Hathdren's page

Quick question regarding the Animate Dead spell since I wasn't able to find it in the spell description. When you raise a creature using this spell as a zombie or skeleton, whose initiative do you use. Do you use the caster's initiative, letting the creature act immediately after it's been raised? Do you use the caster's initiative, but force the raised creature to wait until the caster's next turn before it can act? Or do you roll the newly raised creature into initiative?

One of my players is creating a druid using Spheres of Power, and one of the upcoming areas is on the Plane of Water. They want to play a support/utility caster, and to that end they've been talking about using the weather sphere, but unfortunately there are no rules for using the weather sphere or even control weather underwater.

How have y'all ruled using weather control effects underwater? Do I just allow the sphere effects as written, or should I create new effects due to the new environment? Should I encourage them to go into the nature sphere instead? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

As a GM, I'm having trouble making an incentive to use a firearm over a bow and arrow past the early-mid game, especially two-handed firearms. The world has commonplace guns, so I want to make it so that using firearms requires as much investment as bows to use properly, and as much specialization to master.

I want changes that have to be made on the players end to be minimal, as they already have their builds in mind and I don't want to impeed their vision. I just want the mindset for a character with martial weapon proficiency to be "both the gun and bow have their own strengths and weaknesses but similar investments, so I'll pick the one I like more for this situation."

I'm not sure which elements of firearms have to be altered here to make them viable past level 4-6 or so, and would very much like to hear how you guys have made them comparable.

I'm really liking this archetype for Bloodrager, conceptually at least, and I've been trying to get it to work for a campaign. Practically, I'm not sure where to start on how to build this. Should I be using TWF to increase the effectiveness of static rage modifiers? Should I solidify my combat styles earlier on, then add extra feats later? Does the bonus feat at level 2 bypass prerequisites a la MoMS?

As an added note, my GM is letting me stack this with Prowler at World's End and Untouchable Rager, mainly because we both liked the idea of Medium spirits, but the GM wants to run a campaign with as little of the "spellcasting" ability as possible, thus removing the possibility of Medium itself. Lastly, race is a GM-made homebrew, so we're working with +2 str and wis, -2 int, +1 natural armor, and a 1d4 bite attack. Elite array for stats.

Assuming we don't get to bypass prerequisites at level 2, the styles we could realistically qualify for are Ascetic, Crane, Demonic, Diabolic, Diva, Dragonfly, Octopus, Owl, Snapping Turtle, Stick-Fighting, and Tatzlwyrm Claw. Pretty small compared to the entire list of styles, but that's how it goes. Should I just delay going into Bloodrager entirely to qualify for more styles? Any help would be appreciated.

What it says in the title, is there any way to make the Avalancher archetype for the Slayer from Ultimate Wilderness viable? What's weird is I've seen absolutely no discussion around this archetype, so why not try and brew around it now? Pathfinder Society legality isn't really an issue for me, but all the better if it is.

Best I've been able to figure, we can use Dragonfly Style from the Martial Arts Handbook, essentially making anyone we attack from next to a wall a Studied Target Plus. Going further down the chain around 14th level, we can use Dragonfly Flight to glide about 60 feet (assuming we get a 10 foot vertical leap, which may take work) and use Fall-By-Attack from Avalancher to get a full attack while we fall/charge. I'll post what I have of my Gorum-worshiping Greatsword Slayer build here, but a throwing build with Ricochet Toss might be better, still working that out.

1st. Slayer 1. Feat (Improved Unarmed Strike)
2nd. Slayer 2. Slayer Talent (Rogue Talant (Combat Trick (Dragonfly Style)))
3rd. Slayer 3. Feat (?)
4th. Slayer 4. Slayer Talent (Ranger Combat Style (Faithful (Gorum)) (Power Attack))
5th. Slayer 5. Feat (Dragonfly Wings)
6th. Slayer 6. Slayer Talent (Ranger Combat Style (Faithful (Gorum)) (Vital Strike))
7th. Slayer 7. Feat (Divine Fighting Technique (Gorum))
8th. Slayer 8. Slayer Talent (?)
9th. Slayer 9. Feat (Lunge)
10th. Slayer 10. Slayer Talent (Ranger Combat Style (Gorum) (Improved Vital Strike))
11th. Slayer 11. Feat (Dragonfly Flight)
Can stop at Slayer 14 if you want.

If anyone has other thoughts about this archetype and how to make it work, I'd love to know.