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Do the composite blasts that are half one physical damage type and half another physical damage type get hit twice by Damage Reduction?

For Example Let's say I'm using Autum Blast (any two of bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing (half each)) against a foe with 10 DR and I roll 40 damage.

Does it do 30 (total damage is 40 minus the 10 is 30)?

Does it do 20 (Two instances of 20 damage, each of which is reduced by 10).

As a follow up, if the damage reduction is bypassed by one of the two damage types does it still apply to the other half?

I'm finally trying to wrap my head around 2e and am looking at trying to build a Kineticist and I have some questions, for some reason I find 2e much harder to read at a glance than 1e and so would like some clarification.

Under proficiencies Kineticist they have "Class DCs" so they get the training bonus to that, but most spellcasting classes list both "Class DCs" and "Spell Attack Rolls"

Does that mean that Kineticists are NOT actually proficient with their elemental blasts if they need an attack roll?

Also under the description of Elemental blast it says: " damage type other than a physical damage type adds its trait to the blast" Which trait? to the attack roll or damage roll?

Am I somehow missing some base rules that make these things make sense?

I played a bunch of 1e when it was out but 2e wasn't really my cup of tea when it came out, I found myself prefering D&D's 5e. However that bridge has kinda been burned due to recent puplisher issues, and I am thinking of running my group's first 2E game, and Trying to figure out which AP would be the best fit. Also looking for some general answers since things have changed since the last time I bought an AP. It looks like some of them are only 3 books now? And I have seen the books advertised as both Pathfinder 2e and D&D 5th compatible, are there different versions or dual-stat in the books? Is there anywhere that gives a good elevator pitch of each AP?

So in the Kineticist thread there were a number of builds posted with vital strike included in them, but as I read it since the blasts are a SP ability they are not an "attack action" EXCEPT the whip and blade infusions. By my reading since those say "as part of an attack action" that means it is a valid target for vital strike...which doubles (or triples) the damage dice. This seems absurdly good.

Is this really how it works, or am I missing something?

So Half elves get Elven immunity as a racial trait, the can also count as an elf for any effect related to race. Can they then trade out elven immunity for Elemental resistance or some other ability as if they were an Elf?

So, having not really experimented with the Mythic rules in any actual gameI have discovered that I have no way to measure how high a character's attack rolls should be, nor how high their damage in this game. By the endgame of 20th/10th, what is considered good? A character with good saves int he 40s and low saves in the high 20s? Attacking for: +42/42/42? Damage of 1d8+57? I know the numbers, but not how to determine what the numbers will let me do. Any advice for how to meausure a character's effectiveness?

Does this AP roughly follow the WBL chart? My group is starting the game fairly soon and I was trying to plan out a character and wanted to know what I'd have to work with.

So there are many aspects of pathfinder that I love dearly, but some elements drive me crazy, one of the persistent bugs is the magic items system. This is the rules portion of trying to adapt an AP (Reign of Winter) into a more fairy-tale like world (heavily inspired by Frozen). There is magic, but you can't just go into a city and find spellcasting services.

Optional rules used: Armor as DR, Wound Points, Class defense bonus
Basic rules changes: Removed all Spells that resurrect people (dead means dead or undead), no magic mart; remove almost all magic items.

Replacement magic item system:

at every level where you would normally gain a +1 in an ability score you gain 2 +1s (in different things).
and a table of bonuses:

1 Resistance +1
2 Stat +2
3 Resistance +2
4 Weapon +1
5 Stat +4/2
6 Resistance +3
7 Natural Armor / Deflection +2 (gain 2 points of either NA or Def.)
8 Stat +4/4/2
9 Weapon +2
10 Resistance +4
11 Stat +6/4/4/2
12 Natural Armor / Deflection +4
13 Weapon +3
14 Resistance +5
15 Stat +6/6/4/4/2
16 Weapon +4
17 Stat +6/6/6/4/4/2
18 Natural Armor / Deflection +6
19 Weapon +5
20 Stat +8/6/6/4/4/2

I am aware that not all classes will get equal use out of all of these bonuses, but I'm mostly ok with that, in the past I have tried a more flexible system where players chose the bonuses they wanted and that seemed to ere a bit on lopsided end of things, and while some classes may not get a ton of use out of every single thing on here, it is likely enough to be going on with.

