Jabborwacky's page

1. Please limit the effects of intelligence on skill points: Does it really make narrative sense that a wizard with poor strength eventually outperforms the barbarian in terms of physical skill checks due to sheer number of skill points he has at higher levels, all the while still functioning as a completely competent mage? Because that happens.

2. To position oneself in combat or to disengage/runaway, base speeds cannot be lower than 25 feet (5 squares) and the average speed of normal humanoids cannot have more than a five foot difference. If it is common to encounter standard humanoid races whose base speed exceeds your character by 10 feet or more, compensating for the speed difference in order to run away takes the equivalent of two feats. That handicaps the character in terms of what classes he can viably play. Being limited to only four squares of movement makes flanking or positioning impractical, and tactical minded enemies can literally run circles around those characters.

While anecdotal, all my experienced players stopped playing halflings, dwarves, and gnomes after a few sessions due to combat literally slowing down or going south due to issues with movement speed. I've usually helped players by giving them boots of striding and springing if they're playing smaller races, but it really shouldn't be a requirement. Most of the enemies giving them issues with positioning and movement were just standard goblins and orcs. Think of it this way: If the encounter were against a group of goblin skirmishers who know they are fighting dwarves that are too slow to keep up with them, what are they more likely to do: engage the dwarves in melee or kite them while shooting?

I'm part of an adventuring team that wants to build a trade route going from Falcon's Hollow in northern Andoran to Druma, and I want to be able to suggest to our GM an adventure appropriate for characters of level 8-9 that involves mountainous terrain. Does anyone know of an adventure that would be appropriate for our level?

I have a character who is using a possession psychic power to animate a "dwarven battle wagon", for lack of a better term and wants to use it to run over zombies at top speed. According to the rules, it is a huge animated object, although the closest combat rules I can find are for overrun, which isn't really descriptive of what is going on in this case.
Are there any rules describing the damage caused by this kind of hit-and-run situation, or the crushing damage caused by getting run over by a tank?

Alright, so after reading the rules entries for undead and comparing it to constructs and plants, I want to make sure I'm interpreting the rules correctly.

The entry...
Immunity to all mind-affecting effects (charms, compulsions, morale effects, patterns, and phantasms).
... specifically defines mind-affecting effects as those that would explicitly influence the behavior of the target creature.

Mind Thrust has the exact same spell descriptor (Divination [mind-affecting]) as detect thoughts and, like detect thoughts, does not effect targets without an intelligence score. That would indicate intelligent undead are affected by mind thrust. Am I interpreting the entry correctly?

I am assuming detect thoughts works on undead given a previous thread on the 3.5 rules from 2005 involving a Dungeon Magazine 126 Waterdeep adventure.

The wording on the emotional component part of psychic spell leaves ambiguity where calm emotions spell is concerned. Whether it is considered harmful or helpful is entirely situational. The same calm emotions spell that stops party members from fleeing in terror is also the same calm emotions that negates the benefits of a rage spell. They also give the tranquility psychic both mantle of calm and calm emotions, which wouldn't make sense if they saw it as a spell that has negative benefits for the psychic (mantle of calm is clearly supposed to be benign).

Has there been a ruling on the effects calm emotions has on psychic spells or is it still left up for interpretation for now?

It's been a long while since i played a game of pathfinder, and I recently joined a group in serious need of additional players. The pathfinder group was initially very undermanned, causing the only two players to multiclass in some very bizarre ways to cover other niches. Both PCs are level 7, one being a rogue/fighter and the other being a cleric/wizard/sorcerer who for some reason likes to stand in melee range. They also have an NPC companion who is some kind of arcane caster lacking serious firepower.

From my first session, they seem to be lacking several things:
1. Pure casters: They lack access to higher level spells. Especially damaging ones.
2. They are fighting undead in very large packs (sometimes 50+ undead), some being incorporeal (shadows), with little way to hit the ghosty goos. Also need fireballs.
3. We've fought ghouls several times, but the party has little preparation against their stench.

They weren't always fighting undead, so I should assume that once this section of the adventure is concluded, our enemies will be more varied. I've begun creation of a level 6 arcanist to help alleviate some of the party's issues, while my brother is making a level 6 shaman.

Some of the questions I'm pondering at the moment are:

1. Would I be better serving the group's needs by playing a wizard as opposed to an arcanist? How important is scribe scroll if I have to cover for most of the group's arcane caster needs?

2. Since they need damaging area of effect spells, if I play a wizard, would focusing on evocation (admixture) as my arcane school be an optimal choice or are there better choices?

3. Of my starting 16,000 GP, how much of it should I dedicate to items for fighting the undead? Should I invest in a lesser metamagic rod of ectoplasmic spell to handle the ghosts or should I leave the undead fighting to the divine casters?

4. On the shaman's side of things, how much of his 16,000 GP should he invest in recovery items for poison, disease, and ability damage? If we're fighting shadows, is investing in a wand of lesser restoration worth it over other options? (Edit: The multiclass cleric shows little sign of having said recovery items).

I'd be grateful for any assistance or additional advice.

If possible, I'd like my Adventure Path Subscription Canceled.

I was wondering if anyone who has played the first adventure in the campaign could answer a question of mine. I am in the middle of redesigning my tiefling character into a rogue, and I wanted one of my two traits to grant a bonus on swim checks. My question is, which is better for Skull and Shackles? A +1 damage bonus on daggers (which I will be using a lot of) or a one point reduction on attack penalties underwater?

