Jen the GM's page

The door of the tavern swings inwards, allowing precious rays of light to dance in the otherwise windowless room. The pleasant light is followed by the protruding chest and wide-brimmed hat of a portly man by the name of Mr. Samuel. Aside from his rooster-like strut and confident swagger, the only other distinguishing mark is his collection of tattered clothes that seem too tidy and clean to have been ever worn before. He steps out of the doorway and removes his hat to greet the bartender, revealing a bald spot hidden in his ruffled brown hair.

The door swings closed and the festive atmosphere returns. The drunkards, momentarily distracted by the outside world, return to drowning their sorrows or what-have-you in liters of concentrated alcohols. The sounds of festivity: the clinking of glasses, the rattling of dice on the wooden tables, the hearty chuckles of dwarven miners,

Mr. Samuel steps up to the bar, orders a beer, and only then begins to look for the new recruits.

This thread is open so that the players can meet each other, even if your characters haven't met. I will open up the gameplay thread shortly. The official overarching plot starts on the 10th of November, so it should give us some ample time for introductions to get going.

Do prestige classes that boost spellcasting count as spellcasting classes?

My children, we've lost the faith of the ruling party, and that is a very dangerous thing. Without their support nor the support of the lowly classes, we cannot rely on our resources to save ourselves. Gather your best followers; we cannot fail in this mission.

Adventure Background
This will be a PbP adventure set in the city of Magnimar, part of a multi-GM and multi-faction extravaganza known as the Loom of Fate. I'll be DMing for a group of the House Caedmon's trusted yet obscure followers, who may not even know that they are in the house's employ.

Application
1. Give a general description of your crunch. You don't need to build it right away, but it would be nice for you to give me a brief summary so I can balance the party

2. The biggest thing that I'm looking for is roleplaying. You can show this in your background, and I wouldn't mind if you even roleplayed a bit on this thread with the other applicants if you prefer to show that way.

3. In your background, explain how you got to Magnimar and who you worked for before you are recruited by House Caedmon. The game starts with your employer handing you a letter from the House itself. Perhaps your employer is the local temple and they've chosen you as a dutiful acolyte, or perhaps you saved the life of someone one day and they've come back to thank you. You can really go anywhere with this, and I look forward to your creativity!

Character Creation
1. Level One
2. 20-point buy
3. All alignments are accepted, with the caveat that they need to be able to work together. Keep in mind that you will have been recruited by some contact of the House Caedmon for the mission, so you would not have been chosen if you were a murder-hobo.
4. Most Paizo-races accepted (not monstrous, you know what I'm talking about)
5. Emerging guns, all Paizo-classes and archetypes and accepted. I also accept the psionics rules from Dreamscarred Press, as they are very balanced.
6. Two traits. Drawback is allowed. Flavor tweaks are permitted.
7. Max Gold for your class
8. Max HP for first level, then half HD + 1 afterwards

Recruitment will be open until November 8th.

I noticed that the advanced firearm rules do not state that the firearms are not treated as touch attacks in regards to "abilities" like early firearms do. Now it seems to me that the intention of firearms is that they are affected by abilities such as DR, but is that also the case with advanced firearms?

Do you think that is the way it works in regards to a strict rules reading and would you allow that in your games? I am not sure that that is one of the advantages that were intentionally given to advanced firearms.

Simple question: Can you stealth against scrying? I assumed not, since scrying "observes" stealth, and therefore you cannot stealth, but I am not so sure anymore.

If you can stealth, are there any bonuses/penalties or is it the same as a regular opposed perception/stealth check?

Now I understand that you cannot stealth while attacking, but what about during a flyby attack. Assuming you have concealment, does this mean that you can fly somewhere, use a standard action in the middle, and then complete the move action (restealthing in the process)?

What are some ways to communicate over long distances, relatively cheaply? I was thinking a series of beacons, but that also comes with being unable to convey detailed messages.

So I've been recently interested in Vampires as of late (OOTS may or may not be a factor), and my character might have a chance sometime soon to become one.

So I'm not especially paranoid about the vampire weaknesses, but I would rather not get fried randomly while walking around. Do you guys have any suggestions on any items or such to pick up that fit well with a vampire thematically, or help with the sunlight vulnerability?

She's a level 7 witch, and has a good chunk of change to spend if needed. She's also a sentient cat, so grappling opponents that are not already down is probably not an option.

Two quick questions:

1. Does it take two spell slots for a witch to prepare a spell if that spell is from one of her opposition schools (from the wizard dip)?