We ran through the Sarkorian Prophacy PFS scenerio. Here are my impressions on each class:

Warpriest: Sacred armor and blessings were meh at best and didn't end up being used due to sacred weapon and fervor being better. Sacred weapon and was awesome. Multiple Weapon Focus is amazing. Fervor should be Wisdom based as it is somewhat MAD.

Hunter: The Hunter class works alright, but the selection of teamwork feats available limits build options. Really felt like player was playing his tiger with a buff cohort. Also ended up being very, very powerful. The Tiger AC could basically solo the entire Adventure, the Hunter was buffing with a designated weapon and healing spells. The Tiger felt very OP.

Arcanist: Solid Class, works well, always had stuff to do, never felt overpowered.

Slayer: Sneak attack should be tied into favored target, also ranged sneak is very hard to achieve. Class seems to try and encourage ranged attacks, which does not work well with sneak attack.

Skald: Ragesong actual benefits are kinda lame, but the rage powers are amazing.Spell list seems a bit weird on a more barbarianism character. Class feels a bit MAD.

So we did the PFS scenario Sewer Dragons of Absalom at 4th level. We did this Sunday so the round 2 playtest document wasn't out yet. I intend to do a second round with the new playtest and at 10th level this coming sunday and will post those results at that time.

I'm goin to post each of the classes in three parts, first a look at the builds my players went with, then their impressions/concerns, then mine

Arcanist:
Build:All the INT, moderate CHA, focused on debuffing/control with 1 slot devoted to magic missile.
Player Impressions: It was fun, new spell mechanic would be awesome in a traditional game, somewhat lost in a pickup that only covered 2 days.
My impression: Mostly the same as the player, between the good choice of spells and exploits he always had something to do, and used control spells to effectively solo a tough fight.

Investigator:
Build: All the INT, moderate CHA, str & con 8, dex 13. NOT A COMBAT CHARACTER. Twinked for not spending inspiration.
Player Impression: Quite fun, at low-mid levels poison use was great for being relevant in combat. Intelligence is of overwhelming importance,more so than for an int-caster. There aren't many useful feats to take.
My impression: At every single non-combat encounter this character was Boss. rocked everything, and rarely had to spend inspiration. Sneak attack was useful when it was available, but not something that was a huge boost. Even so mostly useless in combat.

Skald:
Build: High STR, moderate DEX&CHA, used a longsword 1 or 2 handed depending on if they needed to cast. (player didn't have much time so asked my to build character for her so I have a few more notes than normal)
Player Impressions: Was a lot of fun to play but the aspects of the class don't seem to synergize well. Being the heavy hitter was fun. Would rather play a Barbarian with a decent CHA.
My Impressions: At first I thought it was a great class, but then it was pointed out that everything it did well could also be done (possibly Better) by a straight bard. Rage power selection was very limited with no actions (fixed by update), weapon selection limited (fixed by update). In our group no one had ever played a strength based bard before and I think that is where a lot of the stuff I like is from, not the class itself.

Warpriest:
I did not gather much useful info on him othr than the fact that he was melee based and had medium armor for a move speed of 20' unfortunately the encounters worked out such that he only got 2 attacks the entire adventure and missed one of them.
Player Impression: Combat feats without a BAB suck.

Slayer:
I didn't have time to go over this character sheet before game, so I really have no clue what the player was doing/going for. I think he was supposed to be based off of throwing weapons, but 60 feet away was "too far away to be effective" and 40 feet was "well I might as well close to melee for sneak attack" which dealt a total of 2d6+2(after favored target). Player was annoyed that his class couldn't get poison use (fixed by update) and 4 skill points(fixed).

