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This probably gets in to a sort of grey area, rules wise. This is for a witch character, and I would like to sort some of this out before it becomes an issue.

So say I have the feats "eschew materials", "silent spell", and "still spell".

I cast magic jar, so now I am a soul floating in this little jar. Can I cast a spell that has no components like this? (I realize that probably in this case, the only valid target for the spell would be my familiar, or possibly myself but even that's iffy because I have no life force to detect at the moment).

Next question: if I cast "share senses" to see through my familiar's eyes while I am magic jarred, would this allow me to target specific creatures with the magic jar attack?

The last question is are there any other ways to make sure I don't target a team mate with my magic jar attack? (I don't care so much about being able to hit a specific enemy; I just want to mitigate the chances of hurting my allies by wasting their and my turns).

Ok, here is my idea (in addition to some other revamping of skills and feats) to make fighters and monks more interesting and useful.

We could have a separate system (let's call them martial skill points for now) that are used to gain proficiency in different weapons. The main idea is that these wouldn't just be to deal damage with the weapon- almost anyone can swing a club (or even a sword) and hit something with it on occasion. Instead, they would be to train in things like using a sai to disarm your opponent, parrying attacks with your offhand weapon, etc. Each weapon could have a few of these options. At higher levels, for instance, a dagger could hurt a grappled opponent at their touch AC, representing a higher level fighter being able to find a joint in the armor and the fact that many daggers are specifically designed for that purpose. Maybe it could be possible to disarm natural attacks with a sai or kama, representing going after tendons and pressure points to disable the creature. These would also be used to gain abilities with combat maneuvers and maybe some athletic feats above and beyond your normal character (the most iconic would be climbing on to the back of the giant or dragon you are fighting).

Fighters and monks would get a certain number of these each level, making them real weapon masters and giving them more versatility. Basically, my idea is that a fighter in someone's face should have an easier time getting a weapon away from them than a mage casting grease from a safe distance.

Other martial characters may get a couple of points, or can gain them through feats. Your average barbarian may still hit harder and be stronger than your average fighter, but the fighter can likely disarm him to put him at a disadvantage and even the fight.

This could also help to add a lot more flavor to weapon choices, instead of it just being a comparison of damage and crit numbers. If a dagger can target touch AC in the right circumstances, then certain fighters will prefer the dagger, while others will prefer the kukri. A fighter holding a handaxe will have options with his free-hand that a fighter holding a battleaxe will not, so sometimes the biggest, baddest sword you have won't be the best choice.

Anywho, any feedback or criticisms or ideas would be great. Let me know what you think.

And, on a similar note, why aren't acrobatics and perception class skills for them? I am considering changing this for my campaign, and was wondering if this would be a problem.

I feel like fighters, as typical men at arms or knights or mercenaries or whatever, should be capable of recognizing a threat, and should be able to jump and balance at least ok with all their physical training, and should be better at balancing while wearing armor than a rogue who happens to be wearing plate mail. And I'm kind of tired of seeing people have to hoist fighters across ledges or whatever. This is the guy who should be doing that on his own. It's very un-heroic and silly.

For that matter, would it be wrong to give most classes 4 skill points? I don't really understand, from a flavor perspective, why fighters and clerics get 2 and barbarians and oracles get 4; the former are generally presented as more formally trained or whatever. I kind of understand paladins only having 2, being a martial class with some spellcasting ability, so they may be stretching their resources thin. But then bloodragers are given 4 (and a more versatile spell list).

So long story short, can I give all characters 4 skill points per level (unless they would normally have more), or would this make things too unbalanced? and can I give fighters perception and acrobatics as class skills? Does anyone foresee any major problems with this?

So I am putting together a campaign world where goblins, kolbolds, and orcs aren't necessarily evil (They were created as evil, but the gods left hundreds of years ago and don't control the morality of their minions any more)

I would like the players to have the chance to play them if they want, but I am going to alter the ability scores some because the +4 Str or Dex is too much, so I wanted to get an idea if this would be upsetting the balance too much or if people foresee any problems.

I was thinking for orcs +2 str, +2 wis, -2 int. I originally had though +2 str +2 con -2 int, but that seems like it would make them the uber choice for any fighter or barbarian. +2 wis -2 int seems good because orcs are usually presented as naturally cunning and perceptive but placing no value on education.

