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Wow. Thanks, blahpers, I hadn't considered that! Hopefully he can find a worthy replacement.

My cavalier player just hit level four, so he can choose an exotic mount. The beast rider entry specifically states a medium sized beast rider may choose a lion as a mount (which is treated as a druid's animal companion), but the lion animal companion is size medium (that may advance to large at 7th level).

So which is accurate? Can my medium player choose a lion at level 4 or does he need to wait until level 7?

I'm not sure what the most recent version is. It's probably the one you found. I don't have my group's copy at the moment, so I can't check that.

Google "Pathfinder SORD" (that's without a 'w', it's "system operational reference digest"). My table uses that. It's great for reference, but it's incomplete, so you'll probably need a second source for the topics the SORD misses.

So many great questions i need to ask myself! Thanks for the tips! Once I have some answers, I'll let you guys know.

I have heard of Eberron, and I kinda wanted my world to be a mix of Eberron and a standard middle-ages-esque world. I was thinking of creating various guilds that would provide services, such as a transportation guild that provides teleportation, at a cost of course. I was thinking the cost would be about half the listed cost of getting an appropriately leveled wizard to cast the spell for you (under the spellcasting services section). There would need to be a guild house to take advantage of their services, so it wouldn't be everywhere.

As for the "buy a couple magic items for the betterment of the village" ideas, while very creative, I think those would be rare. I'll probably use that decanter of endless water idea, though!

EDIT: Kimera, your analysis has put doubts in my mind about a sustainable transportation guild. I'll give it more thought and tell you what I've come up with.

I'm creating my own world, and I've hit a significant roadblock. How does magic affect everyday life? With spells that can teleport people thousands of miles, how does that effect inter-city trade and travel? How do you build a city when the enemy can literally walk through your walls or fly over them (or even simply appear in your throne room)? How does telepathy affect communication?

I suppose this all depends on how common magic is, how many people can cast spells of different levels, etc. But what's the average? How did you build your magical world?

Thanks for the tips. And occasionally, yes, I do want to nerf everyone's primary ability. Not every fight, of course; that's just cruel. But I want my players to know that fights will not always go their way. If an assassin is sent to kill the mage in my party, I will make sure the assassin is prepared to counter the magic. Likewise, if there are a bunch of thugs trying to rob my party and half of the thugs get slaughtered by the guy on the horse, they're going to realise they have to either run or find a way to dismount him. If my party wants to specialize, they'll have to take a few hits when the opposition to their specialization shows up.

I want to emphasize again I'm not trying to be a dick. But I don't want every fight to go exactly as the PCs want it to. What's the fun in that?

As for increasing ride checks, you're right. That's not a good idea.

I believe Kazaan is correct. Once you have an amount of non-lethal damage equal to your current hitpoints, you become staggered. Any more non-lethal damage taken is then converted to lethal damage. If you have 12 HP and 10 non-lethal damage, then get hit for 4 non-lethal damage, you are now at 10 HP, 12 non-lethal. If you get hit for 10 more non-lethal, you will be at 0 HP, 12 non-lethal (unconscious).

EDIT: I may be wrong about when the conversion from non-lethal to lethal happens. You may get a small grace period. That is, instead of going from 12HP, 10 non-lethal to 10 HP, 12 non-lethal, you may just go to 12 HP, 14 non-lethal, then begin taking lethal damage next time you would take non-lethal. I don't have the book with me to check at the moment.

I'm a GM, and there is a mounted combat-focused cavalier in my group. He's third level and his Ride check is already enormous. I'm looking for ways (RAW or otherwise) an enemy can knock him off his horse, preferably without a Ride check to ignore it (though other checks are fine).

On a related note, is it just me or are the Ride check DCs extremely low? Would I be breaking the ride system if I boosted all the DCs by 5?

As far as I'm aware, swift actions can be used only on your turn, otherwise it's an immediate action (like Partizanski said). I'm not sure what Binding Throw is or does, but if it says you need a swift action, then you can't do it on someone else's turn.

