Gwiber's page

When you engage Channel Smite, and it with it, after the save is rolled, does the damage of the weapon and the Channel Smite stack together in terms of over coming or bypassing DR?

For whatever reason I have it in my head once Channel Smite is involved and successful. the regular DR has no effect on the damage the weapon used is doing, because its now all magical damage.

Does the DR subtract from the weapons damage since it's affected by Channel Smite?

Spells with a listed area of effect that cover particularly not just the ground, but up into the air.

In this case it was Ice Storm.

Flying Shaman gets caught in an ice storm, takes damage, but when next he starts to move, does the Ice Storm count as difficult terrain for him?

Does it only count as such on the ground? Or does it work in the air too for the flyer? And/Or does the method of movement negate the issue?

How is it Rogues are disabling these traps?

Is there any legitimate rules that can stop them from doing so?

Is it possible for a Rogue to see a magical trap, but have no way to disable it? Requiring him and the party in question to look for a way around it?

I:m about to start playing a Dwarf Cleric in a game, and I the DM for the game is swearing up and down he saw a rules that says Dwarfs in particular can add their Cleric level to their BAB.

I've not been able to locate this as a fact in any of the books I have. Or the various SRD's.

Am I blind, is he right? Cause that would be awesome, for me.

I was confronted with a situation where a rogue in the party was trying to pursue a enemy cleric.

At the start of his round. he started to move, and was immediately running into an invisible Choral Angel that was guarding the Cleric (evil party here).

Mechanically seeking I was expecting to force him to stop right there because he had no way of knowing the Angel was there until it appeared and stopped him.

The player was clearly annoyed by the situation. and said he should get the rest of his movement, which I allowed with a penalty of the movement he tried. plus backing up, then he could take the rest of his move.

Is there a rule concerning this I missed? Should I have stopped him in place? Or did I do right in letting him continue moving?

Make an appropriate Craft check representing one week's worth of work. If the check succeeds, multiply your check result by the DC.

If the DC is 15 (for instance), and you roll a 17, you multiply by 2? Or 17?

I know there are a lot of rules concerning how light works for the person(s) IN the light, and how they deal with seeing things away from them.

But are there any rules to concern myself with when it comes to someone sitting in the dark, and shooting people in light sources?

In this case there is a situation that involves Deurgar sitting in a dark area trying to pick off the party of players who will be carrying a light source.

Would there be any rules for or against the Deurgar I should be applying?

So we find ourselves in a quandry about rules.

The group I am running are deep in the equatorial region of Golarion on a chain of islands, with no real way off for a minimum of 6 months.

One of the players is a Gunsligner with a pistol, and a Gunsmithing kit, and about 60-70 bullets to his name.

He was smart enough to bring a melee weapon that he can use without penalty.

However even conserving bullets. after a bit more than a month he's run down, and is getting seriously concerned with resupply for his pistol.

The rules say the Kit will help him produce more, and how many based on a listed gold cost, but they say nothing about raw materials when you really have no real source of them like you could get in a city.

What exactly is actually needed in terms of supplies here? And since I don't really get the production rules how many can he make in a given period? Like a day?

At least with the books I have read at this point, the situation is highly, and annoyingly, vague.

Note: As was pointed out to me. real world. this chain of islands is part of a chain of dormant volcanoes, so there are, in real life terms, a number of the materials around.

"Bringing together the martial mastery of the fighter and the style of the gunslinger"

Uhm, Reading through the rules. I've missed something. Cause other than the various grit and panache pools adding up. I don't see ANY reference to Gunslinger abilities in the Swashbuckler write up.

All the abilities, more or less, sway to a rapier, light one handed melee weapons, and not one mention of guns.

Have I missed something?

After 5 yrs of this game, I feel a bti retarded, and I think i should know this.

Example:

Snake Style (Combat, Style)

You watch your foe’s every movement and then punch through its defense.

Prerequisite: Improved Unarmed Strike, Acrobatics 1 rank, Sense Motive 3 ranks.

