Jeff Merola's page

I love this concept. Alignment restrictions are stupid. I'd hand-wave this in a New York second. Talk to your GM, he'll probably let you do it.

Again, this is for PFS. The GM's hands are tied and cannot simply waive a restriction because they feel like it.

Are there actually any animal companions which explicitly give reach, rather than relying on implicit body shape stuff?

As far as I can tell animal companions only mention reach in four cases. The Giant Frog and the Giant Chameleon both gain the ability to use their tongues to attempt a grab/pull at 15'. The giant caterpillar mentions reach only in that if you try to hit it with a non reach weapon bad things happen. And finally the Mokele-Mbembe from Bestiary 6 has a tail slap with 10' reach as a medium creature and 15' when it grows to large at 9th level.

There are no other mentions of reach in animal companion rules.

willuwontu wrote:

It's a valid choice.

Referencing the material the source is said to be from, in that book it is a specific monster, however that monster is based on a creature that's pre-existing with a line indicating the material it is from [Male two-headed troll (Tome of Horrors Revised 353)]. This indicated that the creature is from page 353 of Tomb of Horrors Revised (a 3.5 supplement). However, given that the only ToH Revised for 3.5 I know of doesn't mention troll and is only 36 pages long, I'm unsure of what they were actually referencing.

In anycase, the creature is not a template, nor a unique creature, and is therefore valid to take. However, I am unaware whether PFS restricts sources for wild shape and the like, and thus whether this is PFS legal.

Tome of horrors, not Tomb.

A third part product, so I don't think it is PFS legal.
Maybe if the player has Pathfinder 32: Rivers Run Red, where the stat block is published, but I doubt it as it is only a stat block, not a complete monster entry.

Only Bestiaries 1 through 6 are listed as legal sources for polymorph effects in PFS. The only things legal from Rivers Run Red are the spell tracking mark and the customized summon list.

My Summoner was tempted, but passed on the opportunity to our party's Brown-Fur Transmuter, who was significantly more interested in the power.

They also spent the prestige to buy a Pathfinder Lodge and decided it was in the Rasping Rift along with them.

As for the rest of the party the NG Cleric of Feronia wasn't particularly happy about it but wasn't gonna stop us, while the something Good Fighter had to be talked into not storming off (the player was fine with everything but needed some help coming up with why his character wouldn't just leave the mission at that point). The warpriest and zen archer mostly didn't care, and the Barbarian was also tempted but in the end settled for just the runoff blood, same as my Summoner.

Samasboy1 wrote:

A wyvern can be taken as a 10th level cohort with Leadership.

Question... how did you find out that the wyvern is a lvl 10 companion?

Ignoring the massive necro, Bestiary 1 has the rule you want. Appendix 6: Monster Cohorts.

Jeff Merola wrote:

So, you're slightly confused. The Medium doesn't get the bonus of Shared Seance, because that class feature only applies to their allies, not themselves. But they do get the seance boon anyway, because the Spirit class feature says they do.

And you may have forgotten the FAQ about allies.

Ally FAQ wrote:

Ally: Do you count as your own ally?

You count as your own ally unless otherwise stated or if doing so would make no sense or be impossible. Thus, "your allies" almost always means the same as "you and your allies."

Shared Seance wrote:

Shared Seance (Su): At 2nd level, a medium can share his channeled spirit’s aid with his allies. All allies who participate in the medium’s seance gain the channeled spirit’s seance boon for 24 hours.

Sub in "You and your allies" for "his allies" and "All allies" and you are back to my first comment about the issue being not stacking instead of whether it applies or not.

And you have forgotten the "if doing so would make no sense or be impossible" line in that FAQ. The ability is "Shared Seance" and is sharing a bonus you already get. Thus it falls to the "would make no sense" part to consider you your own ally for the purposes of this ability.

"At 5th level, a brawler’s unarmed strikes are treated as magic weapons for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction."

It wouldn't help against incorporeal as the ability specifies that it only counts as magic for overcoming DR.

So, this used to be the case but they changed it back in 2014. Here's the FAQ saying they can hit ghosts.

So, you're slightly confused. The Medium doesn't get the bonus of Shared Seance, because that class feature only applies to their allies, not themselves. But they do get the seance boon anyway, because the Spirit class feature says they do.

Derklord, yes, countenanced carbuncle was renamed Possessed Hand on D20PFSRD.

This isn't quite right. While they're mechanically identical, d20pfsrd didn't rename them. Countenanced Carbuncle is from The World of Vampire Hunter D while Possessed Hand is from Haunted Heroes Handbook.