I agree with DigitalMage on this. I can't see an instance where you can be pinned without being grappled. (Perhaps an enemy could have an ability that completely skips the grapple state, and after a single successful CMB roll, you're pinned, but I still see that as an upgraded -- or more severe form of -- grapple.)

Thanks for the advise and confirmation, guys. You're right: it's a 20-point buy, with my human's +2 going into Strength. Also, I played D&D 3/3.5 on and off for about five years, plus GMed a Pathfinder game for six months before I realized you multiply the +9 on a crit. (Actually, a player brought it to my attention, the same one who is testing out the GM seat now.) As for the nodachi, yeah, it may be better, but my character doesn't currently have access to eastern weapons.

I've played two sessions now with my two-handed fighter (with the two-handed archetype), and I'm dealing ridiculous damage. I would like some help double - and triple - checking my math. Here is my build:

Human Fighter (Two-Handed Fighter archetype), level 1
Str 19, Dex 12, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 8
BAB +1
Feats: Power Attack, Furious Focus, Cleave
Weapon: Falchion

So here's my math:
My falchion deals 2d4 damage. I'm wielding it in two hands, and my Str mod is +4, so I get +1.5 Str mod damage, for a total of 2d4+6. Power attack grants +2 +half for two-handed, for +3. This increases it to 2d4+6+3 = 2d4+9. I crit on an 18-20 for x2 damage. On a crit, I deal 4d4+18.

As you can see, 11-17 damage (22-34 damage on a crit) is quite high. My GM, though this is only his first campaign as a GM, also thinks this is quite high. Would someone mind looking at my math? And if this math is correct, how can my GM deal with such high damage output (since I can fell most opponents with one hit, at a +5 attack (BAB +1, Str +4, Power Attack -1, Furious Focus negates first Power Attack per round)?

I had never considered this. I read "borders" as the four lines of the square. Your point about the wording for flanking makes me question this definition. With no higher authority to give a ruling, and without a general consensus of the board, I would say no, the corner does not provide cover. If it DID provide cover, I would give the defender no more than +2 to AC, instead of the normal +4.

Several goods ideas here. Thanks everyone! I've never played with 2nd edition psionics, nor any of 2nd edition, so I can't really comment on that. In my world, psionics were developed as a way to give magical talent to the masses, so it will definitely be similar to magic, maybe even a third "branch" after arcane and divine.

As for making it different, I was looking for more of a fluff answer. I like the idea of glowing eyes or something subtle like that. I also like Quint's quote about how it seems anchored to the caster. Now that I think about it, any arcane caster will be able to notice psionics are not arcane, and divine casters will notice it's not divine.

Thanks for your help, everyone! I hope my post isn't too unreadable. I haven't found a browser for my phone than doesn't hate this site.

So I'm introducing psionics into my game soon, and I've been thinking about something. I'm not having psionics be an "it's always been there, but now you can use it" thing. I've got a way to introduce it, but I've got a problem. How do I make psionics feel totally new, like it is in my world? How can I let them know that this is not simple, ordinary magic (arcane or divine)? (Granted, in my world, psionics were developed as a magic substitute, but I still want it to feel different.)

For some reason, I hadn't thought of giving them Int checks. Good idea. I had originally planned to just have them figure it out, and use my GMPC to drop a hint if they got stumped. Thanks for the tip!

My group has been doing a lot of combat recently, so I thought I'd give them something a little different. I'm going to have them follow a series of clues and riddles to find their mentor. After they solve each clue and get to the location revealed, there well be a challenge waiting for them: first a bare knuckle brawl, then a logic puzzle, then a gauntlet of sorts. After they overcome the challenge, they'll get the next riddle/clue. Problem is I have no idea how to give out rewards for this kind of adventure. The brawl is easy enough, but what about the logic puzzle and the gauntlet, and the individual riddles? Any advice? (This is their first adventure after hitting 3rd level, if that matters.)