Benefit: You gain a +2 bonus on Sense Motive checks, and you can deal piercing damage with your unarmed strikes. While using the Snake Style feat, when an opponent targets you with a melee or ranged attack, you can spend an immediate action to make a Sense Motive check. You can use the result as your AC or touch AC against that attack. You must be aware of the attack and not flat-footed.

Normal: An unarmed strike deals bludgeoning damage.

Can this feat be taken at 3rd level? OR must you wait for a new feat opportunity to come along? Do you have to have bought the 3rd rank in Sense motive before you could buy this? (thus having to wait for a new fat to come up). Or can you buy Sense motive: 3 at 3rd level, AND take this feat?

Divine Focus (DF)

A divine focus component is an item of spiritual significance. The divine focus for a cleric or a paladin is a holy symbol appropriate to the character's faith. The divine focus for a druid or a ranger is a sprig of holly, or some other sacred plant.

In the case I am discussing, the group is all too evil, and there is a Cleric.

The party follows Szuriel, is there a functional mechnical reason he cant use his blackened greatsword, and his (very pale skin) hand to present the weapon as a divine focus while casting? (Or even just wear a white glove on both hands?)

Szuriel's holy symbol: Pale hand and black sword

Other than "jumping the gun" a bit, is there any good reason to take the two weapon fighting feat as a monk?

It would be using u a feat slot early on to get the monk bonus earlier than the class would give it to you.

But is it worth it necessarily? Would having taken two weapon fighting and improved two weapon fighting earlier than you get them from the class provide any "extra" bonuses?

I looked into spectral hand, but since this special ability isn't marked as a "spell" or given any equivalent level, is there a way to deliver this touch attack as a ranged touch?

I have a 8th Wizard (Conjuration School) Wizard with 2 levels in Soul Drinker, who would get his backside handed to him trying to get close enough to deliver this attack.

Looking for a way to use it ranged somehow.

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Soul Pool (Su): At 2nd level, a souldrinker gains a pool of soul points, stolen life energy she can use to accomplish unnatural feats. The number of soul points in the pool begins at 0 and only increases when the souldrinker uses her energy drain ability on a suitable target. A souldrinker gains 1 soul point for each negative level bestowed by her energy drain, but only if the target’s soul qualifies as at least an “animal spirit” with Hit Dice equal to or greater than the souldrinker’s class level, a “basic soul,” or something more powerful/notable (see The Soul Trade on page 30). The maximum number of soul points a souldrinker can have in her pool is equal to 1/2 her class level plus her spellcasting ability modifier; any points above this are wasted. Note that soul points are fragments of souls and do not prevent a slain creature from being raised.

Does a Rogue get to use a double move with the following talent?

Fast Stealth (Ex)

Benefit: This ability allows a rogue to move at full speed using the Stealth skill without penalty

My group has a pretty strongly designed Monk who trips just about anything in sight. Is the +2 AC bonus for the group ranger really appropriate for the Prone target when the Ranger moves up adjacent to the Prone target?

Usually once a target goes down the Monk can keep it there.

The DM keeps insisting the books says Ranged receives a -2 pen to hit (+2 bonus to target AC) against a prone target, despite the fact said Ranged is standing over the target looking down at it.

Is there a rule that does away with what appears to be nonsense?

Would it be possible to get a Wizard or Sorcerer to “trap” an object. Say a small rock, with say, a fireball with some kind of magical trigger to go off when someone is too close (Some derivative of Alarm maybe), then cast invisibility on it (Expecting it to be crossed in a reasonably short period of time) And then drop it in the path of the enemy?

That leads to this. How would a Rogue with trap Sense mechanically work with a trapped magic rock. That is invisible, just sitting on the floor as they are about to pas it up?

Would the Rogue be legitimately able to even notice it? And even if he did. How would he “Disable Device” on the thing? Especially if he couldn't even see it to mess with it? (What if it were one pebble on a floor covered in small rocks? For instance)

Another thing I am wondering is could one pick up a rock. Trap it. Invis it. The teleport the rock to said location. No one would even know it was coming, til it blew up in their faces.