Hunter:
Once again I didn't get much useful info out of this one mostly due to hilariously bad luck (more natural 1s than the entire rest of the table put together (enemies included),likewise critical hits scored against him/pet.

Overall, 3 of the players felt like they learned something about the new classes and 3 of them were frustrated, but not usually by the class itself. Hopefully the 10th level game will be a bit more even-keeled and help get some Idea of where the classes stand.

I've been running a Council of Theves game and it seems to be going exceptionally quickly. My group doesn't use XP, so I have them level up when the Ap says to, and they have leveled after almost every session:

Book 1: took all of 2 sessions (2 level ups)
Book 2: took 3 sessions (1 level up, this seems pretty decent rate)
Book 3: took 3 sessions (2 level ups)

So we have been playing for 2 months and are already almost done, these are 3.5 hour-long sessions.

Did other people have this issue? It isn't exactly a problem (we have a long list of APs that we still haven't played), but I was wondering if other people had enc0ountered the same thing, and wondered if it continued this way throughouut the AP or if it slowed down.

I'm asking for some advice for a friend who doesn't frequent these forums, mostly just checking to see if I am missing something. We have just hit 16th level (just finished the Serpent's Skull AP and continuing on for a bit) and while most of us are happy with how our characters have been doing, the person in the party playing the rogue is unhappy with how often she misses attack rolls. When she hits her damage is quite good, but she is having a problem landing these attacks, aand she asked for help raising her attack bonus. The rogue is a TWF, dex based melee character. Here are the things I have already thought of:

+ to Dex Items (GM allows agile weapon enhancement and rogue already has Weapon finesse)
higher weapon enhancement bonus (obviously)
Weapon Focus (switching things up such that she has 2 shortswords instead of 1x shortsword and 1x rapier)
There are a couple of Ioun Stones that can Increase Attack
Upping her bluff check and taking two weapon feint feats (a bit late int he game to do this one)
Take levels in fighter (also a bit late)

I'm looking for feats / items / possibly even some dips that would add to her attack roll, any advice would be appreciated (other than: "well, she shouldn't have played a rogue then")

So, I'm building a new character after an old one getting eaten by a froghemoth, and I'd like some feedback on a cleric build I've been toying around with:

20 pt buy
Aismer Cleic of Shyka the Many
Str: 13 (For PA)
Dex: 10
Con: 13
Int: 10
Wis: 20 (15 base, +2 racial, +1 4th, +2 Headband)
Cha: 20 (15 base, +2 racial, +1 8th, +2 Headband)

Feats:
1: Selective Channel
3: Power Attack
5: Versatile Channeling
7: Quick Channel

Domains: Death & Madness

I'm going mostly for a mix of Bad Touch cleric and Battle cleric. I can afford a guiding weapon, so I can get WIS to attack and damage. Do a bit of debuff as needed, or buff myself, get in there, start hitting things and then quickened channel for negative when I need to heal.

So after watching too much SG-1 I have the urge to tinker arround with a character based off of a prior. Either Cleric or Oracle. What deity would be a good fit for semi-forced conversion, or at least actively trying to prove that his religion is superior.

For various reasons my plans to play an EK in our next game have fallen through, and I'm looking to build a dex-based fighter. I'm going to go with a Dervish dance build, and the weapon master archetype, build so far looks like:

Human Fighter (Weapon Master) 2
STR: 10
DEX: 20 (18+2)
CON: 12
INT: 13
WIS: 10
CHA: 8

Feats:
1: Weapon Finesse
1: Dodge
1: Weapon Focus
2: Dervish Dance

This should give me an AC of 19 (in studded leather)
and an attack of +9, 1d6+5, 18-20x2

My plans for future levels is:
3: Piranha Strike
4: Weapon Specialization
5: Iron Will
6: ?
7: Toughness
8: Greater Weapon Focus
9: Additional Traits
10: ?
11: ?
12: Greater Weapon Specialization
13: Penetrating Strike
14: ?