I sincerely apologize for the redundant posts. I didn't think the form had submitted when I went back to correct the post. If there's a way for me to delete my own thread, let me know. (Otherwise, I have also flagged the other threads as double posts.)

Please ignore the other posts and continue discussion here. (I will refrain from posting in the other two so they can get buried by newer threads more quickly.)

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Thanks, guys. This still sounds a bit tricky. If the mount takes the feat, the mount would get the bull-rush ability, no question. However, it would be impossible for the rider to benefit from Minotaur's Charge if the mount had the feat. Also, if the rider took the feat, it would not apply while he is riding because he is not the one charging. Is that right?

I have a cavalier in my party who is looking for feats for his horse. For the purposes of feats, who is actually doing the charging? Specifically, he asked me about Minotaur's Charge. Can his horse get this feat? Will it apply while the cavalier is performing a mounted charge?

bookrat wrote:

6) Not really a house rule, but "no math or physics" was periodically mentioned. Especially when we tried to use physics or math to show that an ability would work or something an enemy did wouldn't work.

This is really a pretty necessary rule. You think rules arguments are bad given the set of Pathfinder rules, arguments that devolve into looking up physics concepts on Wikipedia? NEVER. ENDING.

I agree. I (the GM) am a mathematics student, and my players consist of a biology student and two geology students. Needless to say, creating a believable world for them is a bit more difficult. "No, no. That country wouldn't be a desert. The easterly winds blowing over that ocean would carry precipitation to the region." I usually to fall back to the classic response: "Magic!"

Wood! A very small rock! A duck!
Sorry about that. This thread reminded me of the witch scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail , for some reason. But yes, I believe Chemlak is correct: You're looking for a CR 1/2. Chwck out the Bestiary's "creatures by CR" section in the back. Things that are close to CR 1/2, off the top of my head: goblin, kobold, rat (more than one), first level NPC.

On topic: I misunderstood the rules and treated squares occupied by friendly creatures as difficult terrain. That made the halfling in the back very unhappy in five-foot corridors.

Off topic: My second favorite RPG being discussed on a forum devoted to my favorite RPG? What a happy coincidence! If you by chance get an Internet game going, let me know.

I have an aasimar oracle and a half-elf ranger in my party, and as they just hit 3rd level, they threw several questions at me, the GM, that I couldn't answer right away. I thought I'd get your opinions before I made my final decisions. I've included my initial decision.

1.) The aasimar oracle favored class bonus states the following: "Add +1/2 to the oracle's level for the purpose of determining the effects of one revelation." Does the oracle have to have the revelation to apply this bonus, or could he choose a revelation he hasn't picked up yet? (Neither of his current revelations take into account his level, so it would be useful to take this only if he can apply it to a revelation he wants to get at a higher level.)
My initial decision: The oracle must have chosen the revelation, and have it in his list of revelations.

2.) The 'rock throwing' revelation for the stone mystery states an oracle can hurl rocks up to two size categories smaller than him (tiny), and that it does 2d4 + 1.5 Str mod damage. The keyword here is "up to:" If the oracle throws tiny rocks (which we assumed would be about the size of a bowling ball or slightly smaller), it would deal 2d4 + 1.5 Str mod damage, but what if he throws smaller rocks, like fist-sized rocks, or pebbles? It certainly doesn't make sense they would also deal 2d4 + 1.5 Str mod damage.
My initial decision: Diminutive rocks deal 1d4 + Str mod damage, and fine rocks deal 1d3 (no Str mod) damage.

3.) The archer ranger is looking at both the manyshot feat and the focused shot feat. Would they stack? I know one takes a full-attack action and the other takes a standard action, but manyshot specifically mentions "precision-based damage," and focused shot certainly sounds like precision-based damage.
My initial decision: I don't know about this one. I'm leaning toward no, they don't stack.