2. Does the witch gain bonus wizard spell slots/ use bonded item to cast more spells of the same level as her witch spells, but from the wizard list? Like if the witch can cast up to level 5 witch spells, does the witch also get level 1, level 2, level 3, level 4, level 5 school slots from the wizard list?

I imagine the answers to those are related, but I don't see any text that limits the opposition/bonded item/spell slot to the wizard list, while I found some text in the cleric that does prohibit getting domain slots in the same way.

Hi guys, quick question about the disruptive spell feat. Maybe I am missing some text, but it says that

Targets affected by a disruptive spell must make concentration checks when using spells or spell-like abilities

.

Does this mean that if you cast a disruptive spell that has an effect even when they succeed on their original save (say, fireball), then they will still be affected by the disruptive aspect of the feat? That seems like it would be very useful.

Long time since I've been around here. Glad to be back, at least for a bit.

So a friend was talking to me about an interesting gunslinger build, and it seems to have promise, but I'm not sure about a few things that seemed a bit iffy. I usually play spellcasters so I've come to the great font of knowledge for your opinions.

Level 7 Build: Gunslinger 6/Alchemist (Firebomber) 1

1. Does the Fire Bombardier ability of the Fire Bomber Archetype for the alchemist give +int bonus damage to the dragon breath alchemical cartridge? The question mainly being, are alchemical cartridges a type of alchemical substance?

2. Is there any way to affect the misfire chance on using dragon breath cartridges?

3. Can you apply deadly aim and point blank shot to the damage dealt by the dragon breath alchemical cartridge (which does not use attack rolls, but rather allows a reflex save for half)?

4. Does the Gunslinger gun training ability provide bonus damage while using the dragon breath cartridges?

If you have answers to any of these questions, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Basically very simple. I believe it to be the case that a Sohei can flurry with his bow and use rapid shot + many shot. Is this a correct assumption?

I notice that Zen Archer specifically says it cannot flurry + rapid shot, but Sohei doesn't seem to have such a restriction. In addition, rapid shot is used "when making a full-attack action" and flurry is a full-attack action.

Are there any feats or resources that enable one to trip creatures larger than one size category? Currently I am playing a tiny character with a CMB that is well capable of tripping, but its size is preventing me from doing so.

Thanks

The winter patron for the witch grants Ice storm at level 6. Does that mean that it is cast as a level 3 spell or does it mean that you can't even use it until you level?

Both of these conditions cause the target to move at half speed. If they are both on at the same time, how fast can the target move?

These are supposed to be extremely easy to land, so I need to bring my boost up a bit more to make them extremely consistent (say, +8 or more).

My current is +6 (+4 from BAB, +2 from dexterity). There isn't really a way for me to rearrange my attributes for a higher dexterity. I only have 9000 gp to try and increase this further. Any suggestions?

Lots of the spells that Vengeance gives are fire descriptor spells, which is an issue, because winter witches cannot learn or cast spells with the fire descriptor. Does this mean that they get no benefit from the spells with fire descriptors on the patron?

And related question, does that mean that a witch cannot get a cold descriptor scorching ray, since the main spell is copied before metamagic can be applied?

I'm trying to build a winter witch and I need one of the bloodline arcanas (changing energy types to [cold] without using a metamagic), and I was wondering if there was a way for me to get that bloodline arcana (it's from Marid) without losing witch casting levels.

So I noticed that Winter Witches have a lot of nice things going with [cold] spells. Aside from rime spell though, are there good cold spells, feats, bloodline powers that work well with this?

I distinctly recall the requirement of having a caster level three times the bonus of a wondrous item in order to craft it. Is there something of this sort on the books and if so, where the relevant rules quote is?

Thanks

Am I correct in thinking that all of these can work together? Stunning fist gives you a chance to stun on every unarmed hit that round and Ki diversity makes all of the hits target touch attack?

Or does stunning fist only affect the first unarmed attack and therefore ki diversity only affects one?

Summoner has 8 strength and when fused with his Eidolon, 14 strength. Can the Summoner take power attack?

It says "you can spend a swift action to make a retaliatory unarmed strike attack against that opponent."

What kind of attack is this? Full attack, standard atttack, attack of oppertunity?

--

And second, semi-related question. Do natural attacks count as unarmed strikes and if not, does the feral combat training feat make them count as unarmed strikes?