For goblins, definitely +2 dex, -2 cha, since goblins are generally unpleasant and quick. I was thinking maybe the other +2 could go in to con? since they seem to be natural survivors and are ok with eating all sorts of gross things. Or maybe +2 int?

For Kobolds, +2 dex; probably -2 str. For the other +2, either int or charisma, since they are presented as schemers who are at least distantly related to dragons.

Any input would be great.

So I was toying with making an unchained summoner, and had a question.

My idea is to make an eidolon with 4 arms that wields a one handed sword on each side two handed (probably like your basic long sword or scimitar). If I take double slice and two weapon fighting, would each weapon deal 1.5 x Str?

I know I will probably have to overcome the penalties to hit for not using a light weapon. I'm more just wondering about how damage is handled.

So in a PFS game I played, we ran in to a swarm of fine creatures. someone cast web in the area where the swarm was. I was like, ok, I'll throw some alchemist's fire at it. The GM said that it would only deal the splash damage (1 point) against the swarm. That sounded wrong to me, but whatever. I pointed out that the swarm was in a web, so according to the rules for the spell, the square that the fire hit would catch fire and deal 2d4 damage. The GM then said that the fire from the web would not deal any damage to the swarm, either. Basically the whole group just had to sit around for like 4 turns doing nothing b/c according to this GM there was no way we could harm it.

Is there something I am missing here? Or is this just a really bad reading of the rules?
His interpretation seems to be that the alchemist's fire could only target one individual creature in the swarm, and the swarm is not really "in" the web so the web burning wouldn't affect it.

Here is the relevant text I could find (emphasis mine)
From Web:
Any fire can set the webs alight and burn away one 5-foot square in 1 round. All creatures within flaming webs take 2d4 points of fire damage from the flames.

From Alchemist's Fire:
You can throw a flask of alchemist's fire as a splash weapon with a range increment of 10 feet.

A direct hit deals 1d6 points of fire damage. Every creature within 5 feet of the point where the flask hits takes 1 point of fire damage from the splash. On the round following a direct hit, the target takes an additional 1d6 points of damage. If desired, the target can use a full-round action to attempt to extinguish the flames before taking this additional damage.

Swarm:
A swarm is immune to any spell or effect that targets a specific number of creatures... A swarm takes half again as much damage (+50%) from spells or effects that affect an area, such as splash weapons and many evocation spells.A swarm is immune to any spell or effect that targets a specific number of creatures (including single-target spells such as disintegrate), with the exception of mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, morale effects, patterns, and phantasms) if the swarm has an Intelligence score and a hive mind. A swarm takes half again as much damage (+50%) from spells or effects that affect an area, such as splash weapons and many evocation spells.

So I have a question that I could see going either way

I have a bloodrager dragon disciple with Amulet of Mighty Fists enchanted with furious (no normal enhancement bonus b/c I only get claws when raging). I'm thinking about picking up Arcane Strike. My question is, will Arcane Strike stack with my Amulet of Mighty Fists when raging?

For reference:
Arcane Strike-
As a swift action, you can imbue your weapons with a fraction of your power. For 1 round, your weapons deal +1 damage and are treated as magic for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction. For every five caster levels you possess, this bonus increases by +1, to a maximum of +5 at 20th level.

Furious-
This special ability can only be placed on melee weapons.

A furious weapon serves as a focus for its wielder's anger. When the wielder is raging or under the effect of a rage spell, the weapon's enhancement bonus is +2 better than normal. If the wielder has a rage power that gives a skill bonus while raging (such as raging climber, raging leaper, or raging swimmer), the wielder gains an enhancement bonus to that skill whenever the weapon is wielded or held in her hand, even when she is not raging. This bonus is equal to the enhancement bonus of the weapon (and also includes the +2 if the wielder is raging).

Hello,

I was wondering how pathfinder society deals with specific magic armors made for unusual creatures. For instance, say I want my large elephant animal companion to wear the "rhino hide" armor. Am I allowed to do that? Is the cost changed?

I know how to calculate the cost of basic MW armor and then enchant it, but here I am asking about the specific armors listed in the books.

Also, on this same line, if I wanted a large or huge animal to wear mithral, how would I calculate that? By raw it seems that a huge mithral chain shirt barding for an elephant would be (100*8)+300+1000=2,100. It seems really weird that the cost for a massive amount of mithral is half the cost of human sized chainmail or platemail.

Thanks for any help.