I've been struggling with exactly this! A brand new GM thanks you!

One of my players is playing a cavalier (beast rider), and the group will hit 3rd level after next session. It's difficult designing encounters for the group because of the cavalier's horse. I designed one adventure specifically for him (horse chase and outside combat afterward), and the rest of the adventures he's had to leave his horse. I get the feeling he's getting tired of not being able to use his horse, but I'm having trouble designing encounters in which he can take full advantage of his mount. He particularly likes the mounted charge with lance.

So my question is this: What can I (or he) do to make the game more fun for him?

Oh, the amount of retconning in my game is staggering, even when I try to keep it to a minimum. Being a first-time GM is tough.

Sure you can make all sorts of arguments about how "realistic" it is. And that will just get you the "but..... dragons" response.

Ha! I'm going to have to remember that one. And I totally agree. The GM's top priority, in my opinion, is to make sure the players are having fun. There are exceptions, of course (the player would surely find it fun to have a ring of infinite wishes at character creation), but actively squashing a player's desired course of action simply because you can't think of how it would work is something GMs should stay away from like the plague.

...the GM should work with him to make it happen, not work against them to make sure it doesn't.

Hmm, yes. Perhaps an unlucky wizard died in the dungeon, and his spellbook just happens to contain all the spells the multiclassing player wanted, within the rules for spells known.

I agree with Dragon up there. If I started telling my players how they could build their characters and how they couldn't, I wouldn't have players for much longer. However, Mathhew has a point. If you're without a spellbook in the middle of a dungeon and level up as a wizard, you still don't have a spellbook. To prevent this from happening, just do what I do: award XP after the adventure.

Majorly ninjad. This happens when you surf the forums on a phone. Anyway, Lazurin brought up a good point. While punishment has its place, it's much better to reward your players.

Aw, shucks. I had spent a good bit of time coming up with an idea for a new class that creates items, and I find there are already a dozen engineer classes. Back to the drawing board....

The method I've been using for a while has been this:
Roll six sets of 4d6, reroll 1s, drop lowest. Once this is complete, you may perform this series again, for another set of six. Pick which of the two sets of six numbers to use. You may not mix-and-match. If the sum of the six numbers is less than a certain value (I don't remember what it is, maybe 72), then you may discard that set of numbers and roll a new set.

This produces pretty high-stat characters, but my players enjoy it. For lower-power play, I use this:
Rolls six sets of 4d6, reroll 1s, drop lowest. Once this is complete, you may choose one number and reroll it (using 4d6, reroll 1s, drop lowest). Take the higher of the two rolls.

So far in my campaign, I've been using Bestiary monsters and NPC Codex baddies, but I feet its about time I learn to make my own adversaries. I plan for the next bad guy to be a fourth or fifth level elf druid. I can make a druid PC with no problem, but using a stat block in combat is so much easier than a character sheet. My question is this: Do you have any tips on writing up stat blocks? The last time I tried, I copied the sample archer NPC stat block from the book, changing abilities where appropriate for my own NPC, but it just didn't seem right. Any advice?

Nice answer, Dudemeister! And even if that is a non-answer, Kthulhu, you've given me a search term I can use ("dungeon ecology"). None of my searches got me any meaningful results because I didn't know what exactly to search for. Thanks, guys!

I'm new to adventure design, and this has always stumped me: how do I populate the dungeon i just made? What monsters are typically found in dungeons, and WHY are they found in dungeons? If a powerful wizard creates a dungeon to protect his research, he could summon or capture a varitable menagerie of magical beasts and outsiders. But what if the dungeon is no longer serving its original purpose (like if adventurers cleared it out decades ago)? What if the dungeon's creater is on a budget?

In short: What types of monsters are good to put in dungeons?