I was thinking. Would a one level dip of Synthesiest and then straight monk contribute to the monk at all? The Synthesiest quadraped form combined with an eye for talent, ability score increase, and an ability boosting belt would give you 18+ Strength and 14 dexterity. In addition, pounce, allowing you to flurry of blows stuff and actually use your class feature.

Then you can focus your point buy on giving yourself reasonable physical to get access to feats (incase of ambush, persay) and a high (20+) wisdom. Solves the problem of MAD? Also, take some natural attacks as an Eidolon (Grab a set of claws) so that you get extra attacks that are boosted by an amulet of mighty fists, since you're getting that anyways.

This would boost the chance of a crit as well, since you'd be getting:

+1/2/3 attacks from flurry, +1 attack from TWF, +3 from natural attacks, and then whatever iteratives that you happen to have.

I think that unarmed attacks are natural attacks or vice versa, so maybe use improved natural attack (not sure if this works in Pathfinder) or natural attacks count as unarmed strikes and get full strength bonus (since monks get full strength bonus on all attacks made unarmed).

Also, I was thinking of going Qinggong-Hungry Ghost Archetypes. Any Ki powers that are especially good?

How far can something fall in a round? Like say I shoot a griffon and it is temporarily stunned. Can I expect it to fall to the ground and get injured?

Is there something explicit that says something or are we just left with using common sense or calculus to figure it out?

A tanglefoot bag is a small sack filled with tar, resin, and other sticky substances. When you throw a tanglefoot bag at a creature (as a ranged touch attack with a range increment of 10 feet), the bag comes apart and goo bursts out, entangling the target and then becoming tough and resilient upon exposure to air. An entangled creature takes a –2 penalty on attack rolls and a –4 penalty to Dexterity and must make a DC 15 Reflex save or be glued to the floor, unable to move. Even on a successful save, it can move only at half speed. Huge or larger creatures are unaffected by a tanglefoot bag. A flying creature is not stuck to the floor, but it must make a DC 15 Reflex save or be unable to fly (assuming it uses its wings to fly) and fall to the ground. A tanglefoot bag does not function underwater.

A creature that is glued to the floor (or unable to fly) can break free by making a DC 17 Strength check or by dealing 15 points of damage to the goo with a slashing weapon. A creature trying to scrape goo off itself, or another creature assisting, does not need to make an attack roll; hitting the goo is automatic, after which the creature that hit makes a damage roll to see how much of the goo was scraped off. Once free, the creature can move (including flying) at half speed. If the entangled creature attempts to cast a spell, it must make concentration check with a DC of 15 + the spell's level or be unable to cast the spell. The goo becomes brittle and fragile after 2d4 rounds, cracking apart and losing its effectiveness. An application of universal solvent to a stuck creature dissolves the alchemical goo immediately.

-----

Am I correct in thinking that even if the opponent makes their save, if they are struck, they take -2 to attack and -4 to dexterity? Similarly, this penalty lasts until the goo cracks apart, regardless if they use a weapon to scrape the goo off so that they can move again?

Similarly, can multiple tanglefoot bags stack? I remember the line that bonuses of the same type do not stack, but penalties do. So could say a mob of level 1 commoners throw them at a dragon to make it paralyzed?

So any questions and such can be asked here. Also, to help remember recurring characters, I will ask everyone their impressions of a character and what comes to mind when they think about them, so I will just write a few notes and put them in the campaign info to help people (and myself) remember them.

The travellers walked, staggered along the thin, paved road. It was one of many roads that led to Winchester, where the King was holding his royal court. It was certainly a strange choice of road, for there were many others that led in the same direction that were larger and well-traveled, but bandits were not the concern today.

The conflict between the "Righteous King" and his usurper has simmered for quite a while, and the end is not in sight. Most tried to avoid the larger roads when possible, because they were the logical choice for transporting large armies. This was simply such a winding and thin road that no military leader in their right mind would move soldiers this way.

And of course, there was fear of the witches. Rumors abounded that they had nearly overtaken Scotland with their black magic and now, they were filtering over the border into green and pleasant England. Most sightings occured in a fairly predictable way. First, the wind begins to howl and the clouds move in, pouring water and firing thunder. And then a fog rolls in, and any survivors have already found shelter indoors by this point.

Then the rain begins fall and the wind begins to howl. Thunder and lightning seem to rend open the sky itself. On the road behind the travellers, a fog seems to be rolling in. Up ahead, they see the house of a Verderer, one of the king's forest wardens in charge of communal hunting grounds. The travellers rush ahead towards it, not wanting to find out what happens to the people that are still outdoors when the fog begins to roll in.

