Jengada's page

I have an 18th level half-orc barbarian, with four arms, beast-totem claws, Improved Grapple, Improved Savage Grapple, and Power Attack. It looks like the party is likely to encounter a pseudo-beholder (home brewed by the DM, 15' across and heavily armored) and I'm considering whether diving into its mouth is a viable strategy. While my barbarian would have the grappled condition, he would take no Dex penalties, get full attack bonuses, and full combat maneuver stats due to the Improved Savage Grapple.
He would get four 1d8 claw attacks, at +21 to hit and +20 damage each round. Meanwhile, he may take some bash damage, but I'm pretty sure he'd give much better than he got.

Thoughts, flaws, etc.?

I'm inclined to agree with Java Man, with one clarification. Vomit Swarm says the caster can control direction of movement, but does not say the caster has any other control. Changing direction or moving it in subsequent rounds requires a standard action. RAW, there are no other control abilities, so the caster could not tell the swarm to do things like cover a creature's head, crawl into a container, spell out words, or anything else.
And while I'd like to have them pull a dirty trick (if it was my swarm) I'd have to agree with Tarantula, too.

If a character has control of a swarm of spiders, ants, or wasps (as in Vomit Swarm), is it possible to direct the swarm to blind a target, presumably by swarming over the face or eyes? Or is that beyond the level of control one normally has over a swarm? Could it be done as a called shot?

Actually it's not Jengada nothing in PWK would lead you to believe it sets a creatures con to 0. It kills it outright not through any other means.

I'm fine with that, I was making the point that PWK doesn't say it's HP damage, either. But that means PWK is in the realm of "Attack forms that don't deal hit point damage are not healed by regeneration."

The text of Power Word Kill does not say it does hit point damage, as others have noted. Therefore, RAW, this is an assumption. It is equally possible, but equally an assumption, that PWK drops Constitution to 0. This is a kill according to Ability damage RAW.
OK, you say, but regeneration is still functioning - that's true, again, RAW. However, regeneration does not heal ability damage AND "a creature must have a Constitution score to have the regeneration ability." So reducing a regenerating creature's Con to 0 kills it on two counts - cancels that regen, and any amount of regen would leave it at Con=0, anyway. Dead, and dead again.
So all else aside, knocking Con to 0 kills the creature. But does PWK do that? That's an assumption of equal magnitude to the assumption PWK does HP damage.

The basic question: do rage and stun interact in any special way?
The detailed specifics: Since a stunned character "can't take actions," presumably a stunned rager stays in rage and cannot use a free action to drop out.
I've checked both "rage" and "stun" descriptions, and the forums, and find nothing. I just want to check that I'm not missing something buried elsewhere in the rules.

Thanks!

It's an interesting coincidence that I've just been reading Piers Anthony's "Wielding a Red Sword," where the protagonist is a prince berserker. He berserks when he tastes blood, but can keep enough composure to break out of his rage when need be.

The ioun stones are exactly the kind of thing I was thinking of, thanks. And I agree, at the least the item should not grant any prerequisites, nor should it be countable as a prerequisite. Costing 5000 gp to make/10000 gp to buy on the market seems pretty reasonable, with those limitations.

I've looked for a rule on this, but found nothing. Are there rules for making a magic item that allows a particular feat? For example, a ring of Quick Draw or of Blind-Fight. Alternatively, does anyone have an example of such an item in the books? Obviously there are many feats that make no sense in an item, and prerequisites would make for a complicated item.

Thanks.

I just looked back at the core rules for a critical, because I was looking at Auspicious Mark (Barbarian rage power). It looks as if Auspicious Mark can't produce a critical threat when the weapon requires a natural 20. But could it produce a threat if the weapon has an increased threat range? (This boils down, in a sense, to whether there's an implicit "natural" in the increased threat range text "...That is, you can score a crit on a lower [natural] number.")

Quandary, there's a teleport pad network that our party has been discovering. You have to know the "code" for each one and then you can access it. So I should be able to step back on the pad, but you do raise the possibility that one of them could scramble the code and I'd go who-knows-where. Ah well, that's the GM's problem, I guess.

I have, in fact, gotten rid of uncanny dodge - I took brutal pugilist and raging drunk archetypes. Those have given me the bonuses on my CMBs and CMDs, as well as the ability to suck down potions as a move action. (I've got a bandolier of cure serious wounds potions).
I do have Spell Sunder, as well as Lesser Beast Totem. Spell Eater is coming later on my list of rage powers.
The hammer can split into two weapons, can inflict Touch of Idiocy, and returns to my hand.

Given all of your advice (thank you, this is awesome!) I'm thinking I'll hire a mage to come with me to the out-bound teleport pad. He can cast True Seeing, and any other buffs. I'm figuring the Countless Eyes could be a potion, and maybe an elixir of fire breath.
I'll have hammer, guisarme, and human bane mace in my hands, rage before I step through. Then assuming they're right there, I'll start with guisarme tripping one rogue, chains grappling the wizard, and hammer and mace attack on the other rogue.

