Heretic_CrossbowmaN's page

The monster goes back because the rules say the monster goes back. If he calls a creature instead of summoning it then it stays. Summoned can called creatures are not treated the same.

Basically your primary idea is correct. That is why summoned monsters don't really die, but a called creature will die.

edit: Your player also needs to realize that a lot of rules work the way they do for balance reasons, and they won't always be logical.

As an example improved critical and keen don't stack, but one is magical quality on the weapon, and the other is a matter of skill from the warrior.

Another example is that even if you are paralyzed you get a reflex save despite reflex saves being based on your ability to move quickly.

Balance is good, but i prefer to find logical explanation for different things and not to tell players "you cannot use that because of balance". =)

Hi all!
One of my players wants to use summoned monsters to gather their parts, espesially poisons, for her own needs. And if i am able to explain that parts like claws or something ele will disappear in a few rounds i cannot find any explanation about poison. Because if poison disappears wit the creature, why does it still functioning if it is already in someone's blood? :)

Now my primary idea is that summonend monster is not a "real" creature it disappears after time and everyhing taken from it dissipates too. But if a creature was poisoned by some summoned monster then it's blood (or something else) is already reacting on it and creature suffers from poison effect.
I feel that here should be some explanation for that question and i'll be very glad to get any help here.

Hello there!

I need an advise about infernal pacts.

Situation:
Party arrives to the city where they find an arena. There are many sorts of fights in arena but at most they are not mortal fights. Some time before party arrived to the city a man from Cheliax has come here. He has a lot of slaves and he is here on his way back to Westcrown from some mission. And he is not a simple men. He is a hidden Asmodean priest and he has great interest in turning others to his needs.

One player in the party is formed slave and gladiator and now he is trying to fight for money in the arena. And now he has came to understanding that there are a lot of slaves hidden beneath the arena and soon he will try to find way to befree them.

QUESTION: I want Chelaxian man to offer some contract to our gladiator. That would be a fight with his champion. I plan that contract will be like this:
"You will come to the arena at day ___ and fight my champion. If you win, i free all my slaves. If you lose OR SURRENDER, your soul will belong to devils."

The first thing i want to know is if an Asmodean priests are able to sign contracts like this one or only devils can do that. If he is not able then which kind of contract could he offer?

The second thing is how could he CHEAT that contract? I think that items like invisible ink and and small letters, convincing magic like command and so on are not allowed because in case of infernal contract man must INTENTIONALLY give his soul to devils. So here must be some verbal trap. Which sort of trap could that be? Now i am thinking about next thing: when gladiator cames to arena at the start of the day into one of performance fights then suddenly after the combat gates to arena will open and Chelaxian champion will come to fight triggering the condition: "At day ___ i will come to the arena and fight Chelaxian_champion_name"...

Hi all! Now i am seeking for some interesting mini-games that could be played inside of games in adventure. Something like an armwrestling, magic duels without struggle between participants but with show oftheir powes, perform duels and so on. Does anyone knows where can i find mechanics like these? Maybe on some site, or books.
Sometimes i feel that simple opposite skill checks are not enough to support interest in game and i need some mechanic to place in game between social interactions and combats. Verbal duel from Ultimate Intrigue is great but it covers single aspect of the game.
I'll be very glad to receive some help in finding stuff like that. :D

Thank you, that's really very helpful! :) And there is a good idea in that post to use some historical daily weather. :)

Hello all! i am running CoCT and now there is a late autumn in our campaign, so winter is coming. And there are a few things that i want to know about it if someone could help me with that.

- Could there be any snow in Korvosa during winter time? How much? I assume that there would be a bit of snow and constant cold rains with hail sometimes. Maybe sometimes streets will be covered wih a thin layer of ice (moisture in Korvosa should be high)

- How cold winter should be? Do players need to buy winter clothing and check Fortitude for not being frostbited?

Discern location is a too powerful now i think. :) I am planning to use casters of 8-11 level, maybe 12th. To cast Discern Location caster must be of 15th level at least. But they can try to use a scroll...
Residual tracking is useless. Because there are no footprints in the house and on the street. And disguises of course.
Locate object - good, there are items that belong to the acountant. :))
Red hand of the Killer - great' it is very useful. Thanks!

Hello all! My party has accomplished some "small" crime: they have rushed into Thieves' guild hideout and murdered 11 members of guild, 5 royal guards who came to stop them and then they have captured Thieves' guild accountant. Moreover, they have burned the house and the fire eliminated their trails.

Due to the scale of that event i may use powerful spellcasters to find them. Which spells could be useful?
I know three:

Blood biography (that spell allows inspect drops of blood to find who's blood it is and by which way it was dropped). But fire and water used for its extinguishing flew out the blood and mixed together blood of party members and royal guards.