The travellers are you! Run! The witches might be behind you!

The pitter patter of footsteps on paved roads soon turns into the sound of the mud trying to suck off the shoes of weary travellers. They were staggered along one of the long and winding dirt roads through the highlands that led to the castle at Edinburgh, the seat of royal power and strength in Scotland. Of course, now it was a symbol of royal ineptitude and weakness.

There were many other roads that led in the same direction, but mysteriously, they have been knocked out one by one. Some have been buried by avalanches, others washed away by flash flooding, and the primarily paved road...well, no one dared to go on that anymore, after witches had been supposedly sighted prowling the forests nearby. Most sightings occured in a fairly predictable way. First, the wind begins to howl and the clouds move in, pouring water and firing thunder. And then a fog rolls in, and any survivors have already found shelter indoors by this point.

Except, now it is happening to the group of weary travellers. They spot a small monastery up ahead, clearly the home to Benedictine monks by the architecture of the place. The travellers rush towards it, not wanting to find out what happens to the people that are still outdoors when the fog begins to roll in.

Travellers are you, go! By the way, if it's not clear, you make it to the monastery. I look forward to your fear.

Okay, here's the discussion topic. I posted something on the recruitment thread, so please drop in and give some ideas!

"Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather the multitudinous seas incarnadine, making the green one red."-Macbeth

So I've thought about this for a month, and I've decided to run a PbP. At first I planned an adventure path, but I read through a few and they had too much railroading for my taste, so this is my very own. The setting is based on medieval Scotland + England following the events of Shakespeare's Macbeth, except with a lot more fantasy. As such, all classes and such are allowed (although might want to be careful if you want to play as a witch).

I'm looking for 4-6 players that are able to post at least once a day. However, I enjoy having an interactive enviroment, so I will be posting frequently to respond to your actions, but important plot events and party decisions will get at least a day so that everyone has a chance to post. You can always chat up with one of the NPCs to search for information or snoop around for clues, but if you're going to try and assualt the king or something, that'll probably require a discussion.

I am a first time PbP GM, but I've GMed with tabletop for a while and have played in PbP before, so suggestions and criticisms welcome. As for your characters, they need an important motivation for why they are going to see the king, as that is how they are going to meet. The death of a king is always a scary event for all that were once ruled by him, because of the uncertainty. Perhaps you are a peasant chosen by your village to ask the king to give them rights to hold a market, or you are a spellcaster going to offer your services, or anything plausible. The only restriction is that the highest social status that you can start with is country gentry.

Sources:
-All Paizo Sourcebooks (if you can show me a reference online, as I don't necessarily own all of them)

-Dreamscarred Press Psionics (Both books)

Character Creation Guidelines:
-Level 1 (I would start higher, but some things are trivial at higher levels)
-25 Point Buy
-Human-like races (For the sake of this game, everything will look more human. Half Orc's teeth won't be so pronounced, they won't be so green, etc. Aside from Drow Noble and Svirfneblin, anything that can reasonably look like a human. So nothing like Mermaids or flying creatures)
-All Classes allowed from sources (Just keep in mind that danger of being a witch. If you prefer the mechanics of a Samurai but the flavor of a Cavalier, we can work with that.)
-Two Traits
-Max hitpoints on first level for both PCs, Animal Companions, and Summoners, Half + 1 for every level afterwards. This is to balance out the fact that some of the more powerful ones don't fit the setting and shouldn't be used (Rhino, Elephants, Apes, probably not a good idea)

Just remember the setting: dark, gloomy, depressed, everyone's suffering. Then you'll be fine.

Right now, I only need a general character outline and backstory, what race and class, and your motivation for going to see the king. Right now, I am thinking of running the game in Scotland, but if there is enough interest, I will run two groups, one in Scotland and one in England. Unlike other threads, I will not forcefully keep them at the same pace as each other, but if it is clear that both groups are racing to one place and one group is ahead in time, but the other group should get there first, I might add a few side-events to distract the faster group.

I'm not sure how long these recruitment things last, so I will probably leave this up for a few days or up to a week before I decide. In the meantime, I will ask questions to let me get to know your characters.

Can you still use these feats when you're in a real combat, as opposed to performing for a crowd? Like take mocking dance. It seems to be excellent, because it increases mobility and gives you another move action at the cost of a swift action.