Hmm. That's a nice work-up, TGMaxMaxer. Thanks! I looked over the Advanced Race Guide's creation system (thanks to Paizo's PRD), and it was tough finding which attributes would work with my race. I tried assigning my own point value to the abilities, but that proved difficult. Yours does a pretty good job! I'll play around with it a bit more next time I have free time.

I haven't gone in-depth with the Advanced Race Guide's creation system. I remember Construct by itself costing more than a regular PC race, but I don't know what kind of negatives I could give it to balance it out. I'll have to look into it a little more next time I can get my hands on the book. I'll let you know what I find.

In my homebrew campaign setting, the large, technologically advanced city-state is going to war and decides to create an army of living constructs instead of sending its own citizens to fight. Eventually, I would like this race to become a player race, so I thought I'd go ahead and make it a player race now. I naturally decided to use warforged as a basis, but instead of converting it myself, I searched these forums.

Fellow Paizo message board user Anburaid posted his/her conversion of warforged a year and a half ago. (The post can be found here.) Since it was the last post before the thread died, I wasn't able to see what any one else thought of it. I liked it, and what you'll find below are a blend of my own ideas and a few of his/hers. I'm looking for critiques on balance. What are your opinions?

I talked to my players last night. After giving them all the options, they decided they'd like to hire a GMPC, at least until 7th level when they can pick up Leadership (they're 2nd level now). I asked what class so I could have it built next game, and they decided on bard, coincidentally enough. Bad news, I've never played a bard before. Good news, I've been wanting to for a while!

One of my players is unable to play in my campaign any more. He was a wizard in a group of an oracle, a cavalier, and a ranger. How should I proceed? Should I research how to run adventures for small parties, or should I introduced a GM-controlled PC? If the latter, what is the easiest class to play that won't step on the other PCs' toes?

More refined mounted combat rules would definitely be nice, especially since there's a class that specializes in it.

What's this about updated sneak rules? Is there somewhere I can find these?

The guys behind Hero Lab are making a campaign manager that sounds like it will do what you want. They have a Kickstarter going for it. I'd link you, but I'm typing this on my phone. A couple Google searches should uncover it, though.

EDIT: http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2pe8l?Realm-Works-Kickstarter-Launches-Transfor m

I assume by "PC" you mean "people with power/aptitude similar to your players' characters."

The way I look at my world, it's FILLED with PCs. Every king, every general, every maniacal wizard, (almost) every soldier is a PC. Well, PC-equivalent, anyway. A player could "jump into the shoes" of any of these people and play a riveting game. My players are not alone in the world. There are adventurers around them, killing dragons, stopping goblin armies, etc. The campaigns I run are just one story of one set of these adventurers. If my current party of PCs dies, the world will not crumble around them. The kings are leaders of nations. The generals are leaders of armies. They got to those positions by being skilled in those areas. Whether or not my PCs are there does not affect their functioning.

Sometimes they're in over their heads. A small nation has risen in the east, and the king was chosen not because he is an awesome force to be reckoned with; he's king because they had no one better. But he's about to be invaded by an evil wizard's army of demons. He stands no chance on his own, so he hires adventurers (PCs) to help him.

In short, my world would continue functioning just fine without PCs. That fledgeling nation will probably fall without PC intervention, but nations rise and fall all the time. Players should feel their actions affect the world around them, but they should be reminded they are not the end-all-be-all of the world.

I hope I interpreted your question correctly!

One of my players, a ranger, just picked up Craft (leather), so I'd like to get a good handle of the crafting mechanic. I understand all the steps (convert price to silver, multiply DC by result, etc.), but I still have a couple questions:

1.) How much time is taken out of a character's day by crafting? Suppose he wanted to do the by-day crafting instead of the by-week crafting (figure price in copper rather than silver). How many hours must he spend crafting for it to be considered a "day" of crafting? Eight hours? Sixteen hours? What else can a character do in a day and still get a "day" of crafting in? Could he spend the last hour or two of the day, after he's done adventuring and before he goes to sleep, working on the saddle for his new horse?