Residual tracking. Useless because party was wearing disguise.

Locate creature: as the accountant was kidnapped the guards could try to locate him but that will be a difficult task because that spell will blocked by running water. :[

Thanks to all! Now I think that i will use a rule that gauntlets are not enchanted and if the wearer wants to use them as weapons he must enchant them separately from armor with full enchantment cost.

Interesting thing that i found is advanced armor training option that says

Steel Headbutt (Ex): While wearing medium or heavy armor, a fighter can deliver a headbutt with his helm as part of a full attack action. This headbutt is in addition to his normal attacks, and is made using the fighter’s base attack bonus – 5. A helmet headbutt deals 1d3 points of damage if the fighter is wearing medium armor, or 1d4 points of damage if he is wearing heavy armor (1d2 and 1d3, respectively, for Small creatures), plus an amount of damage equal to 1/2 the fighter’s Strength modifier. Treat this attack as a weapon attack made using the same special material (if any) as the armor. The armor’s enhancement bonus does not modify the headbutt attack, but the helm can be enchanted as a separate weapon.

So i think that gauntlets will count as mithral to overcome DR/silver. But anyway, their wearer isn't proficient with unarmed strike and he will provoke attacks of opportunity while using them.
Maybe it will be incorrect by rules but seems logical.
Anyway, 1d3+STR damage for 7-th level warrior is not a big advantage even if it allows him to bypass DR :)
And it isn't written in rules that armor comes with a set of STEEL gauntlents, it is said "with a set of gauntlets". So i think that mithral fullplate comes with a mithral gauntlets. :)

But maybe they are not "steel" nor "mithral" gauntlets but only "gauntlets". In that case yes, it would not overcome DR i think. Main interest for me was enchantment bonus. It's absolutely clear now that gauntlets are not enchanted as a weapons.

Hi all!
Rules say that every suit of heavy armor (except breastplates) have a pair of gauntlets that can be used as a weapon.
Do these gauntlets count as magic weapon if an armor is magic?
If it is a mithral full-plate could they be used to overcome DR of some creatures?

Read closer.

Elements of Traps: Type wrote:

Magic: Many spells can be used to create dangerous traps. Unless the spell or item description states otherwise, assume the following to be true.

• A successful Perception check (DC 25 + spell level) detects a magic trap before it goes off.
  
• Magic traps permit a saving throw in order to avoid the effect (DC 10 + spell level × 1.5).
  
• Magic traps may be disarmed by a character with the trapfinding class feature with a successful Disable Device skill check (DC 25 + spell level). Other characters have no chance to disarm a magic trap with a Disable Device check.

Magic traps are further divided into spell traps and magic device traps. Magic device traps initiate spell effects when activated, just as wands, rods, rings, and other magic items do. Creating a magic device trap requires the Craft Wondrous Item feat.

Spell traps are simply spells that themselves function as traps.

Yes, you can create traps without mechanical parts, but they are attached to a physical object (eg a tile on the floor, a statue) and can be spotted and disabled if you have trapfinding.

You need the Craft Wondrous Item feat to do so.

Magic Device Trap Cost wrote:

Building a magic device trap involves the expenditure of gp and requires the services of a spellcaster. Table: Cost Modifiers for Magic Device Traps summarizes the cost information for magic device traps. If the trap uses more than one spell (for instance, a sound or visual trigger spell in addition to the main spell effect), the builder must pay for them all (except alarm, which is free unless it must be cast by an NPC).

The costs derived from Table: Cost Modifiers for Magic Device Traps assume that the builder is casting the necessary spells himself (or perhaps some other PC is providing the spells for free). If an NPC spellcaster must be hired to cast them, those costs must be factored in as well (see Equipment).

There's a table...

I plan that he would chase the party and prepare ambush at some moment. So i need to understand how to do that right - which cost does he have to "pay", how much time does he need to spend on creating that trap etc.

Hi everyone! Now i need an advice. :)

I plan to create an ambush which will be organized by villain wizard to interrupt party's actions. And i think about spell "illusory Maze" that i want to be cast on them when they will enter the chamber. But i want to make it a trap (party enters the chamber -> trap triggers) so i need some explanation how could it be organized. Is it possible to create such a trap without any mechanical parts? How to create it? Does the caster need money for materials or not? Does he need some special spells to create it?
I saw the trap creation rules and i didn't find needful information.

* I don't need any reccomendations about "which spell will be better to use", i wanna use Illusory maze. :)))

It says so in the summon monster spell description. Beyond that, I don't know how to be more 'sure' If you already allowed Accusers to teleport in your game, consider telling your players about this restriction on Summoned Monsters out-of-session. Not during session.