My game is reaching a point of power were things are becoming “all or nothing” Either something hits and HURTS, or, the PC's and NPC's brush it off as if it never happened. It doesn't matter of its physical combat, a trap, or magic.

Would a Rogue get to dance out of such a trap with his Evasion/Uncanny dodge ability? He wouldn't even have the luxury of hearing a spell being cast to have ANY sense of it even coming to do so.

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This all comes from the fact that in my game I assume that PC's who have a greater than say 14 intelligence, tend to be a lot smarter than the players who play them. (Going on the theory that each point of Int is 10 points of IQ, roughly) If your average Wizard for instance stats with say.. a 16 base intelligence and is a race that can add to +2 to Intelligence. By 8th level they are sporting a 20 Intelligence. These are beyond genius level “people”. And a very old Dragon Magazine, from back in the print days in the 90's, suggested that you have such people just KNOW. Or have prepared for the things you as a ST weren't prepared for the players to do. Especially if these high Intelligence people had time to pan. Simply because they are just that damned smart. (With the caveat of having some common sense to not thwart every thought the players have and make the game unfun.)

I am trying to think of serious “out of the box” methods of surprising the players. And this invisible fireball rock is one of the ideas I came up with off the top of my head.

Once I read somewhere, that the Vancian system was considered so bad, that 3.5? I think, changed the fluff of how spells work in terms of "regaining" them. I also wonder first if the way o doing it I read was how it is intended in Pathfinder.

The ides was that a Wizard or Priest isn't studying/praying for the new spells to re-memorize them.

What they are doing is actually spending the time to go through the process of casting the spells in question, gathering up the energy and what not, and then letting them "hang", unfinished, about themselves.

Then they are using a action or round, or whatever to finish casting the spell along with any material components that may be required to focus the spell.

Thus the caster is not re-memorizing spells, they are just setting them up for later use when the time comes.

This brings me to my second issue. What about this system prevents a caster from targeting another caster with Dispel magic, and ripping away however many spells the Dispel Magic goes through? In theory that is magic hanging about waiting to be used, so would not Dispel Magic destroy them potentially?

Simple enough.

Is there a rule for or against a barbarian (or whatever) Using Rage, that states they can think tactically, or must they use more base and crude instinctual forms of action and reaction.

Based on my understanding of Rage. It has a lot to do with giving into to your emotions and just flying off the handler on on opponent, which doesn't much allow for tactics. Working towards a goal, or anything other than, well, “HULK SMASH!”*

I have had my NPC Barbarians/Rage users reflect this attitude in my games as DM, but our other DM has regularly had Barbarians working in a tactical minded group to take on our party, while you know, said Barbarian NPC's are frothing at the mouth trying to hack down everything in sight also.

* With just enough 'awareness' not to try and turn a friend into hamburger. Or just aware enough of self not to push themselves into death, unless they want to.

I want to see, and will likely insert into my games, if it remains later on once the book is in print, the deletion of Spell Resistance from the spell entries for Psychic magic.

These powers are supposed to be generated by the force and will of the Mind itself, and/or from directed mental energy channeled from “Other” sources.

They aren't meant to be manipulation of “magic” itself, whether through study as a Wizard would do, a natural conduit as a Sorcerer would do, or the granting of such magical energy as through the process a Cleric goes through.

It seems to me that Spell Resistance is not something that should apply, at all, to Psychic magic.

I'd also like to see the a more Sorcerer-type direction in how they get powers, only more restrictive. Give a far more limited pool of powers, and a higher number of “Casts” per day. More so then even the Sorcerer gets.

Does this make it over powered? In some cases, it may well, I would agree, which is why I see Psychic as something DM's should control tightly coming into their game as PC's, and should be rare nasty surprises for players as NPC's.

It just makes it feel as if Psychic Magic is just another list of “Spells” instead of a distinctive form of power on it's own. Which is not helped by the format they are presented in, in the first place.