However, it requires that you spend a swift action to make a performance check. Would it be allowed to spend a swift action to make a performance check to impress a non-existent crowd (or maybe the gods or some vermin that happens to be watching) to use the feat?

I was thinking about using the synergy of the Kensai dealing maximum damage, which grants a swift action check, to do something like:

Round 1: Charge at the enemy and use performance check to flee 30 ft
Round 2: Let the enemy charge, use the psionic feat sidestep charge to get off an AoO
Round 3: Full attack spell combat and then performance check to flee 30 ft

So I was wondering what the forumites would do if they were going to build Yoda in the fantasy setting. I was personally thinking magus or soulknife ontop of using a Blue or a Goblin.

And with that, what kind of things would you add to be thematically appropriate? How would you add insane jumping ability, using high dex effectively in combat, etc?

1. I was looking at the jump DCs, and it seems that it gives DCs for a long jump and a high jump. But are there any rules on doing both, like jumping high enough to go over an opponent and far enough to land on the other side (compared to on top of them)?

2. What kind of action does a jump take? Does it take a standard action or move action, or could it even be part of a move?

Thanks in advance for any input.

So it's my understanding that Rangers only get a small list of animal companion choices, especially compared to the druid.

1. Is there any way to obtain the animal companion choices of the druid as a ranger, aside from dipping druid?

2. From a balance perspective, do you think that it would be reasonable to allow the ranger access to the entire druidic list of animal companions? How much would this change its power level?

So I was recently looking at the witch archetypes when I saw the "beastbonded" archetype. It basically gives you the ability to have your familliar learn feats instead of you and at 8th level, to shapechange into something of your familliar's "type" (not sure if it's actually type, or thematic type, cat > big cat).

I am not an expert on this, so I was wondering if this could be used in any way to develop an infinite loop to give infinite feats or even the level of power that Pun-Pun has.

Related question: Is there already a Pun-Pun in Pathfinder?

So I think that with the requirements for knowledge, the earliest you can get into mystic theurge is level 4. I was wondering if this would work, since I am not exactly a rules lawyer and am just trying to find a way to have a mystic theurge keep up in a low-op game (that will be low level, hence why I want to kick it off with early-entry):

1. Take two levels of sorcerer and one of cleric
1. Find level one spell on both cleric and wizard list
2. Get the trait "Magical Lineage", applying to that spell
3. Heighten the spell to make it a level two spell
4. Magical Lineage makes it only take up a level 1 spot, which you have
5. Now you can haz ability to cast level 2 arcane and divine spells
6. Take Mystic Theurge
7. ???
8. Profit

If this doesn't work, are there any rules-legal shenanigans that could get me into mystic theurge by level 4? (Reason I chose Sorcerer is because with the Empyreal variation of celestial bloodline, its casting is wisdom, same as cleric, giving SAD.

So I am making a level 4 pouncing charger with access to two feats and roughly 1000 gp (though 4000 gp could be used if the option is important). It will gain feats as it levels up, and it is already pretty useful, so no rush.

What kind of feats, weapons, and items are good for a non-mounted charger? Since it doesn't even start with a proficiency, any weapon is allowed.

---

Also, during a charge, can both you and your mount attack?

Does shooting while stealthed (using sniping rules to immediately re-stealth after shooting) deny the enemy bonus to dexterity? Is it equivilant to shooting while invisible?

I've created a character that basically can't fail at stealthing (+46 at level 4), and I was curious if I could basically sit in my house and basically destroy an entire town square.

Does anyone know of some sort of equivilant or something like it in Pathfinder for these 3.5 items/feats. Even if it's not exact, suggestions would be appreciated:

Healing Belt - 6d8 healing once per day
Tomb Tainted Soul - Heal from negative energy

So last time I posted on the wrong board, so here's the question:

The core rulebook has the grab special attack under the base form, but the constrictor after advancement has special attacks being constrict. Does the constrictor snake keep its grab special attack after it advances?

It seems that it would make sense, but is it just implicit, or is there anything like an errata that clarifies this?

So I'm looking around for a crocodile or Constrictor Snake animal companion, and I'm looking at their attacks. It's strange, but their base form seems to have bite [d6+grab] or [d3+grab], but their advancement form only says bite[d8] and bite [d4].

Now I think the intent was that since they are also going up in size, their damage dice goes up accordingly. However, my GM really sticks to the rules and says, if it doesn't say explicitly, go with it.

Is there an errata or someone that knows how it actually is? Is there some sneaking line in the handbook that says that it actually keeps the grab?