Improved precise shot will negate the need for seeking.

This isn't quite accurate. Improved Precise Shot negates anything less than total cover or total concealment. Seeking negates any miss chance at all, including total concealment or non-concealment forms of miss chance.

Scrapper wrote:

maybe go as high as a +3 on bow, but save the real enhancement for Arrows, a +5 Arrow counts as magic/silver/holy/adamantine for bypassing damage reduction, while a +1 to +5 bow only makes arrows count as magic for bypassing damage reduction. Still investing in assorted arrow head types is a cheap alternative, a few cold iron, silver, ect..

Arrows can have elemental damage added or bane. Your mixed bag of tricks.

Eh, I find it easier to bypass material DR with weapon blanches. My fave is silver blanch on cold iron arrows, but having a quiver full of adamantine-blanched arrows is also a good idea.

It's also good idea to have some Durable Adamantine arrows to go along with the blanched ones, since the blanch doesn't help at all with hardness.

While procuring these may be difficult given the circumstances, see if you can get a hold of either of the following:
Bottled Sunlight. 200 GP alchemical splash weapon that makes natural sunlight for 1 round upon breaking.

Garlic Tablets. Four hours of requiring a DC 25 will save to be approached by a vampire.

First, Clustered Shots does nothing against Hardness. It only works against DR. Second, you add up all of the damage before DR for all of your shots, then apply DR to that total once.

Fuzzy-Wuzzy wrote:

Yes, they do. Note that it usually doesn't take much Fly to do the things you want to do with it, unless you're flying in a hurricane.

Or flying when bonked on the head or some other delicate part of the body. Or someone throwing up a nasty wind effec on you. or if you're flying through a threathened square. (other things can fly too!)

The first one is a DC 10 check, high winds were already mentioned, and the last one is acrobatics, not fly.

It's any time you multiply a roll, not just criticals.

The line you bolded refers to "the feats that a character of any class gets from advancing levels." not to your bonus feats.

Quotes on that, please? I haven't heard of any of them saying that rage cycling doesn't work or that it's being corrected. And it's not like the Barbarian class itself doesn't already grant the ability to rage cycle just by taking enough levels in it.

Jeff Merola wrote:

By that logic, James, being immune to fatigue makes barbarians unable to rage. It doesn't.

That true? Was under the impression the opposite was correct.

It's what Nefreet was referring to, and yes it works fine.

By that logic, James, being immune to fatigue makes barbarians unable to rage. It doesn't.

Charon's Little Helper wrote:

QuidEst wrote:

Charon's Little Helper wrote:

Arcaian wrote:

if they look up and down a specific wall as a move action (see Ravingdork's post) then they'll get their save to disbelieve it,

Since when is looking a move action?

Da Rules wrote:

Most Perception checks are reactive, made in response to observable stimulus. Intentionally searching for stimulus is a move action.

That's searching, not looking.

Rather different from a rules perspective.

You can't search an entire wall as a move action. Searching is a square at a time.

Searching was one square at a time in 3.5

The language restricting perception checks/searching to a single square was omitted in Pathfinder.

It was sorta added back in Ultimate Intrigue.

The Core Rulebook doesn’t specify what area a PC can actively search, but for a given Perception check it should be no larger than a 10-foot-by-10-foot area, and often a smaller space if that area is cluttered.

I'm pretty sure that a PFS Character is not allowed to have even 1 Intelligent Magic Item, let alone multiple ones.

Yeah, I'm confused. This doesn't sound like a PFS game (it kind of sounds like White Plume Mountain actually), why do you say this needs to be PFS legal?

There are several legal ways to get intelligent items from chronicle sheets in PFS (saying more would be spoilers). The OP wants to use all of them on one character.

David knott 242 wrote:

Wouldn't the absolute minimum hit point value equal the number of hit dice?

Imagine you've got a 10HD fighter who rolled a 1 on every level gain and has a Con score of 10. They have 19 hit points (10 from their first PC hit die, and 9 more from the additional rolls).

Now hit that PC with four points of Con damage. That reduces their modifier by 2, which means they lose 2 hit points per hit die, meaning 20 hit points.

That PC is now at -1 hit points. Max.

Incorrect.

Each roll of a Hit Die (though a penalty can never drop a result below 1—that is, a character always gains at least 1 hit point each time he advances in level).

Now, as far as I'm aware negative levels have no such wording, so you could end up with negative max hitpoints due to them.

Look, we're explicitly not allowed to add items to lists that can be expanded "at the GM's discretion." How is this any different?