When you break it down fluff-wise, it's great. When you break it down mechanically. A Psychic is just another typical spell caster.

I understand from the playtest some of the “cues” towards the standard spell system established for Wizards/Sorcerers, and Clerics.

It makes the game a little more cohesive, instead of trying to develop outright an entirely new system for the powers.

How do you handle skills when the ranks and total skill values being to reach a level where rolling becomes more or less pointless?

I have a Bard for instance only 9th level who by various means has a Sing skill that is close to 20 without a die roll. Since 's are not auto fails in skill rolls. he almost always gets a minimum of 20 or 21 (I'd have to check the sheet to be sure) and the Performance skill mentions 25 is the kind of level of roll that God's listen too.

Except for using this roll for certain save functions in a bardic performance, virtually any roll I make for regular Sing is going to make god's turn and looks at me.

In a game I run, the current average PC level is 12, and those PC's have a handful of skills each that blow over 20 in total. Even in a stressful situation its not uncommon to see a 1 rolled, and still get mid-20's on the roll result.

At what point do you as a DM have to throw your hands up at some skill totals and just skip rolling and "give" the players whatever it is they wanna roll for?

We're getting to the point where the DM for the game my Bard is in, is having to make outrageous difficulties to challenge my Bard's knowledge of things, like asking for 40's, which is entirely out of the range of almost all skill difficulties (for unchallenged rolls); and he is doing it "on the fly" without thinking about what he is doing.

How do you guys handle this kind of issue? Or how would you see handling it?

I'm no sure if the book states it or not. But when it comes to knowledge of things; we usually state 15 gets you the base knowledge (A monsters name for instance), and for every 5 points or part of greater, you get another piece of knowledge (Like knowing a single category on a monsters stat block). This is getting frustrating to my Dm with my Bard because unless the DM creates a a monster whole cloth and has it be unique, my Bard generally points at it and goes "I know what that is. here;s how to bet it!"

So my Bard is in the middle of a tight dust up among several fighter and rogue types, he's been invisible since the 1st round. But somehow has gotten himself (And a few party members) surrounded by enemies.

In the process of combat. A rogue enemy tries to move into the fight to flank pone of the visible PC's, and frankly ends up bumping into my Bard. Which leads him to go “That little F*CKER is right here!”,
having taken the appropriate penalties and rolls to hit my invisible Bard, the DM looks up and goes “Oh. He's flanked too so.. sneak attack damage!”

This is where I have a question, because I balked; seriously.

Sneak Attack damage always seemed to me to be base don the ability to reach in and hit someone who was either distracted, or unaware you were about to hit, but it was also based on being able to hit a vital spot, which would mean KNOWING what you were hitting.

When swinging wildly to hit something invisible and praying you land a blow.. you don;t strike me as being able to even DO Sneak Attack damage.

Am I wrong. Or is there a rule I missed somewhere about this kinda of thing?

(I know this has been hashed over. I have yet to find an answer however)

Can an Arcane bond be seen with detect Magic and similar (Arcane Sight)?

Items to consider:

Arcane Bond (Ex or Sp): Familiars are (Ex), Items are (Sp)

Supernatural Abilities (Su)

These can't be disrupted in combat and generally don't provoke attacks of opportunity. They aren't subject to spell resistance, counterspells, or dispel magic, and don't function in antimagic areas.

Supernatural abilities and objects are subject to interference by Antimagic fields. Which means to some extent that must have a magical component to them even if its extremely passive. This leads me to say, Yes, they can be detected via Detect Magic

Supernatural abilities and objects are not subject to interference from Dispel Magic. This leads me to say, No, they cannot be detected via Detect Magic.

Has there been a definitive yes or no from a FAQ, writer or otherwise on this matter.?

For the purposes of this ability, a community is any settlement consisting of 100 or more individuals. The community may be larger than this minimum. Outlying farms, fields, and houses are not considered part of a community. This ability replaces favored terrain.

