Grist Stonefist's page

1) Do you still get two "Katanas" when unsheathed? or just one?

2) What category do they fall under? Light or One Handed?

3) If you enchant the Katanas, do those ends of the Quarterstaff also get enchanted?

4) Is there an action associated with "drawing the katanas from their case" or is it like normal drawing of a weapon?

5) Can you use Shilleleigh on the weapon while the blades are sheathed and it acts like a quarterstaff?

If you were to pick on side over the other, which one would you choose?

I am in particular interested in playing an Asmodean Advocate. I would like to try the full caster route but I am not sure how helpful I would be in the 1-12 lifespan of PFS

Hi All,

So I have an idea for a campaign, and I was curious to see if it sounds fun to anyone. BTW if you identify as Bobthesatyr, Thorin the Thunder Tamer, DestroTheSlayer, or AirRazor, stop reading.

I really like the idea of the Star stone and how it can turn people into deities by some sort of mystical trial. However, it seems hard to build a whole campaign around it, because you either become a deity or die in one little adventure. I would like to open up the deific process and make it sort of a contest

I was thinking of building a world where every so often, magical artifacts activate, and the contest begins. I would have the campaign start off with the characters already level 3 or so, in the final room of a dungeon they were clearing. Its full of goblins, and anyone who can understand Undercommon hears the goblin leader baddy talk about how no one can take his "talky man box". This is to introduce them quickly to the major driver of the campaign, and also give their characters a reason to stick together

Once the threat has been taken care of, the adventurers find that the box is announcing a contest of legend. The start of the deity contest. By communing with the artifact, the adventurers can enter the contest. It would state some rules, but leave alot of stuff obscure and not explained. Heres some ideas for how the contest would work

- You do not need to enter the contest at all. The party could just see how it plays out and continue adventuring as normal

- The party can decide to become deities. The box would explain that there are three roles to play: Deific Aspirant, Demigod Aspirant, or just Follower. Deific Aspirants are the people who are trying to become gods. They are the ones trying to collect the deific power, need to perform the communions, and are the biggest targets for potential enemies. Also, if they die at any point, their soul is consumed and they cannot be ressurected by any means.

Demigod aspirants are bound to a deific aspirant and are trying to help them on their quest. If they die, they can be ressurected as normal. If their aspirant wins the contest, they can become demigods under them, or be recruited to serve under a god that better suits their alignment.

Followers are not divinely connected to either the demigod or deity aspirant. They can be ressurected as normal, and can't be detected with the specific divine power generated by the contest. Their reward would have to be given to them after their aspirants win.

-Deific power is what the adventurers need to collect to win. There are several ways of collecting it:

--Finding artifacts strewn about the land. The Deific Aspirant(s) need to commune with it for several hours, and the artifacts cannot be destroyed or moved in any way.

--Destroying legendary creatures, or felling other aspirants can grant some power. They need to commune with the corpses for awhile and the corpses can only be moved 100 feet from the death site.

--Appeasing the current gods in any manner of ways might get them some small amounts of deific power.

--Awesome moments that show what the deific aspirant hopes to become the paragon of, perhaps to their own detriment

Deific power would not really hold any mechanical benefits. However, the more power you gain, the easier it is to find other sources of deific power. Conversely, the more power you have, the easier it is to identify and find the aspirant as a contestant. Also, with more deific power, you become more susceptible to the powers of the current demigods and gods, to your detriment or benefit. As the heroes get closer to winning the contest, gods who oppose their beliefs might try and screw them over, while gods who share in their beliefs might try to help them.

I am also considering allowing the aspirants to sacrifice some of their deific power to force bad stuff to happen to another contestant.

Classes that already follow deities for class features can also try to become gods themselves, but if they want to retain their divine powers, they must either commit to themselves or enter a outstanding divine contract with their current deity, saying that if they win, they must ally with them and support them in all future deific endeavours.

So what do you think? Good Idea? Bad Idea? It kinda turns into divine highlander + mario party. I am not sure what the end state of the campaign would be. I am also hoping these complex rules wouldn't be too overwhelming

So say I have a level 8 wizard with a familiar.