As for what I know about these guys, the rogues work as a team and have been launching teleport in-and-out attacks on an ally. They work for the wizard. We last encountered the rogues in person when we, and they, were 8th level.

My suspicion is the rogues are probably 10th level, the wizard probably higher. I don't know that for certain.
The hammer only takes one hand (though I usually use it two-handed with Power Attack+Furious Focus). Any reason a Guisarme would be better than another pole arm?
My biggest fear with the rogues is the flanking or that they'll have Freedom of Movement, in which case I can't grapple them. Anyone grappled by my chains is Dimensionally Anchored, too.

I have a 13th level barbarian/1st level monk half-orc, and it looks like I'm going on a side adventure from the party, to take out 2 rogues and a wizard. I won't go into a long list of special abilities, rage powers, feats, etc. but I'm looking for tips on items or tactics that others would suggest. Here are a few details I think are pretty germane:
Rage powers include Superstition, Witch Hunter
Intimidate bonus is 22, more when raging, and I have the Dreadful Carnage feat
I'll be teleporting into their lair, and I know it'll set off an alarm and they have True Seeing around the portal.
The campaign is sort of a growing-into-gods story, and I have been afflicted (?) with 4 arms and an exoskeleton (Nat armor 4). I have an artifact hammer and a belt with chains on it, the chains are excellent for grappling (CMB 29) and get their own action slots.

That's sort of what I thought, but couldn't find it anywhere. And now, as you say, come the questions about things like Power Attack.

Can a creature like a Xill (4 arms) use their multiple attacks to do one bow shot, and then use the other arms for melee attacks, in the same round?

Great answers, and thanks for pointing out my sloppy terminology. Yes, I'm looking for spells that reduce abilities, whether as a drain or otherwise. Touch of Idiocy and Touch of Gracelessness are exactly the kind of thing I was after.

I'm trying to tally up a list of the spells that drain various abilities. So far I've only found:
Feeblemind affects INT and CHA.
Ray of Enfeeblement affects STR.
Polar Ray affects DEX

I've found no spells that drain CON or WIS. Does anyone know of any such spells, or other spells that drain any ability scores?

TWF with crossbows while carrying two tower shields to give yourself cover from two directions. (The tentacle can reload a crossbow, which can be fired one handed. This also works with firearms if you can get your reload time to a free action)

My GM is willing to let my 4-armed character do 2 bow attacks in a round, but as an archer myself, I felt that was too much. Using a bow or crossbow (or pistol) requires more than just the arms to wield it, it requires your vision to sight on the target. Accurately sighting on more than one target, or just with 2 bows, should have a hefty penalty. I think crossbows and guns would be easier, but still not as easy as using 4 daggers on multiple opponents standing adjacent to you.

I can relate to this question, since my half-orc barbarian was inflicted with a second set of arms by my GM. What we've ended up with is definitely home-brew, but you could run some of it by your GM.
* I get a +2 (Assist Other) on climb, grapple, swim, and some acrobatics when I use all four arms.
* I took the Multiweapon Fighting feat, so I now get one attack with each hand.
* I sometimes use a ranseur with two hands and scimitars with the others, that way I have both a reach attack and a close-in attack

I have a very different build for my half-orc barbarian, but one of the feats I use the most is Furious Focus. If you're carrying a great sword, seems a good fit for your character.

My bad - I meant ring of jumping, I keep calling it leaping. Must be because all of the barbarian rage powers that use "leap."
The backwards-compatible 3.5 explanation makes sense, though. I think the solution is to make them Rings of Acrobatics. Otherwise, you open the can of worms that ANY skill could be subdivided for the purpose of magic items. Then again, it makes the player choose which rings to use in their 2 ring slots.

So there'd be no point in buying a ring of leaping, if you can get a ring of acrobatics.

I was reading the rules for magic item creation, and I have an observation about the RoL. The cost for an item that gives +5 to a skill is supposed to be 1250 gp to make, 2500 gp to buy. (square the bonus, times 100).
The cost of a ring of climbing adheres to this, but a RoL is a restricted ring of acrobatics. A ring that gives a +5 to ALL acrobatic maneuvers should cost 1250/2500, but the RoL only applies to acrobatic leaping, yet costs the same.
Have any GMs reduced the cost, or broadened the power of a RoL to cover all acrobatics?

1. When in the target body, does the caster retain their ability to cast spells? (The description refers to keeping "your mental abilities" but is that sufficient to allow spells? And I'm not worried about material components, here.)

2. Could a Charmed individual serve as a willing target for Marionette Possession?

The GM has ruled that the new arms' claw attacks would be secondary, that's the only reason I would consider the Multiattack option. I definitely like the idea of the reach weapon, though, and will consider the Monk level option. But do alignment restrictions apply to taking one level, or just to a character's favored class? If the former, then a barbarian could never take any levels as a monk, or vice versa.