Barring the obvious answer "The DM says it's so".

My Ranger is in an unusual position of being the servant of a "new' city god, created for the campaign we are playing in.

My question is... my DM wants me to pick a sector of the city as my favored community, yet I wanna say since the city itself is a definable community (with WAY more than 100 people).

Is he correct RAW (or at least more correct than me)? Or am I interpreting this right, and I can take the city as my favored community?

Ring of Friend Shield

These curious rings always come in pairs. A ring of friend shield without its mate is useless. Either wearer of one of a pair of the rings can, at any time, command his ring to cast a shield other spell with the wearer of the mated ring as the recipient. This effect has no range limitation.

"Either wearer of one of a pair of the rings can, at any time, command his ring to cast a shield other spell with the wearer of the mated ring as the recipient"

What happens if one wearer casts this using the ring? And then the next round the other user casts it using their ring?

Would you more or less effectively have two people sharing the same combined Hit Point Pool?

I mean if one person were to take damage, it would drain from the other as per the spell to help heal...

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and vice versa.. Which could either mean they have a single HP pool; or the effect could cascade and kill both of them as the spells drain from each other to repair the damage... oh.. that thought... that's nasty.

What IS it exactly? I see it connected to Rend for instance - Feral Savagery (Rend), but I have a situation with a template where it says the modified being gets Feral Savagery. but gives no details about it beyond that.

Flurry of Blows (Ex)

At 8th level, the monk can make two additional attacks when he uses flurry of blows, as if using Improved Two-Weapon Fighting (even if the monk does not meet the prerequisites for the feat).

Call me retarded (I do not mind in this case). Are these attacks figured into the Flurry of Blows chart? Or are they over and above what is listed on the chart?

Fought a Mythic Troll today, and I must say, what a F*cking beast.

At any rate. I managed to drop the thing into the negatives, and still had one arrow of damage to roll, when the DM wanted to stop me from rolling damage.

My contention was that I should keep rolling damage to determine how far into the negatives the Troll was being taken, so when he started to regen H.P. he would still have to work through the negatives to get back up.

The DM wanted to stop right there, at whatever negative he was at from the last hit that dropped him into the negatives.

Which of us was right?

The DM eventually took it my way, but did I make the wrong call?

Note: By that point in combat, the thing was regen'ing 25 H.P. a round.

“A material component consists of one or more physical substances or objects that are annihilated by the spell energies in the casting process”

Is the component of a beneficial spell used up when the target of the spell is not able to have it used on them?

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This is of particular import with my group right now.

They are delving a particularly difficult dungeon of a powerful necromancer who doesn't really MEAN them any ill will personally, he just doesn't want to be bothered with them (Or anyone else for that matter).

However his lair is stocked with some particularly vicious creatures and traps, which have now, twice, killed the same fighter.

The group has had enough money to make the trip back to home base and bargained for the Fighter a True Resurrection once already. They returned. And the same fighter got torn apart by a Bebilith (Summon Monster sucks sometimes).

The party now intends to try and scrape together everything they can and see if they can sell a lot of gear and see if they can get him a new True Resurrection, which will have problems of its own.

However the Necromancer KNOWS this group seems bound and determined to come after him for whatever reason, and he has seen that this fighter has been resurrected already once. So he is going down and using Animate Dead on the fighter, which the True Resurrection spell cannot animate.

So if the party DOES manage to go through the process of liquidating, finding a caster, and bargaining for a new True Resurrection spell; will the extraordinarily valuable diamond simply go away and the spell fail?

What happens to a spell with a non-concentration duration when the caster of the spell is rendered unconscious or dead?

I.E. 14th level Sorcerer casts Summon Monster. 2 rounds later he dies. 9th level Cleric casts spiritual weapon, but goes down unconscious 3 rounds later. (I now at least the spiritual weapon would stop moving if its target dies.)

So, I assume this has all been answered before, but I cant find it, and my google-fu is weak.