A skald starts singing, and my familiar accepts the rage. What bonus hit points would he get from the +2 con boost, if any?

So Kinetic Blasts are spell like abilities with the energy type of the kineticist chosen element. Could I dip 1 level of Sorcerer for the Orc bloodline arcana to gain 1 damage per die of my energy kinetic blast?

So I was looking for a way to min max wild empathy, because I thought it would be fun to be able to be friends with all of the animals. But while doing so, I stumbled upon the perfect build for any character that would be stuck in one or two types of terrains for a campaign. In these chosen domains, you will be absolutely amazing. Outside? Meh. But it makes for an interesting Aquaman or other such character

People are probably familiar with the basics of this but I will go over it anyways:

This is a 10 Slayer 10 Horizon walker build.

Slayer
Horizon Walker

The main goal of the build is to boost Favored Terrains as much as possible. Horizon Walker is obvious, with their Terrain Dominance ability, granting your Favored Terrain bonus as a Favored Enemy bonus to any enemy who lives in that terrain. The prestige class itself grants many domains. Slayer was chosen because it is Full BAB, and has access to rogue talents. The rogue talent we will be focusing on is Terrain Mastery, which grants you a favored terrain and increases your existing terrains bonus as well.

Assuming 20 pt buy, I would recommend STR for this build, as power attacking is the least feat intensive fight style that wont leave you super underwhelmed when you aren't in your special area.

Stats are as follows:
15 + 2 Racial = 17 STR
14 DEX
14 CON
10 INT
14 WIS
8 CHA

Choose Half Orc, with the alternative trait that grants Endurance as a bonus feat

First we go 6 levels of slayer, with our favored class bonus going towards the extra slayer talent. First feat is Power Attack, All other feats for the rest of the build will be Extra Slayer Talent, getting Rogue Talent -> Terrain Mastery for another terrain. All slayer talents will be, you guessed it, Rogue Talent -> Terrain Mastery. We will also need atleast 6 ranks in Knowledge Geography

Once we hit 7, we start going full blast into Horizon Walker. Over the course of these 10 levels, we will gain 7 terrains, and the capstone grants a +2 to all existing terrains and makes any terrain we currently do not have as favored terrains a +2 bonus. Terrain Mastery as the Horizon Walker ability grants some nice bonuses, but the real deal is Dominance. With dominance, we gain that aforementioned favored enemy, and also a stronger ability related to terrain. Some of these grant spell like abilities, like the amazing Astral option, that grants Dimension door as a spell like ability 3 times per day + WIS mod.

Once we get through the prestige class, just finish up with 4 levels of slayer, continuing to acquire terrains

A nice little item that enhances this build are the boots of friendly terrain, which grant an additional +2 bonus to a terrain of your choice.
Boots of Friendly Terrain

So, counting all these up, we have 9 Feats which go towards terrains, 5 normal slayer talents going towards terrains, 1 bonus slayer talent from favored class bonus going towards terrains, 7 terrains from Horizon Walker, 2 "effective" bonus terrains from the capstone and the boots. Adding these together we get...

23 Favored Terrains(Effective level 24 due to capstone). A whopping +48 Favored Terrain bonus for our first terrain. Thats +48 to Initiative, Knowledge Geography, Perception, Stealth, and Survival skills. Also against any creature that comes from that area, +48 to Bluff, Knowledge, Perception, Sense Motive, Survival AND to hit and damage. Wow.

For a lesser bonus, you could take the ranger combat style feats to gain Two Weapon Fighting feats to get more attacks in.

Also for a much lesser bonus, you could swap out slayer for some Hunter Levels and pick up Nature Warden as a prestige class. 2 Levels gives you your favored terrain bonus to Wild empathy checks, and half of the favored terrain bonus as an insight bonus to AC. If you keep up with the spellcasting aspect, you could take up Instant Enemy and Terrain Bond for more flexible applications of your crazy bonuses.

So what do you all think? Did I make any errors that should be corrected? Have any other suggestions for the build?

