength and location of each (magical) aura. If the items or creatures bearing the auras are in line of sight, you can make Knowledge (arcana) skill checks to determine the school of magic involved in each...if the aura eminates from a magic item, you can attempt to identify its properties (see Spellcraft)."

The wording used makes me wonder: does one have to succeed at the Knowledge (arcana) check and determine the item's aura (i.e.: faint evocation) before one is allowed to roll Spellcraft to determine an item's specific magical abilities?

As a GM, I'd rule that failing to sleep regularly might also affect the natural restoration of lost HP, since it's during the sleep cycle that the body heals itself.

Awesome. Thank you for the clarification on these subjects. It'll help with the game a lot.

Another thing I wanted to ask other GMs who have run this adventure before: did you have to throw in some side quests in order to help the players gain trust points? I've tried running through this adventure before, but it didn't last long due to group infighting. One problem that constantly kept coming up though was that the players always seemed to fall short of the important Diplomacy (and other) skill checks needed to gain Trust points, so they always seemed to fall behind in that category. If you have thrown in some additional ways to gain trust, what have you done? I'm looking for some inspiration.

So, I'm planning on running a new group of PCs through the Carrion Crown adventure path. I noticed in the first adventure, The Haunting of Harrowstone, there is an abundance of haunts in the prison. As far as I know, haunts can only be damaged by positive energy.

Obvious applications for overcoming these challenges, therefore, would rely on a cleric capable of channeling positive energy, and possibly using spells like cure light wounds.

However, my party has no cleric, so I've been looking into alternative ways they could deal with these threats. Holy water comes to mind, as the bless water spell used to create it specifically mentions using positive energy to purify the water, and holy water itself has specific rules for using it against incorporeal undead (thematically, in my opinion, haunts would be similar enough to justify this).

Could the same rules also apply to, say, a cure light wounds potion? What about a wand of cure light wounds? In the case of the wand, since the spell has a range of touch, would you have to make a touch attack, or would the wand-like nature allow you to use the spell at range?

Running into some rules disputes regarding the basic Alchemist bombs granted at first level. When hit with either a direct hit or splash from a bomb, does the subject catch fire and follow those subsequent rules, or does the Alchemist require a special discovery at later levels in order to accomplish this?

That's how I kinda ruled it too. I gave away a gem to a player, which he appraised correctly. But when he later sold it for the sale price, he seemed a little put off by the fact that the merchant didn't try to alter the pricing at all, arguing that the merchant would probably try to buy it for less than it's worth and then sell it for more than it's worth. I thought I might have been missing something rules-wise when he brought that up, but I guess it's just a flavor thing.

So, as a GM, I've never really used gemstones in my treasure hoards before. How exactly do they work? I know each one has a set GP value, but how would a character go about selling a gemstone to an NPC merchant or shopkeeper to "cash it in?" Would it depend on the shopkeeper's Appraisal roll, the character's Appraisal role, or both, basically resorting to both characters haggling over the price? Same thing if the character wanted to use a gemstone as direct currency to purchase an item? What about buying a gemstone from a merchant for use as a spell component?

Any clarification here would be most appreciated. Thanks in advance.

I think I see my error now. The lich in Undead Revisited is using her touch as a secondary attack, and so is only using the +3 BAB. My bad. lol

Hey all. Got a quick question. Probably gonna seem like a complete newb for not knowing this, but I've never been able to find any solid clarification. How does one calculate the bonus used when rolling for melee or ranged touch attacks?

The question came up as I was designing a high-level lich for my party to encounter and was looking into the negative energy/paralysis touch attack they get.

My initial assumption was that the bonus would simply be BAB + Str (for melee) or Dex (for range). The sample lich given in the Bestiary seemed to confirm this (BAB +5, Str 10).

However, the sample lich given in Undead Revisited has thrown me off. With a BAB of +8 and a Str of 9, my logic should put her bonus for the touch attack at +7. But it's listed at only +2. Is this a typo, or have I managed to overlook some vital piece of the equation?