Magic item raises said PC's Int, with that i assume comes a raise in skills if the Int stat raises enough to change the bonus.

If the item in question is lost, what happens tot he skill points in question?

(Campaign, Arcane Trickster BADLY misjudges a acrobatics roll to flat footed jump a lava pit, lets just say he dies, and comes back thrugh magic later. Part of the result is that he lost every magic item he had on him, one a magical item that gave him +2 Int, said item is obviously gone now. what happens to his skill points?)

Is the number of skills you get retroactive when your Int modifier changes? Again you add a point and your bonus jumps from say +1 to +2.

Do you only calculate the skill points at the +2 bonus from that point forward? Or is the bonus retroactive back to first level?

Mythic Agile simple template.

What happens to the second action if the monster gets a sub-20 initiative on its init roll?

If it rolls say a total of 19 on its init, the second action happens at... -1, which doesn't exist in init?

This is particularly important to me right now as I have a cleric with Might Summons who happens to have a +0 init base himself, so its likely at this point. He's never going to summon a monster with an init higher than 20.

So far I have been using Savage but this dual init bonus is hard to ignore, I'll have to as the benefits of Savage are better if the Dual init doesn't work.

Trip, Attack of Opportunity

When the “target” Rises from Prone; an Attack of Opportunity is provoked from those adjacent.

Can the attacker use a trip action as his attack of opp to try and keep the target down?

If yes some kind of C&P ruling would be nice.

Both of these say "When making a full-attack action".

Does that mean both can be used at the same time?

Vital Strike states an attack action.

Does this mean it can only be used in a single attack (Such as after you move), or can it be incorporated into a Full Round action where your only action is an attack series?

Initially I said yes, but the player, who has it said that seemed OP. The errata on the matter about spring attack clearly stated a Spring attack was a full round action and Vital Strike could not be a part of it.

However I do think if your only act is an attack, even in a full round action. You can still use Vital Strike.

Also, do you need to declare a swing is a Vital Strike, before your attack roll, if you CAN use it in a full round attack?

As I am the GM, this is a rare case of a player looking at the GM and saying “Don't you think thats a bit over powered???”

Note: The Fighter involved uses the “path” of a Two-Handed Fighter, so at current he possess Vital Strike, Backswing and Great Cleave.

Very little is currently preventing him by my interpretation of the rules, from running into a pack of monsters. Fighting one round with a single attack for the move, and then proceeding to Vital strike once. Take the rest of his attacks, then great cleave through the whole mess while getting the Backswing bonus. He is wielding a Flambard +2, with Str16. So like a full round action as I see it would be, damage wise: 3D10+5, and 1D10+8 on every following swing until he misses an attack or runs out of threatened enemies (Not counting crits in the mix)

I now with Rays, you must be able to see your target to cast a spell on him or her. I assume touch is the same way (At least be able to perceive the target, if you can touch a person you can likely cast a touch spell on them even if you are blind. With appropriate penalties to hit if its an enemy)

But how do you determine if a caster can even locate a place to lay a area of effect spell? IF they want to say; fling a fireball into a area of darkness where they cannot perceive any locations.

Can they just fling and hope for the best? HOW do they pin point the landing zone of it? Or how do ~I~ as the DM do so? OR does the spell simply not work without a location to “shoot for'?

Situation is this. Part is underground in a massive Necropolis city.

The party is using Darkvision, a spell on each of the three party members.

They come into a fight with Dark Creepers and Dark Stalkers., Each of the being is able to cast Darkness and Deeper darkness (Respectively).

The fight starts, with Darkness being hurled. Expecting to blind the party the Dark Creepers and Stalkers are more or less surprised to get attacked back because Darkvision penetrates Darkness too.

The Dark Stalkers resort to Deeper Darkenss which then plunges the Players into Darkness as it over rides Darkvision.

This is when the shenanigan's begin.

Daylight counters Darkness, Darkness counters daylight. Deeper Darkness works like Darkness it just blocks Darkvision.