Hey All,

So I was looking at the Totemic Skald archetype, and I thought the Bull Totem would be cool to use for a character. However, I haven't been able to find any defined creature for a Bull to wildshape/speak with animals to. Are there animals considered "Bulls" for these options or is it just broken and I won't be able to use those features?

Not quite sure if this is the correct forum for this but I wanted to share.

So my first PFS character, a cleric named Amoran hit level 12 a while ago and I was super stoked about it. So I commissioned someone to draw him to commemerate the achievement. He did a really great job and now I want to show it to people.

Here is Silver Crusader Amoran, cleric of Erastil, with his companion named Vigil.

Deviantart Link

What do you think :)

So I have a Siege Mage I am playing in a seafaring/piratey type campaign that will involve alot of ship combat. Are there any wizard spells in particular that will help our ship be awesome, or help us in ship based combat, or help us get out of sticky situations?

Currently I am level 7(effective wizard level 6). I already have Track Ship as a spell to help us hunt down ships we find in cities, but I feel like we need some protections/speed boosting for our ship

Hi All,

So I have had an idea in my head for a bit, and wanted to get your input on it. The basic gist is of this build is to use the Wind Subdomain to bullrush several enemies, and then using Greater Bullrush in conjunction with a reach weapon and/or being enlarged to get multiple Attacks of Opportunity off on them.

My current idea is either a druid with the air domain, who shapeshifts and then can use the higher STR and size increases to help boost CMB, or use a cleric with the plant domain to get larger for a larger reach.

My two biggest current concerns are:
A) Stat Allocation: I will be fairly MAD since I want a high Wis for the ability, STR for Power attack, and DEX for extra AoOs

B) Feats. I am looking at Combat Reflexes, Power Attack, Imp Bull Rush, Greater Bull rush, and if I want to try and be less MAD, perhaps the channel smite into guided hand feats.

I am thinking of using either a Dwarf for the alternate race trait that grants a +2 bonus to bullrush, or Human to help with the feats.

So what do you all think, how would you build this? I know its probably not optimal but I think it would be fun. If I go druid I could also transform into an earth elemental, glide under the earth, and bullrush someone up into the air like a geyser.

Other than I find it hilariously stupid to have my T-Rex companion with his little fore-arms wielding a shield defensively like its going to do something, is there any rules reason I could not have my T-Rex benefit from wielding a Darkwood Shield?

Can an Unarmed Strike become an Arcane Bond?

Can it be enhanced as a normal weapon using craft magic weapons and armor?

I think it might, let me give scenario of how it works:

Marko the Adventurer has a dream, a dream to become an arcane trickster.

So Marko starts adventuring, his initial level being Snakebite Striker Brawler. This gains him an unarmed strike that "is treated as both a manufactured weapon and a natural weapon for the purpose of spells and effects that modify either manufactured weapons or natural weapons."

OK so it counts as a manufactured weapon. Next level he needs to get his spellcasting on, so he picks Wizard. As his arcane bond, he would like nothing better than to apply it to his unarmed strikes. An arcane bond "must fall into one of the following categories: amulet, ring, staff, wand, or weapon. These objects are always masterwork quality."

So his Unarmed Strike is now considered a Masterwork Manufactured weapon.

Marko levels up a few times, and hits level 5. He of course has Magical Lineage, so his caster level is 5 as well. He decides he wants to craft a magical weapon, out of his manufactured masterwork unarmed strike.

So with that out of the way, do you think unarmed strikes could be enchanted? I think I would allow it in my games if it applied to a certain limb, but just have unknown part of the character be arcane bonded would be odd.

Thoughts?

Hey All,

So for awhile now, I wanted to make a throwing character. But, when I looked around for advice, and looking at stuff on my own, it seemed like several things conspired against it to make it a main form of combat. However, I feel like with the creation of the Warpriest, some of these issues are alleviated. This is how the Warpriest solves the issues:

1) A throwing based character relies on having multiple enchanted weapons, which is hard to fund. Fortunately, there is a cool item to help with that! Its called the Blinkback Belt. This leads to another problem

2) It takes up the Belt slot! I need that slot to boost Dex! This is a toughie, but fortunately for us, we have two feats to help us out.
Channel Smite which is a prereq for Guided Hand. Basically what this does is it allows us to use our Wisdom Modifier instead of Dex or Strength for our attack rolls with our Deities favored weapon. Good news! We probably want to use that weapon anyway due to Sacred Weapon(unless you chose something else)

3) But, Ranged Weapons have pretty short ranges! There are traits, feats, items and enchantments to help us with this. But there is also the Air Minor Blessing, which allows us to make ranged attacks without any range penalties, and without provoking for a full minute.