Is it possible to use the bluff skill to disguise spellcasting as something else entirely, like a rhyme (for vocal components) or playing with a cat's cradle (for somatic component)? If it is possible, would there be any penalties or bonuses associated with the check?

Is there anyone out there that is using MapTool to play S&S with an online group? How easy is it to transfer to PDF maps into MapTool, or is that not possible?

I've been trying to find game stats for cannabis and peyote, but I have been unable to find anything. I looked in the drugs section of Book of Vile Darkness, but cannabis and peyote aren't represented by the substances in the book (they just aren't those types of drugs). Anyone know of a d20 resource that has stats for cannabis and/or peyote?

On a side note, what should a bong cost?

So Grok is supposed to have all the PC's starting equipment. Has Grok actually looked at this equipment? If she has, does she know the difference between a spell book and other types of books?

The question relates to a type of encounter involving Grok and a wizard with the manipulator subschool. If the player were to combine some sort of brief physical contact while making a diplomacy check, this would allow him to use his beguiling touch, thus making her agree with his request regardless of the actual diplomacy results (in this case, returning the PCs equipment). If Grok did not know that he was a wizard, she wouldn't have any reason to believe that the decision was anything other than her own, regardless of the outcome of the diplomacy roll. On the other hand, if she suspects one of the PCs of being a mage, the player might need to roll a bluff check if he severely fumbles up on the diplomacy check.

The question came to me while I was thinking about character starting equipment, but what do people use to clean their teeth in a fantasy setting like Golarion? Do they have something like baking soda? Do elves have more refined dental care products than halflings? How does the king have such shiny white teeth? Do hags eat too much sugar?

Will this adventure path provide the opportunity for players to play as law abiding privateers and fight against pirates, or is it very narrowly focused on pirate characters only? I'm looking at the first adventure, and I don't see anything keeping the players from doing so as of yet (although they will require a bit more diplomacy to pull it off).

Will wizards lose their spellbooks while being taken on board the pirate ship? There doesn't seem to be anything in the player handout specifically talking about what will happen to a wizard's spell book when he is taken captive.

I've just come back to playing D&D/Pathfinder after many years of hiatus. Which would be easier to set up and prepare for? An Adventure Module or an Adventure Path? Is there much of a difference in difficulty? Just to clarify, I'm asking about a comparison of a typical module vs a single adventure from an adventure path.

I've been tinkering around with the play test and I wanted to make a comment that the elemental affinity racial is a bit wonky for lack of a better term. The problem is that elemental affinity is a racial that only applies to a particular race/class combination (in this case, sorcerers). The best use of this I've seen in currently existing races is the tiefling's fiendish blood, where it is used to allow a racial archetype to be a viable option. The ifrit race, on the other hand, is designed like a power gamers dream come true for sorcerers with its elemental affinity for fire and +2 charisma. Yet the ifrit race is markedly less attractive for any other class. The ifrit race would probably be better off with something similar to the pyromaniac racial that gives them a bonus on a wide range of things dealing with fire, as it would make more class/race options feel viable. Its my opinion that elemental affinity (and racials that are the same in everything but name) should only be used when a race is being made to do worse at a particular role/archetype than it should be, given the background and description of the race.

So I bought the bestiary 3 pdf the other day and flipped over to the catfolk. In their description, catfolk are hunter gatherers, which would seem to indicate they are closer to nature than other races, yet they possess a -2 penalty to wisdom. The situation with catfolk and druids/nature clerics is then rather similar to the situation with tieflings and sorcerers. Would it be unbalancing for them to have a racial trait like the tiefling's fiendish blood (but applied to clerics with the nature domain, druids, and rangers) or would it be better off as a character trait with a prerequisite of being a catfolk (thus using up a character trait and indicating the nature connection is more cultural than racial). So far it looks like strong arguments could be made to go in either direction, since there isn't a lot of information on the catfolk race outside the Bestiary 3 entry (although I'm bending more towards the character trait option at the moment). Anyone else have thoughts on the issue?

So I happened across a spell called Unnatural Lust and got to thinking about how I could use it in combat. At first I thought of giving enemies an unnatural lust for brick walls, but I'm pretty sure that would give them the +4 bonus to resist. Then I thought, why not make the target of their affection Ameiko? Making a bandit archer drop his stuff and run at full stride towards Ameiko is a great way of getting attacks of opportunity. However, I have to ask whether or not Ameiko would appreciate my unorthodox tactics. Would my use of Unnatural Lust constitute an act of Misogeny? If it does, is there any way to convince her that its a legitimate tactic, or is it best to cast the spell in secret and leave her wondering why every odd number bandit charges her haphazardly with the strangest look on their faces?

To put it simply, would giving enemies an Unnatural Lust for Ameiko in order to generate combat advantages constitute an act of Misogeny? This assumes I'm in a combat situation and do not have time to talk it over with Ameiko beforehand.

So I bought the beginner box and also the Jade Regeant from a local store, and I have also looked over the map for the Inner Sea region. The Jade Regent says it is in Varisia, but I'm having trouble pinning exactly where the town is on the Varisia map. Is it near Riddleport or is it further to the south?