I'm not sure it will go much past this but if so I can probably manage, maybe pick up mobility with one of my remaining feats and go into duelist.

The one thing I'm not sure about is the order of Piranha strike and weapon focus, I;m thinking that at low levels (the 2 we are starting at the +1 will be more useful than a -1/+2. Any comments would be appreciated.

Can Esoteric knowledge grant spells that the character is currently incapable of casting? (Picking up Heal at 6th level).

The dispelling master ability seems to let you trade a prepared spell to cast dispel magic, does this work if abjuration is an opposition school? The section on Opposition schools says that it costs 2 slots to prepare, but does not mention casting.

Have the new feats eliminated the need for a switch hitter? I was playing around with ranger builds for an upcoming game and I noticed that the switch hitter just seemed altogether weaker than the Archer version. Yes, the switch hitter can do both melee and ranged, but they need 2 magic weapons do do (expensive), and divide their feats between the two, while with point blank master and snap shot, you can effectively have a melee weapon with a bow.

All in all, why switch hit? Is there some tactical advantage it has over ranged? I can see how the ability to full attack at range puts it up over a pure melee build, but why not go archer?

So my group is starting a new game, what is known about it is: it will be going to highish levels and the focus of plot will be conquring/refounding the remains of the old Thassilonian Empire. So far the group is: an Alchemist (Bomb focused), a Paladin (Masachistic Tank), a Cavilier (ride-by lance charging) as well as two others who haven't decided yet. In my varoius other games I'm going straight up caster(blaster) in one and Bard(buffs) in another so I wanted to avoid that, but with all of the history and lore surrounding the Runelords and thassilon I wanted to play an arcane character, so I settled on Eldritch Knight. Now I know that this prestige class isn't exactly the greatest in the world, but I'll only be down 2 casting levels from full caster, and will have more options than a caster would, so I think it will work out alright, but I would apreciate a loo-over of the build to make sure I'm not doing something really dumb.

(This is going to be statted out to 16th level, without gear)

Hunam Ranger 1 / Wizard (Thassilonian Necromancer) 5 / Eldritch Knight 10

STR: 16 (+2 from Levels)
DEX: 14
CON: 12
INT: 20 (racial +2, +2 from levels)
WIS: 10
CHA: 8

feats:
1: Toughness
1: Power Attack
3: Combat Vasting
5: Arcane Strike
5: Craft Wonderopus Item
6: Weapon focus: Longsword
7: Spell focus Necromancy
9: Quicken Spell
11: Arcane Blast
11: Weapon Specialization: Longsword
13: Greater Spell Focus: Necromancy
15: Spell Penetration
15: Improved Critical: Longsword

I'm not sure about arcane blast, I may be replacing it with spell penetration, and then pick up G> Spell penetration at 15th.

Any advice would be apreciated.

so I was reading the piecemeal armor section and I noticed that the dragonhide armor mentioned that if the armor set is made entirely out of dragonhide that it confers the energy immunity to the wearer. In fact you can get the bonus just by wearing the agile torso plate of dragonhide. Now how does a breastplate of dragonhide give you energy immunity if made seperately, but a normal breastplate, or even full plate doesn't?

So I'm seriously thinking of going with a sword and board warrior for my next game. 20 pt buy, human character based off of viking combat style, starting at 4th level.

I'm debating between going straight on into fighter, or taking 6 levels of ranger first, then going into fighter. I will be having the dex needed for TWF anyway, but ranger allows very early access to some very good feats.

STR: 18
DEX: 16
CON: 14
INT: 10
WIS: 10
CHA: 8

Feats:
1 (Human): Power Attack
1: Two Weapon Fighting
2 (Ranger): Shield Slam
3: Double Slice

future feats would be:
5: Furious Focus
6 (Ranger): Shield Master
7: Improved Two Weapon Fighting

From there on I'm not really sure where to go, the shield focus/greater focus seems like 2 feats for a fairly measly +2 AC, I might go weapon focus/spec for my weapons instead.