4) Speaking of feats, we need a good amount of them to make ranged attacks work! Luckily, Warpriest gains a bonus combat feat every 3 levels. Also, if you take the Human Favored Class bonus, you can gain ANOTHER bonus combat feat every 6 levels!

So with those issues addressed, lets get into a sample build:

One thing of note: This buiild isn't going to come into its full glory until level 7, due to the feat selection we need not being available until after level 4

Human Warpriest of Gozreh, Level 7

23500 Gold to Spend
Wis Headband +2 -4k
Blinkback Belt- 5k
+1 Distance Trident -8315
Masterwork Heavy Steel Shield - 170
+1 Full Plate - 2650
+1 Cloak of Resistance - 1000
+1 Ring of Deflection - 2000

STR: 14
DEX: 14
CON: 14
INT: 7
WIS: 17 + 2(Racial Bonus) + 1(4th Level Advancement) +2 Enhancement = 22
CHA: 7

Feats:
1) Point Blank Shot
1 Human) Precise Shot
1 Warpriest) Weapon Focus(Favored Weapon)
3) Quickdraw
3 Combat Feat) Rapid Shot
5) Improved Initiative
6 Bonus Combat Feat) Deadly Aim
6 Human FCB Combat Feat) Channel Smite
7) Guided Hand

BAB: 5, FORT: 8, REF: 5, WILL: 11

Blessings(6 times per day):
Air
Weather

Fervor 2d6(9 times per day)

Spells: 6 1st, 5 2nd, 2 3rd level. DCS are 17, 18, 19

Sacred Armor and Weapon +1, 1d8 Damage

Traits: Fate's Favored, Reactionary

So with this character, we should be able to use Fervor to cast Divine Favor as a swift, Use a blessing, and then get into position

2nd Round, we can enhance our weapon and armor with sacredness, and start hitting stuff for +18 to attack if we are in 30ft for 1d8 + 8. With Rapid shot and Deadly Aim, this goes down +14 but we get 2 attacks for 1d8 + 12. Not too shabby for also having fairly high DC spells, a good amount of fervor, and an awesome willsave. We also have an initiative mod of 8 which is pretty good, and we have a nice AC of 25. If we get stuck in melee, we can also use our trident there with roughly the same attack bonuses.

So now my question for you guys is what would you change/improve about this build? Would you use it? To be honest I am sad there aren't more favored throwing weapons for Air domain deities, but I suppose you could pick a different blessing to get some other weapon choices. It also would be difficult to play if you start at level 1, although you have spells so you should still be useful.

Tell me your thoughts :)

So say I have a weapon from the ranged category, like a chakram or a javelin, how can I tell what hand category it applies to?

This is important because you can have 4 light weapons or 2 one handed weapons in a blinkback belt, but to knowledge such weapons do not have such categorizations.

Also if I wanted to Two weapon fight with chakram, do I take the one handed penalty or the light weapon penalty?

Are there any rules in place that answer these questions?

Say I am a 7th level Skald.

I start raging song as a move action. Can I choose to not gain the effects of the song like my allies can? I ask because in the same round, I would like to cast Allegro, which requires the song to be active, but raging song does not allow you to cast spells, unless I missed something

Thanks!

So I have a question with regards to the swashbuckler's definition of a piercing weapon. I would like the interpretation to be as RAW as possible for PFS.

Does a weapon count as light or one handed piercing in the following scenarios:

1) A rapier used with the Weapon Versatility feat to do bludgeoning or slashing damage
2) A longsword used with the Weapon Versatility feat to do piercing damage
3) A lance used while mounted
4) A bastard sword with the Slashing Grace feat
5) A hand crossbow
6) Any other crossbow, used in one hand
7) One handed firearms
8) Unarmed Strikes using Boar Style

Thanks!