From a player's perspective, it's jarring to be told you can't do something right before you attempt it..

I told them after the game about Accusers and now they don't want to use them in any situation. :) Bit the Criminal Boss is gone and they are rewarded and happy (and i am happy too, it was funny to fight him while he was wearing his night pants and running around his room trying to call his guards)

Contract devils have Plane Shift plus Greater Teleport as SLAs. In fact, this devil has a lot of SLAs that are designed to help it find people. Behind the scenes, it can work like this:

-- Contract devil gets a notice from Hell's bureaucracy that someone is abusing the Summon Accuser Devil spell in [location of PC]. The notice includes whatever the accuser devil knows about the PC, which presumably would include a name and basic description.

-- Devil plane-shifts to Golarion (or wherever), then use its Locate Creature SLA to get the PC's precise location. Then it uses Teleport to move close to PC.

-- Devil can now use Arcane Eye to spy on PC, or Vision to get information about PC's needs, desires, and vulnerabilities. If you really want to twist the knife, have the devil bring an accuser devil along with it -- this bends the rules slightly, but you could IMO justify it, and now the contract devil has a little invisible flying scout. This is not strictly necessary, but you want to see the look on the player's face when the accuser devil that it's been summoning materializes on the contract devil's shoulder, or crawls into its lap to be petted like a cat...

-- When the devil is ready, it uses its at-will dimension door, i.e. to PC's room a few moments before PC walks in.

-- Once negotiations begin, don't forget the contract devil has Detect Thoughts at will and +26 Sense Motive (but is itself completely immune to enchantments, suggestions, and all other mind-affecting effects).

-- If the PCs attack, remember this is a CR 10 creature with a lot of useful SLAs, including a 50% chance to summon a bone devil. In fact, if the PCs seem likely to challenge the accuser, it might use its summons ability in advance, and then have the bone devil lurking invisibly nearby -- bone devils have good Stealth and quickened invisibility as a SLA. Alternately, it could use the bone devil as part of a "good cop, bad cop" act -- bone devils are vicious torturers and inquisitors, after all. If negotiations go very badly, the devil can just shrug, drop a delayed blast fireball (13d6 damage, DC 23 save, and the devil itself is immune to fire) or a bestow curse, and teleport away.

Some of the Paizo fiends are kind of goofy, but the contract devil is actually pretty well designed -- its SLAs work neatly with its game function. Also, they have Int 24 and Wis 23, so you're justified in playing them as smug know-it-all bastards who always have a backup plan. They're a lot of fun IMO. Good luck!

cheers,

Doug M.

Thanks, yoa are very helpful. Now i have some plans to make the party more familiar with Contract Devils. :)

Also, I'm wondering how Dim Door got them in? They're, what, 7th or 8th level? Each casting of Dim Door lets you bring one medium creature / three levels along, so at 6th through 8th levels the wizard can bring himself and maximum two friends. Is it a small party?

It's a 7-8 level party and witch has 3 slots of 4th level. She has brought 2 friends with her then teleported back to the sewers when remaining two were waiting for her and brought them too. 6th member of a party (heavy-armored-machine-of-death-not-so-good-for-stealth) wasn't participate in that game so there were no any problems for them. Yes, she wasted her 3 spell slots but she has hexes and spells of 3rd and lower levels so i cannot say that she was useless in that game. She slumbered Criminal Boss' odyguard and rogue simple coup'de graced him. And as i said it all was very funny and i just feared that further using of accusers could break my campaign.

Oh, and here is another question! How can contract devil go onto Material Plane to contact party?

Summon Monster wrote:

... A summoned monster cannot summon or otherwise conjure another creature, nor can it use any teleportation or planar travel abilities...

Are you sure? Teleportation is my main problem here.

Also - it's 10 minutes per level. For, say, a level 7 character... that's still barely more than an hour. Which means they have to be close enough to wherever the target is that the accuser can get there in time, AND they're still only getting that much time per casting. Enforce this, rigidly, if you aren't already. The teleporting was mentioned already, so there's that too. So yeah, spying via accuser should be doable... but should be costing the caster a very high amount of spell slots, leaving them pretty vulnerable. Now, I won't say utterly wreck them for it, but do let the occasional thing happen unexpectedly that they won't have level 4+ spells to deal with, and want those for.

She is a 8th level character. And party was spying over criminal boss. One hour was enough for accuser to fly into boss' palace, "write" all information about chambers, dwellers and doors and to translate it back to the caster. And then they used dimension door into palace when boss was sleeping and killed him. it was nice and fun.

