Jacob Von Semaphore the Third's page

Per John's request, I'm starting a new thread to discuss Emergency Force Sphere.

Serisan wrote:

I strongly dislike that EFS can completely allow you to ignore your deficiencies. I'd love to see an enemy use it once or twice, as well.

Perhaps it's a conversation to take to a different thread.

(In regards to enemies using EFS)
Unfortunately, the action economy is far in favor of the PCs on that front—even were we to reprint the spell in a sidebar (it's in a softcover book, after all). The creature is then inside the sphere until it teleports out (usually a standard action) or dismisses the spell (a standard action). At that point, the enemy's no longer benefiting from the spell, and the PCs are wont to grind the villain into lunchmeat. If a PC uses the spell, it negates the major enemy's entire turn, still leaving the PC's 3–5 allies to continue the assault.

I've found PCs often get around this limitation further by using the conjuration the conjuration (teleportation) subschool's shift ability to pop out as a swift action, though that still has to wait a round thanks to not having a swift action the round after using an immediate action. Nonetheless, it further enhances the spell's effectiveness. Thanks to Occult Adventures, we now have several more immediate action defense benchmarks against which to compare emergency force sphere, and nothing can scale so effectively as a sphere that few enemies in the Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild can overcome.

I personally agree with John's statements, Emergency Force Sphere is one of the rare abilities which is easily abusable by the PCs, but provides little to no benefit to NPCs. It allows Wizards, Sorcerers, and Arcanists a "get out of jail free card" which allows them to completely ignore any defensive weakness they may have. Under ideal conditions, where it requires a standard to dismiss or another 4th level spell to escape, the spell is powerful, but not gamebreaking. However, when combined with the free/move action teleportation abilities that John mentioned, the downsides become negligible, while the upsides remain as strong as ever.

For these reasons, I would like to propose the removal of Emergency Force Sphere from the Additional Resources list.

Hey,
this isn't completely a PFS question, but since I was thinking of using this in PFS, I'd like a definitive ruling.

The Holy Tactician archetype for paladin gains the following ability:

Battlefield Presence (Su): At 3rd level, a tactician can direct her allies in battle, granting each ally within 30 feet one teamwork feat she possesses as a bonus feat as a standard action. All allies must receive the same feat, but do not need to meet the prerequisites of this bonus feat. This ability does not function if the paladin is flat-footed or unconscious. Allies must be able to see and hear the holy tactician in order to gain this benefit. Changing the bonus feat granted is a swift action.

As written, it appears that the ability has:

1. No listed duration. All allies gain the feat basically forever, it just has no effect while the paladin is ff, unconscious, out of sight, out of hearing. Is this correct? If the paladin uses the ability, say during the mission briefing, do all the PCs retain the feat until the end of the adventure?

2. No "overwriting." The paladin can use this ability multiple times, granting a new feat each time, and the effects stack. There is nothing which says gaining a new feat replaces the old one, and nothing which limits the amount of times an ally can benefit from this feat.

If my interpretation is incorrect, please link the relevant FAQ or forum post which corrects the ability.

Thanks,
Disk

I'm just curious, where the Hao Jin Tapestry ended up following the conquest of Jormurdun?

Was it taken back to the Lodge, and stored in the vaults?
Was it set up in Jormurdun to provide easy access to the Sky Citadel?
Is it somewhere else?

If an even-leveled Summoner is able to increase their effective caster level (say through the effects of an Orange Prism Ioun stone), are they able to use the next level of their Summon Monster SLA?

i.e. a 2nd level summoner can cast summon monster 1, would the increase in CL allow them to cast summon monster 2?

Just unlocked the Wayang race by GMing at a local con, now what?

What class(es) benefit the most from a small creature with a boost to Int, and Dex?