Anyway I was planing on using a longsword and light shield unless somebody knows of a way to remove that extra -2 from wielding 2 one handed weapons instead of 2 light weapons.

So our group is starting up a new campaign and we have all decided to all play Ulfen characters. I am going to be playing a barbarian and was looking for some advice.

What I have so far: Barb (Invulnerable Rager) 3 / Oracle 1
STR: 18
DEX: 10
CON: 14
INT: 13
WIS: 10
CHA: 14

I'm not planning on taking any more levels of oracle, just grabbed it for rage cycling at 9th level as well as access to CLW and Detect magic (party is going to be low magic).

Curse: Lame (obviously)
Mystery: Lore
Revelation: Sidestep secret

Rage power 2: Guarded Stance (mostly because I'm slightly uncomfortable with the lowish AC of the Barb).

Feats:
1: Power Attack
1 (human): Skill focus (Knowledge the planes)
3: Eldritch heritage (Abyssal)

I'm not quite sure how the progression is going to work, but that is what I have so far. Does this look crazy, or does it look like it might work?

So If I'm a druid and I permanency a G.Magic Fang on my claws, does that spell go away when I revert to human form. I know the bonuses would not apply, but would the spell still be there, for the next time I was in an animal form?

So I'm currently in an 8th level game, where it has become quickly apparent that my present character (a relatively optimized Magus) is WAY more powerful than the rest of the party, perhaps put togeather.

For Refrence the party is: a fallen paladin (so for now a Warrior with a few bonus skills), a very old Alchemist who does not currently have access to the spells that reduce aging penalties. a Cleric who forgets that he has spells and just tries to hit things with his Glaive (and only a 12 in STR), and a Ninja who may or may not be effective, we don't know because he sits out most combats due to having a total will save of +2. In the 2 combats so far where the Ninja could act he has only managed to roll higher than a 5 once.

I'm seriously considering taking my character out of the game and just playing my curent character's Familiar psudodragon as a character. He has been IC considered more effective than the ninja by the other players, and I kinda like the idea. Which bruings me to the question of what class to take levels in? I would go rogue, but we already have a vivisetionist and a Ninja, so that seems like it covers those bases well.

is there anything like that bandolier from 3.5 that let you get to potions and drink them in 1 standard action?

What would be the best bloodline for a dex-based gish? I'm using the cabalist(Magus) archetype, which grants the bloodline abilities (only up to the 9th level ability as a houserule, 1-9 abilities keep getting better with levels, but no new abilities)

I'm currently thinking arcane bloodline for access to the sorcerer/wizard spell list through the 9th level ability, but don't really like the other abilities (not planing on going metamagic as that doesn't work so well for spontaneous casters).

Any suggestions?

After reading the 17 page long synthe3sist thread, I have a couple of questions. Now these questions are not from the standpoint of optimization, or even being good at X, meerly the possibility of playing a synthesis who has a quardraped form.

As I read it synthesists are not allowed to cast spells since they cannot use hands for the somatic componants. Now the only way to heal your Eidolon is by casting a spell. So is there a way to regain those temp HP EVER? Surely that cannot be the intent, if the devs had meant to only allow bipedal synthesists than that would have been stated somewhere in the archetype. I realize that not all archetypes are equal to the original, but is there a way to even make this possible?

Is there an adventure path or anything that give more info about this place then the paragraph it receives in Elves of golarion and The Inner Sea World Guide?

So I ran into a question about spellstrike while making a Magus character. Suppose the following situation:
Cast something like chill touch or Frostbite. Spellstrike lets you deliver that touch attack through your weapon. Now, you have several charges left over. Do theses:
A: go away (the spellstrike feature only give you 1 melee attack)
B: give you charges that can only be used up with normal touch attacks
C: until the charges are used up every time you hit with that wepon the effect applies.
D: as C but only 1 attack/round was charged

Which way is the correct way to do it?