So this is an evil spell. Which makes sense, right? It's bringing creatures of pure evil to the mortal plane. Nonevil PCs will of course try to use ends-justify-means arguments ("we needed the devil's help to save the orphanage!") but in this case you have RAW on your side: it's an evil spell, full stop.

She is arcane spellcaster. And she is chaotic neutral spellcaster. So there are no barriers for calling that demon to help her mad plans. :)

But if you're playing through (let's say) Curse of the Crimson Throne, it might decide that it prefers the Lawful Evil ruler of the city to the PCs, and act accordingly.

Now i strongly suspect that you are diviner adept :) Let's not speak about details of that adventure here because some of my players could find that post. :) But it's not a moment of interacting with lawful evil villains. It's an one of many episodes that i included in that adventure and it is about of one of my players stories. :)

Not all countermeasures have to be magical, either. A pet poodle with Scent can notice there's something amiss. Invisible creatures also have a lot of trouble getting past doors without people noticing them opening for no reason.

I forgot about pets! Thanks, it will help i think. :)

Thank you all for replies, you ALL were very helpful. Now i think that i know what to do. :)

Hi all! Now i have the small problem with my campaign: one of my players got summon accuser spell and uses it in any situation when the party needs to spy or to watch over someone. It hasn't broke my campaign full of intrigues yet but i strongly suspect that these small flying bastards could gather all needful information in few days.
Accuser devils can become invisible at will and use greater teleport at will and i don't know how to balance it.
I could deny using of that spell in my campaign but i don't think that it is a good way. I haven't big knowledge of devils in Golarion but maybe there is some useful information abot them that i can use to make that spell not so powerful.

So i need an advice.
Could these devils have their own motives to intercept party's plans instead help them? What could it be?
Does the accuser simply follows conjurer's orders or it must be convinced to help?
How can this devil be detected and destroyed by person that is observed by accuser? Are there any spells that can prevent him from teleporting into Great Villain's Lair?

Thank you for help! :)

About question a)
I've checked some forums ad now it seems like the multiclass wizard (for example, Wizard/Arcane trickster) does receive bonus spell slots per day, because arcane school ability says that specialist wizards receive an additional spell slot of each spell level he can cast and multiclassing in Trickster adds levels to wizard's spellcasting.

And what's about c)?
I don't mean Dirty trick, I mean Underhanded Rogue Talent.

A rogue with this talent gains a +4 circumstance bonus on all Sleight of Hand checks made to conceal a weapon. Furthermore, if she makes a sneak attack during the surprise round using a concealed weapon that her opponent didn’t know about, she does not have to roll sneak attack damage, and the sneak attack deals maximum damage. A rogue can only use the underhanded talent a number of times per day equal to her Charisma modifier (minimum 0).
So there is no need to hide claws - opponent can't see them. And growing them is a free action that could be made during surprise round before the attack. I can't ask GM because i am the GM :(
I think that i will let my player do it anyway, but we want to kno how it is clarified by the rules. :)

Thak you again for help, you all are great! )))

Hi all! I need some rules explanations.

a) Does a wizard receive bonus spells from arcane school if he takes levels in prestige class? i see in the rules that specialist wizards receive an additional spell slot of each spell level he can cast. Prestige classess like an arcane trickster don't give spellcasting itself but add levels of spellcasting to existing class.
b) Does a witch receive patron spells when she is multiclassing?
c) If i play sorcerer (Draconic bloodline)/Rogue, can i use Underhanded trick with claws? Normally i haven't claws and no one can detect them until i grow them. But to grow them i need a free action, so if i attack an enemy during surprise round can i treat claws as a weapon that "opponent is not aware about"?
d) If i am grappling a foe and my friend is helping me wit that, do i only add +2 to my CMB roll for an grappling attempt or i can add it to my CMD modifier against foe's attempts to break free from the grapple at his next turn? I didn't find anything about it in the rules but logically i could add +2 Aid Another bonus to CMD.
e) Can i deliver touch spell if i am holding the charge wit any natural attack? For example with draconic bite of Dragon Disciple or Prehensile hairs?
f) If a character has a fly hex, does it need to make fly checks each round? In which cases should he make such hecks?

White Haired witch is using her hair to sub for her two free hands, so it's covered.

The rule you're citing refers to someone using a normal grapple which the witch is not.

Thanks for your answer! But could you say please where can i find in the rules section about grappling with other things except hands?

Hi all! I need some rules clarifications about White-Haired Witch's grapple.

I found that in the rules:
Humanoid creatures without two free hands attempting to grapple a foe take a –4 penalty on the combat maneuver roll.

So, does it works with a White-Haired Witch? I suspect that i've missed something in rules...