Your answer heads the direction I was most likely to go - MWC. It's immediately relevant, and useful in any combat whether I'm raging, enlarged, or anything. I'm still tempted by Improved Initiative, though. That, too, would be useful in any situation, even ranged combat before we close ranks.
Multiattack would only help when I'm raging and get my claw attacks. Combat reflexes would be useful in any combat, but the big payoff only comes when I'm enlarged.

So my GM mutated my 4th level half-orc barbarian, and I now have 4 arms and a thicker hide (+1 natural armor). I had my future feats, rage powers, etc. mapped out, but now I need to re-work them. The feats I'm considering right now are:
* Improved Initiative (already have +4 on init, would end up with a +8 on initiative rolls)
* Combat Reflexes (would get 2 attacks of opportunity, and the party wizard buffs me with enlarge, which means I have 10' reach)
* Multiweapon Combat (normally wield a magic war hammer, could pick almost anything for my other 3 weapons)
* Multiattack (I have Lesser Beast Totem, this would allow me 4 claw attacks per round, each 1d6+5 from STR - but only when raging)

I've got the Drunken Brute and Brutal Pugilist archetypes, the Improved Unarmed Strike and Power Attack feats, and I'm already good at grappling.

Suggestions? Other feats I'm missing?

OK, you've kind of talked me down from the adversarial stuff. We already have a party that tends to keep secrets, so while we don't have great cohesion in that sense, I admit punching or silencing won't improve things - though it would be in character. (It's also interesting, you made me realize that I've been thinking more like a DM than a player. Not surprising since I've DMed far more than I've been a player.)

I don't expect the casters will lean much towards a lot of buffing spells, partly for the above reason. For example, no one has even picked up the simple Enlarge spell to use. For that reason and just personal preference, I lean towards looking at what I can do with my character to make him viable on his own. If they get buffs, then that only helps things.

Given what you've all said, I'm leaning towards getting the Run Feat at 5th, then Beast Totem or Superstition (Rage Power) at 6th.

Woah, calm down there, guy! Hurting your allies for killing your enemies would NOT go over well with any party I've ever played in. That's definitely not the way to earn friends, and might result in all of your blaster buddies "accidentally" catching you in their spells in the same round.

Getting the beast totem line is a fine idea, though, especially as Pounce will really keep you competitive at 10th level and up. If survivability is less important to you than mobility, then switching to a chain shirt is also good. There's probably better ways of increasing your land speed than Fleet, though... Try to get your mitts on a Quick Runner's Shirt or Boots of Speed, or buy one of the casters a Pearl of Power so they'll cast Longstrider on you. Or carry around a potion or two of Expeditious Retreat. Or take the Run feat and just spend one turn hightailing it wherever the heck you want - not a lot of places you can't get at 5x speed.

Punching party members isn't my first choice, with a couple of exceptions.

The Run feat is good - I just re-read it, and hadn't noticed the fact it lets you keep your Dex modifier to AC when I read it last.

And before I punch the party, another option that occurred to me is a magic item that lets me cast silence on myself. Then party casters can't cast until I've got a 20' head start, and I have to ring for other situations, too.

This is a relatively new campaign, with a very experienced but new DM for our group. So far our encounters have included (most recently) the goblins, a group of constructs that nearly took everyone down, and a bunch of heavily buffed kobolds. I think there's a range of difficulties there, but those of you who referred to fighting more high-level enemies are right - I had to save some bacon in the construct battle. With the kobolds, I did wade through them and get my blood lust sated. (I mean, my character's blood lust…)

I suspect this will balance out a bit over time, but I'm still realizing that there are things I'd better do now if I want my character to be able to get his licks in when we all get to higher levels. Here are a few of my thoughts:

* I took the Drunken Brute archetype, which took away my fast movement. Maybe a mistake. I also have chain mail, which cuts my speed to 20. I've got Beast Totem, Lesser, and if I take Beast Totem now, I'll get a +2 Natural Armor bonus. With that, I can go to just chain shirt, have the same AC (when raging) that I have now, and also get back 10'/rnd of movement.

* Take the Fleet feat a couple of times

* The party has a ring of jumping, but the monk has it. In character, I could get angry about not getting enough kills, and say I want the ring. Since I haven't claimed any other party treasure yet, it wouldn't be like I was overly greedy.

* My character's background makes him extremely touchy about perceived disloyalty. (He's also pretty quick to perceive things that way.) Twice already, he's attacked party members (nonlethal) on this ground. Maybe he goes after the next mage to cast an area spell that cuts into his kill.

I've got a barbarian in a party that has 3 spell casters and a monk with some spell abilities (all 4th level). I'm pretty new to Pathfinder, last played 2nd Ed. D&D, so didn't realize how quickly the casters would take over the battles. I find my barbarian can't even close ranks before the casters have leveled half the enemy - last week it was 15 goblins, I got 1 hit in on 1.
My question is, what feats/skills/rage powers do you recommend taking in order to offset some of this imbalance, and get me into battle? Or tactics? The only think I've thought of is charging into the heart of the battle as fast as I can, where the casters can't use their area spells any more without taking me down, too. This seems less drastic than raging on my own casters when the barbarian is angry he didn't get enough slaughter.