We got into a confusing mess as the players are desperately trying to keep their vision by throwing Daylight and light spells, and the Dark beings are throwing darkness and Deeper darkness to keep the Players blind.

Dark Creepers and Dark Stalkers are naturally able to see in Darkness, AND Deeper Darkness. So for them the dark is a no brainer, the darker the better.

The question is. Just how in the HELL should I keep track of the spells countering each other?

The players countered what if they came in with a bag of Daylight spells on coins ready and just dumped it on the ground..

My ruling of the time. Was that Any spell cast in the same action time of a round counted for his purpose as a single act. If two people cast light/.daylight in the same initiative moment, then a follow up deeper darkness would eat both spells.

The spells descriptions don’t say anything other than they counter one another, two Daylight spells,. or two Darknesss spells cast at the same time will achieve the same level of light when cast. So unless they are cast in separate order in counter to each other, casting tow of them isn't going to help you, in my opinion. Unless they “bookend” the spell to be countered..

Just how should I deal with this issue?

Situation. Cleric mid-cast of Summon Monster gets hit with a Charm person spell.

Due to the nature of Charm Person this doesnt STOP said cleric from going through with Summon Monster, since clerics intent is to direct the summon monster on someone else other than the person using Charm monster.

Said person casting Charm monster than suddenly turns an anti-magic field on the Cleric, halting his casting and stopping the Cleric from using the Summon Monster to defend himself. (In this case the ST had modified a Beholder from Regular DnD and was using it in the fight. Thus both the use of Charm Person and then the use of Anti magic field following right after.)

Does the use of the Anti-Magic Filed ability from the Beholder’s central eye count as an “attack” on the charmed person (The Charmed Cleric)?

Charm person drops the moment the person who does the Charming or his perceived allies attacks the Charmed target.

My conjecture was that it WOULD count as an attack on the Cleric because it deprived the Cleric of a way of defending himself when it disrupted his Summon Monster Spell. Thus making the Cleric vulnerable to attack.

The ST seemed to think it wasn't offensive enough. And as a “Passive ability” it did not count as an attack. For the scene he rolled a random chance and allowed it to count as an attack, but the question is still “at odds”.

Rogue of some level comes across a large floor portion that with his trapfinding abilities he notices is very thin, and designed to crumble when walked on.

This is the problem. In similar situations I have had a Rogue player look me in the eyes, and call “Disable Device”. Looking for a DC.

Uhm... How? It's a thin floor. What does he plan to do? Haul in a gantry works and some wood, and lay a new floor over it with a single roll?

Recently the rogue on my group I am running for noticed a trap above the heads of the group in which a single short stick was tenuously holding up a dead fall, beyond said deadfall was a large pool of lava.

We had a minor argument over the matter about how he should be able to just roll “Disable Device” And have it stop the trap, entirely without any rhyme or reason on HOW he was doing it.

The trap was designed to be sprung by a crossbow bolt fired by the ambushers, not by any “Device”. The more or less some total of his argument was “It's in the books. I should be able to do it!”

We eventually agreed he was (Arcane Trickster) Able to lodge a rapier up there with the stick so that it would hold the dead fall if the stick were knocked out., but I could not see HOW a simple Disable Device roll was going to do the job without SOME explanation on how it was going to work.

Many times he has used the rules like this in ST'ing too. When MY rogue came up on a poison needle trapped door. When I wanted to do thing like destroy the door lock instead. Or in one case use a piece of cork to cover the needle location and then open the door (thus letting the piece of cork take the “needle”, insisting that if I meddle with the trap without disabling it first, it would go off and SOMEONE would get hit and need to roll saves or whatever.

At what point can I within rules look at him and say “That's just not going to work.”; and be in the right rules-wise?

Sometimes planning an encounter for some people is a pain int eh backside, particularly for characters with evasion and Uncanny Dodge.

In this case, before it happens. I want to know how they apply. Or if they apply.