Serisan wrote:

I would like it as a non-exhaustive list, but there's this sticky line in the campaign system write-up:

UC wrote:

The following are the many types of training available.

That statement is troubling.

Sounds non-exhausted to me. It doesn't say "only", "finite", or any other word that means "all encompassing".

So if I gave you a list of choices and told you "These are the options you have", you'd expect to be able to choose from something not on the list?

Muser wrote:

* Boy, I love Wands! +19 (never jam wands, always succeed at activating them)

A natural 1 always jams a wand for 24 hours. This one keeps coming up with people who UMD to use healing wands.

No, a natural 1 that results in a failure jams the wand. If you have a +19 or better you never risk that.

You can't wait to take a feat. You have to take it the level you get it.

Mind if I ask, is there magic item treasure in scenarios, I only ever hear the PFS chatter about items they buy, not find. Just curious. :-)

There is plenty of treasure, but to ensure a more uniform experience you don't get to keep any of it once the scenario is over. Instead you get money to buy stuff later.

It's a combination of A and B.

Each chronicle can be applied to the appropriate leveled character, applied to a character that isn't yet appropriately leveled and held for the right level, or reduced to a level 1 chronicle applied to a level 1 character with the gold changed to 1398 gp (699 gp for slow track) and with the boons delayed appropriately.

Regardless of what you and your players choose, if they choose that boon the downside won't kick in until they hit level 15 (or higher if they apply the sheet to a character already 16 or 17).

That would go against how the AR page is organized, though. If something isn't listed it's explicitly not allowed, so it would be odd to have an entry that was nothing but "Nothing from this book is allowed."

TheMonkeyFish wrote:

Aw... Betrayer isnt PFS legal? So not only cant I be the betrayer, but I also cant even be the arbetor?

Technically, it isn't they they specifically banned them, it's that the book they are in, Champions of Corruption, isn't mentioned at all in the additional resources. The assumption is that the lack of mention indicates that none of their rules are PFS legal. Though it could still be an oversight.

Not an oversight. When asked about it (around the time the book came out) they said they weren't planning on sanctioning anything from Champions of Corruption.

Drahliana Moonrunner wrote:

Murdock Mudeater wrote:

ChaosTicket wrote:

Steven Schopmeyer wrote:

This[/url] is the PFS Facebook group I use.

That group is hidden from me, so It may be the one or it might not.

That one isn't official? Sure looks like they are attempting to officialy represent. Just joined, I'll see if I also get requests for personal information.

I don't think there is an official Facebook page for PFS.

Right, and the lack of official one coupled with this one which doesn't say it's unofficial, makes this Facebook page certainly appear to represent paizo. I would strongly suggest a clearer distinction, either via paizo or this Facebook group.

It does say it's unofficial in the description, though:

This Facebook group uses trademarks and/or copyrights owned by Paizo Publishing, LLC, which are used under Paizo's Community Use Policy. We are expressly prohibited from charging you to use or access this content. This group is not published, endorsed, or specifically approved by Paizo Publishing. For more information about Paizo's Community Use Policy, please visit http://paizo.com/communityuse. For more information about Paizo Publishing and Paizo products, please visit http://paizo.com/

John Francis wrote:

There is now a "Welcome to Pathfinder!" boon which is intended to be handed out to new players (and can only be applied to their -1 character). It offers a choice between various forms of healing, etc.

Off topic a little bit but has this actually been released? I can't find the darn thing anywhere.

Last con I went to handed them out to the couple of new folks.

Stay inert. It specifically explodes when a save is failed and there's no save to be failed.

Black Tentacles doesn't allow a save, so Persistent Spell does nothing for it.

Captain Tally-Ho! wrote:

Perhaps GM stars could offer both a re-play and a re-run, with the re-run "stars" recharging each season.

you can theoretically do that now , but as the people with a lot of stars keep saying, once you get enough stars for it to matter the credit won't.

GM stars only give you a replay OR a rerun now, though.

At which point, the Dragon will either A. Teleport back into the Material Plane, or B. Starve/Suffocate to death because he can't eat/breathe anything in the Astral Plane.

Slight correction here: The astral plane has breathable air and as it's Timeless the dragon can't actually starve while on it (although it could retroactively starve once it leaves).

I mean... you don't know there will be no race retirements. Given the debacle with Aasimars and Tieflings, they may announce the retirement the day it goes into effect.

Personally, I'd like to see Tengu, Wayang, Kitsune, and Nagaji rotate back out, all of those races (particularly Kitsune) are rare enough that it doesn't make sense for them to be always available.