So let me try to explain my question.

I am a monk.

I am flanking an enemy with my ally, with my unarmed strikes

I decide I want to flurry, but instead of striking with my unarmed strikes, I want to throw shuriken.

Do I count as flanking for the shuriken attacks?

If I have total concealment as a rogue, such as being in a fog cloud spell with a Goz mask on, does that allow for sneak attacks?

I know there have been many discussions over in the Rules questions over it, but I didn't know how PFS feels about it

Hey All,

So I have a few questions regarding enhancing an arcane bond. According to the FAQ, if you have a bonded item as your arcane bond, you can follow the crafting rules to enhance your item, assuming you meet all pre-requisites:

FAQ

A character with the arcane bond class feature may create a bond with any item he owns, either magical or mundane, as long as the item falls within the categories permitted by the arcane bond ability (the cost for bonding with a new item still applies). If a caster later wishes to upgrade an existing bonded item, he may do so for the cost (not price) of the final item as listed in the item's statblock.

For items which can be enhanced incrementally (such as weapons or a ring of protection), the caster must meet all prerequisites for the item as outlined in the item crafting rules. For example, a nonmagical bonded dagger can be enchanted to a +1 dagger for 1,000 gp instead of the normal 2,000 gp, but the caster must be at least 5th level (a prerequisite for the Craft Magic Arms and Armor feat). To upgrade the item further to a +2 dagger, the caster must have a caster level of 6 or higher (three times the item's enhancement bonus).

A bonded item that is enhanced must still conform to all the campaign rules for access to and upgrading of magical items. The final and total price of the item (not the cost) is used on the Fame chart to determine whether a caster can apply such an enhancement to a bonded item.

There is a part under the magic item creation that states this:

Note that all items have prerequisites in their descriptions. These prerequisites must be met for the item to be created. Most of the time, they take the form of spells that must be known by the item's creator (although access through another magic item or spellcaster is allowed). The DC to create a magic item increases by +5 for each prerequisite the caster does not meet. The only exception to this is the requisite item creation feat, which is mandatory. In addition, you cannot create potions, spell-trigger, or spell-completion magic items without meeting their spell prerequisites.

So say I have a wizard with an amulet. He wants to turn it into an amulet of natural armor. An amulet of natural armor requires Craft Wondrous Item, Barkskin spell, and caster level of enhancement desired * 3. Lets assume he is level 3, so he meets the caster level pre-reqs for a level 1 amulet. He also has any crafting feats required per arcane bond as long as the caster level is high enough, which 3 is fine for Craft Wondrous Item. Problem is, he needs barkskin. So with that in mind I present the following questions:

1) Can a wizard buy a spellcasting service to meet the pre-requisites for the item.
2) Does he need to do this for each enhancement?
3) If the wizard does a scenario with a druid, can the druid in his party cast the spell for him?
4) Can the wizard use a potion or UMD a scroll to meet the pre-requisites
5) Does the wizard need to successfully roll the UMD check in order to use the scroll in the presence of a GM
6) Does a wizard need to roll a successful craft or spellcraft check in order to get the bonus
7) Can a wizard forgo knowing the spell to increase the DC of this craft check but still meet the pre-reqs for creating the item
8) Can a wizard fail hard enough on the craft check to make their arcane bond a cursed item?

Thanks for reading and I look forward to your input

If I have a wizard who wanted to bond with a double weapon, would she be able to upgrade both ends of the weapon as if she had the appropriate feats, with all other pre-requisites met? Can the same be done with a shield?

What happens if you have a specific trait tied to a diety, and you want to switch deities for some reason. Does that trait become inactive with no way to change it?

Hi All,

So for a home pirate campaign I will be in, I decided to man the cannons of our ship as a Siege Mage. Siege mage gives up alot of stuff for the ability to bond with cannons, but I am not sure how it would work in combat with the currently worded rules. The siege engine page can be found here:

http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/ultimateCombat/combat/siegeengines.html

So every siege engine has a crew, aim, and load sections to it. So lets take the fiends mouth cannon as an example. It has 3 Crew, a 3 load speed, and 1 aim action.