2.) The ranger wants to gather his own leather for crafting. I've ruled it would be a Survival check to skin an animal and a Profession (tanning) check to make the leather usable for crafting. (Should this be a Craft (leather) check instead?) Would the ranger be able to scavenge enough materials for crafting, thereby eliminating the "pay 1/3 the cost in raw materials" fee for crafting?

I doubt either of these answers are in the rules, so what are your opinions on the subjects?

I'm playing a Wizard in my friend's D&D 3.5 game, and I'm stumped. How should I be spending my gold? We started at 4th level (we're 5th now) and everyone except me has bought a ring of sustenance; I was saving up for a Heward's fortifying bedroll, though I'm rethinking that now. I bought some scrolls to scribe more spells into my spellbook, and that's really been my only significant purchase. So what else should I buy? I have 2,900 gp now. Should I get the bedroll (3,500 gp)? Save up for a headband of intellect +2 (4,000 gp)? Buy more scrolls (and writing materials) to beef up my spellbook?

Wow, this rhread really took off last night! Thanks for all the tips, everyone. For those curious, my player and character composition is as follows: Half-Elf Druid with a thylocene animal companion (player appears to be a 3.5 vet, but I'm not sure), an Elf Ranger with the beastmaster archetype (player is relatively new to this system), and a Half-Orc Witch (player is relatively new to the system). All three players are somewhat new to Pathfinder.

As for my decision: I've decided to let them keep their characters. If I see them steamrolling through the adventures, I'll consider adding more challenge somehow.

Thanks for the advice. I like the idea of an "apology point." Hopefully that'll appease them.

I'm going to be running Kingmaker soon. Two of my players have made characters using our standard "4d6, reroll 1s, drop lowest" method to generate ability scores. The GM reference thread, however, says that's too high. What do I do? Should I make them redo their characters using a 15-point buy? I don't think they'll like that. If not, how should I make the game more challenging? (I'm new to GMing.) Should I make the monsters have max HP? Include more monsters? How about the kingdom-building aspect. That relies on ability scores, right? I don't have much free time, which is why I'm running a published campaign in the first place.

Ah, sorry for the confusion. I was referring to Table 12-5: Treasure Vales Per Encounter. It lists an amount of treasure a group of PCs should receive, based on the average party level. The table says a group with an APL of 2 should receive 800 gp, if on a fast progrssion. Looking at the bandits' gear again, it doesn't look like nearly that much. I'd probably need to add some loot, or have another NPC give them a reward for taking them down, to even it out.

And NPC gear should be counted as treasured? That's what I thought, but I wanted to make sure. Thanks for the help!

I'm an amateur GM and I needed some enemies fast, so I went to Paizo's PRD and checked out the NPC Gallery for some bandits. Each NPC has gear listed. Does that gear count as the treasure the PCs should receive when defeating an enemy? Is it enough treasure, according to the table for treasures in the Core Rulebook, or should I add more treasure?

Thanks, Ciaran. I was hesitant about giving this class spells, since creating a spell balanced spell list seems like a daunting task, but I may look into it.

Perhaps it could work like this:
Make a dragon form like the barbarian's rage, as you suggest, but take out the +4 Strength and +4 Constitution. I would give the class access to "dragon form powers" (like rage powers). To balance taking out the +4 STR and CON, the character can stay in the dragon form for a longer amount of time. Would 1 minute/level, once per day work?

This is very similar to how the original class worked, but the character received +6 STR and CON, and the duration was equal to a barbarian's rage. That was why I didn't like the class, I think. I wanted the dragon form to be weaker but available for longer. I don't know why I hadn't thought of this earlier.

Thom, higher claw damage is a good idea. And Chaos, that's a neat idea about a pool. Do you mean like a magus's arcane pool?

And Paul, I'll suggest that to my friend. Hopefully he'll find it agreeable. That would be much easier than creating a new class. (But I am having fun doing it.)