They were asked directly if they would be retiring races and they said no. Not saying anything is one thing, but outright lying would get a lot of people to quit due to lack of trust.

For an online game, this sort of thing relies completely on trust, so while I'd still allow passing along a re-roll, I'd limit it to one re-roll per player regardless of how many shirts/folios that player had purchased, otherwise it'd open the door to cheating too easily.

You're supposed to limit it to one per person anyway, per the Guide:

No player may receive more than one free reroll per session.

You mean Ring of Continuation? The change to Inner Fortitude wasn't in the FAQ.

Rebirth Psychics get COP as a 3rd level spell.

Is the Ettin language listed in a PFS legal sourcebook? If it is then it's PFS legal. If not then it isn't PFS legal.

The debate is whether or not what's listed in their Bestiary entry qualifies, as all languages in Bestiary 1 are legal to learn (except for Aboleth and Drow Sign Language).

Personally, I feel that you can't. Ettins don't have an actual, codified language to learn (as evidenced by the fact their entry explicitly says they don't have a language).

Jeff Merola wrote:

Yup. Elemental was a separate type in 3.5 (as was Giant). It's just one of the many copy+paste errors in Pathfinder now.

Giants were made into humanoids on purpose, and as for Elementals I have to check the book later but I think they are a type of outsider in 3.5 and PF.

Well, yes, they changed the types on purpose (3.5 really did have Elementals as a type separate from Outsiders). But because of that there are things like the the aforementioned list containing outsiders and elementals separately, because they just copied and pasted a lot of things without actually going back to check if other changes they'd made had affected them.

Starbuck_II wrote:

wraithstrike wrote:

Reincarnate doesnt work because with outsiders the body and soul are one unit.

The spell doesn't say that. but it does say: Constructs, elementals, outsiders, and undead creatures can't be reincarnated.

Are there non-outsider elementals? Because I thought they all were. Why repeat that?

Wasn't elemental a separate type from outsider in 3.5 or 3.0?

Yup. Elemental was a separate type in 3.5 (as was Giant). It's just one of the many copy+paste errors in Pathfinder now.

This isn't the same modifier twice (which I'm not sure applies to penalties anyway). This is more like adding an enhancement bonus to strength and an enhancement bonus to your weapon. The net result in that case would be both improving your chance to hit with a melee attack (assuming you're not finessable) even though both are enhancement bonuses, because they're adding to different things.

A separatist cleric's second domain's DCs are 2 lower than their normal domain's.

Additional Resources.

1. Nowhere in the Earth Elemental entry on the Official Paizo PRD does it specifically state that Earth Elementals are immune to stuning. It does state that they have general Elemental traits, but those traits are listed on an entirely different page.

Incorrect. It states it right here:

Immune elemental traits

That's just a space saving measure, because otherwise every elemental would have that entire block repeated and there are a lot of elementals.

Unfortunately the diplomacy one probably won't help against a blaster mage either, because the spell failure only applies if they don't include you as a target or within the area. So fireballing you and everyone around you still works fine.

1) I wouldn't consider it ridiculously broken (at least not after the change that you noted happened), but it's pretty much guaranteed to work if you've at all put effort into your Diplomacy or Intimidate.

2) I'd personally consider certain provocations to trigger that clause, but not others. The big guy who cut a mook in half in one go? Danger. The scrawny guy with a dagger who can't hit the broad side of a barn? Probably no danger.

3) If they're immune to fear effects but not mind affecting in general it's probably worth it (this FAQ states that ALL uses of the Intimidate skill are fear effects, not just the ones listed in the core book. Expect some table variation on that one.), otherwise no, the Intimidate one is probably always better.

TriOmegaZero wrote:

A merciful weapon is a weapon that deals nonlethal damage while the enchantment is active. Jeff and Chess have it right. Sneak Attack works.

All Merciful says it does is remove the -4. According to Bludgoner that is not enough to allow Sneak Attack.

What? That's not what merciful says at all:

A merciful weapon deals an extra 1d6 points of damage, but all damage it deals is nonlethal damage. On command, the weapon suppresses this ability until told to resume it (allowing it to deal lethal damage, but without any bonus damage from this ability).

Merciful just flat out makes the weapon nonlethal (unless you suppress the ability), it doesn't merely remove the penalty for using a lethal weapon nonlethally.

Bludgeoner has a specific callout because it doesn't make the weapon nonlethal, it just removes the penalty for using it nonlethally. Merciful actually makes the weapon nonlethal so it doesn't need the callout to be used for sneak attacking nonlethally.