Would the 3 Full Round load actions be split up amongst the crew? or does it take the entirety of the crew 3 full rounds to load, 1 full round to aim, and then I assume a standard action to fire.

Can I use more crew to make this process faster?

Does the cannon count as a firearm with regards to feats, like vital strike, rapid reload, and other stuff?

Any help would be helpful, thanks!

Cleaving Finish reads as such:
If you make a melee attack, and your target drops to 0 or fewer hit points as a result of your attack, you can make another melee attack using your highest base attack bonus against another opponent within reach. You can make only one extra attack per round with this feat.

If I wanted to sub out the attack with a Sunder combat maneuver for "another opponent", could I:
1) Choose an item to sunder instead of an actual creature?
2) Could I sunder an item on the downed opponent?
3) What if the opponent was an orc who was still up after reducing them to below 0? Could I sunder his weapon?

Hey All,

I was taking a look at traits and saw this nice little one:

Rough and Ready:

Your intense familiarity with the tools of your trade allows you to use them in combat as if they were actual weapons and makes them more effective for that purpose than they would normally be. When you use a tool of your trade (requiring at least 1 rank in the appropriate Craft or Profession skill) as a weapon, you do not take the improvised weapon penalty and instead receive a +1 trait bonus on your attack. This trait is commonly used with shovels, picks, blacksmith hammers, and other sturdy tools—lutes and brooms make terribly fragile weapons.

So with this in mind, could you use a light pick,heavy pick, or pickaxe as your tool for Profession(Miner) and get a +1 to attack with it, or an axe with Profession(Woodcutter), or a War razor for Profession(Barber)?

Hey All,

So currently in PFS, I have a level 8 cleric/1 monk. Due to some mechanical changes I want to change with my character, I want to switch that 1 monk level to a paladin level. However, given the strict moral codes of paladins, I am concerned how to go about roleplaying him.

Right now he is a Lawful Good cleric of Erastil. I play him as a man who used to be a hunter for his village, so he enjoys hunting. However, his primary directive in the party is to protect his party members. This means backing them up if they get into trouble, potentially lying to get into situations where he can keep an eye on them, and so forth. So he is mainly focused on the hunting/protection portion of Erastil's portfolio

With the strict following of the Paladin's code, however, I feel like my options are going to be more limited. I don't want to be forced to "sell out" my companions to stay in line with the laws.

Is there a way to play around the paladin's tight rp structure or should I look for a different class to swap out with

Hey All,

So I was looking for animal companions to use with my animal domain, and I saw the glorious Tyrannosaurus Rex. I wanted to use him, but then I saw this post declaring that the Large Ape has reach. On the Animal Companion listings for Large Ape, there is no indication that the large ape has reach. So am I missing something where there is a solid way to determine that an animal companion has reach?

Thanks in advance for the input :)

Hey All,

So after some reading around I became interested in PFS and wanted to make a new character and give it a try. I have the core rulebook and going through the creation process listed in the intro to PFS guide.

However, I am stuck on the part where you select traits. The current guide I have reads:

Pathfinder Society characters begin play with two traits—minor in-game advantages tied to their background in

the campaign world. Complete trait rules can be found in
the Advanced Player’s Guide or online in the free Character
Traits Web Enhancement at paizo.com/traits.

Characters choose their traits from six different
categories: basic, campaign, equipment, race, region, and
religion. A character can have only one trait from each
category (or subcategory, in the case of basic traits, which
fall into the areas of combat, faith, magic, and social).
Your character’s choice of faction opens up additional
trait choices presented in Chapter 4 of this guide. These
faction traits count as campaign traits—in effect, they
are the campaign traits for Pathfinder Society Organized
Play. No other campaign traits from any source are legal
for characters to choose. In order to select a faction trait,
your character must belong to the associated faction.

So, listed in this document are several factions traits, which I can use if I join that faction. But I can only have one of those. I do not own the Advanced Players Guide and the link to "paizo.com/traits" does not work for me. Where should I get my other trait from?

Thanks!