So, we are starting up a new game and one of the players who isn't too familiar with the rules wants to play a rogue. I know that rogues are considered one of the worst classes on these boards. I assume because they are based only off of sneak attack, and it is triky to set those up / some things are flat out immune to it.

So far we have been trying to minimize the situations in which she would lose sneak attack / find something else for her to do in combat. She does have darkvision, which helps a bit for the concealment negating sneak attacks. And (Counting animal companions built for combat) there are 6 melee characters counting her, so flanking should deffinitely be possible. At later levels she will likely have a decent UMD, but right now she has a charisma penalty, so using magic items won't really work.

The problem I'm thinking will be that she doesn't have any other melee strategy other than sneak attack that is even remotely viable. She uses weapon finesse, so while she can hit, her damage without sneak attack is 1d6+0, which is really, really lame.

We have suggested the Archaeologist archetype for bard, or the vivesectionist for alchemist, but she gets a bit confounded by lots of options in combat. regocnises this, and wants to keep things simple, and while spells would give her something useful when she can't sneak attack, there are too many options for her to consider it.

Any advise on how to build a useable rogue, or other options would be greatly apreciated.

So by my reading of RAW, the nonlethal damage you take is untyped and therefore fire resistance doesn't technically cover it. Is there an errata or official respose to this somewhere that I haven't found. I find it very silly that if I have fire resist 10, I'm just fine untill it hits 90 degrees, and then fine again after 140 degrees (at that point it does specify fire damage). So I am in danger of heat stroke in the desert, but set me on fire and I'll be fine? That really doesn't seem correct.

Is there any official info on whether / how oputsiders age? I'm assuming that native outsiders do (probably at a reduced rate), but do actual outsiders such as demons age?

Does to loss of 1 spell known per level apply to the first and only spell of each level you learn? If so it delays spell access by another level putting a sorcerer 2 levels behind a wizard for what spells they can cast. Is this really how it was meant to work, or was it supposed to be a minimum of 1.

I'm mostly looking for advice on any balance issues. I'm a huge fan of the Magus class (as well as an unabashed Gish), but I don't like prepared casting classes. I am well aware that they are frequently more able than spontaneous casters, but I really strongly prefer those who don't need to prep spells in advance. I would like to create an archetype that my kind GM will let me play in an upcoming campaign. On to the Mechanics:

My intent was to strip away the aspects that were Wizard Flavored, and replace them with Sorcerer Flavored bits instead.

All Casting is based off of Charisma instead of Intelligence
Arcane Pool: is 1/3rd Level + Cha
Spells: add 1 additional spell per day to each spell level you can cast

At 4th Level: Gain the bloodline arcana and level 1 bloodline power of a sorcerous bloodline, your effective level in sorcerer is your magus level -2, this ability replaces Spell Recall

At 5th, 11th, and 17th Levels Replace the Bonus Feat with the power from your bloodline gained at 3rd, 9th, and 15th respectively. Your effective level in sorcerer is your magus level -2.

9th: Whenever you are using spell combat you may choose to enhance the spell with metamagic feats without increasing the casting time. This ability replaces both Knowledge pool and Improved Spell Recall.

Explanations of Reasoning:
Spells & Arcane Pool. Sorcerers get more spells than wizards so I wanted to slightly bump the spells per day, and figured that reducing the pool would be a good balance. (honestly this is one of the 2 abilities I'm not so sure isn't too powerful).

Bloodline abilities: giving up spell recall for the 1st level bloodline effects is a bit under powered (partly to make up for increasing the spells), but then the feats into powers is almost directly from the eldritch Heritage feat tree so I feel that is balanced.

The 9th level ability is the other one I'm not sure isn't overpowered. Something like this needs to be in the class to make metamagic a viable option with spell combat, so this is the best I could do with the abilities left that I felt were wizard flavored.

And suggestions would be appreciated.