I have an NPC who is going to throw a small glass vial that upon impact, acts as a modified version of Obscuring Mist. The mist will spread out as per the spell but because it is meant to be “heavy” it will only reach 2 squares in height, and then slowly dissipate in a few rounds, more rapidly than Obscuring Mist should.

Assuming the PC's are caught in it (And they should be. Its AOE and I plan on going first for sake of the encounter), the mist has a secondary property. Its highly humid, and flammable.

Presuming, since the fight will take place in somewhat tight quarters, I can drop a flame into this mess the next round (Or maybe the first there is more than one NPC), when it goes off (like a fireball; but not as much damage closer to the base of Fireball in the effected squares) I know the Rogue who has these Feats, is going to call on them.

My question is. HOW? Reflex, Evasion, and Uncanny Dodge all presume some ability to duck dodge and side step the effects of a spell to mitigate or entirely avoid the damage of an effect.

If said PC is inside the cloud, with this stuff blinding their vision to a certain range, and its clinging to them, how do these particular Feats apply?

Would it be based purely on surprise attack? I am not even sure the Rogue CAN be caught flat footed at this point.

How does he use his feats to escape the results of this tactic?

It isn't “Clear” in the description. So the only thing I can 'go on” is... movies... you know, Clash of the Titans.

Does all the gear the target has on and carries turn to stone as well when the target fails its roll and turns?

Based on a lack of a rule I can locate, and that movie. I have said yes to this point.

And if it does, does it extend to magic items? Armor, weapons in hand or scabbard, clothes worn, etc, etc.

A vampire beaten down to the point where it must assume Gaseous form and return to its resting place. How vulnerable to the Positive energy channel of a cleric is it? Or would that effect it at all by that point?

The vampire is at 0HP by that point.

Situation. Group versus Fire Elemental

Cleric casts Protection from Energy (Fire) ON self and other party member.

Elemental comes in. attacks/slams, hits.

The slam and regular melee attacks state a certain amount of damage plus a burn possibility of a failed save.

The melee/slam attack is not specifically stated to be of an energy form, even though the Fire Elemental itself is pure flame. The Burn is clearly stated as to what it is.

BY the rules how much of any of the melee/slam attack goes through the Protection from energy, if any?

On the spot, based purely on what I could see. it seemed to me the melee/slam would ignore the Protection from Energy, however as the elemental itself was pure fire this seemed a bit, odd.

I let the damage occur half and half half regular half fire, and we proceeded with the scene.

However it doesn't seem right.

Opinions or is there something I am missing?

If a PC is wearing a heavier suit of armor (in this case field plate), which drops a regular person moving 30ft. to 20ft., does their movement drop a further 10ft? With a medium load?

What is to prevent a creature with ability drain/damage from initiating its touch attack while more or less within a solid object?

For example, a Wraith sinks into the ground and moves through it towards the enemy PC. On it's turn it reaches up with just the tips of its fingers, and drags them along the sole of the PC's foot. (With a to hit roll obviously since one presumes the PC isn't just waiting like a rock to be smacked).

Does the PC have any real recourse except retreat in this case? The Wraith is more or less invulnerable to standard attacks (Not counting Channel Energy or Turn Undead perhaps, or would those even breach a solid object like, the ground?).

Is this feasible for a Wraith to do within the confines of the rules?

The contention is it is not. I believe it is possible, the other player involved believes the Wraith MUST expose itself to attack.

My party has a unique magical ability where we can hear each others thoughts, and see through each others eyes.

My Ranger gets slapped with Blindness/Deafness, and misses his save, goes blind.

We tries to work out what kind of penalties the ranger would be looking at if one or more of the party members LOOKED at his target for him. Providing him some visual cues.

We came up with something for the moment, but is there any rule for this kind of situation? Or do any of you have any recommendations.

[We decided the target would count as having concealment of 20%, and a -4 to hit for the ranger, form the blind rules.]

How would you simulate in the rules, a combat in which a creature can attack from hiding, hit, and move to hiding again?

I assume some kind of spring attack would be required obviously. But how to keep the creature hidden AFTER the first attack?