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What is the minimum caster level that the scroll can be made into? Is it level 5, the minimum caster level that the creator of the scroll could cast it?
I put it on a google document in order to make it easier to edit so that people can see original post. The idea stemmed from me wanting an archetype that works with vital strike, and this is what I came up with in regards to replacing spell combat, which does not in any way work with vital strike. Thoughts?
I've stumbled upon something that might make a gm cry, but I decided I want to make sure before I go around touting it, or even if it's actually all that strong. Tengu Bloodrager
With 20 point buy, I can do:
With bloodrage on that amounts to 20 strength, which means +5 to-hit and damage on all your attacks.
Not too shabby, eh?
Basically, I'm working out a build for a psychic bloodline sorcerer, and I came up to the point where I was deciding what, if anything, to wear for armor. The thing is, a mithral chain shirt has an AC of 4, a maximum dex bonus of 6, an arcane spell failure of 10%, and no armor check penalty. Being a psychic caster, I can ignore the arcane spell failure. I won't have 22 dex anytime soon since I'm focusing mainly charisma, and as far as I can tell the only penalty for non-proficiency in armor is that the armor check penalty is extended to all attack rolls and all skills that require movement, rather than just the usual ACP skills. So basically, it seems that there is literally no downside so wearing a mithral chain shirt for this character (or, in fact, any non-arcane caster) even if they do not have proficiency. Am I reading into this right? Anything I missed?
link! Just make a copy of it for your own use, because I don't want internet people breaking this copy in case other internet people who come after end up needing it. Basically, I wanted to figure out what kind of DPR I was doing as a magus, but I ended up being unable to figure out where to put my spellstrike damage. The difficulty is that the dpr is heavily affected if I put the spellstrike damage on one attack, because missing that attack would have the calculator return that the spell does no damage, when in reality the spell can end up doing damage if the next attack hits. So basically, you can calculate all your iteratives separately, then the sheet will calculate the chance of at least one attack hitting, and then multiply that percentage against your spell damage for how much extra DPR your spell does. key:
Green cells are freely editable
And that's about everything. Anyone see any mistakes?
I've been looking into it, and there's some interesting build path options. For example, one thing I've been tinkering with is a catfolk with any familiar with claws, or even taking the "evolved familiar: Claws" feat and tacking claws onto any familiar you want. I'm partial towards fox because it can get its strength bonus so much higher with the mauler archetype. The build is pretty feat heavy, though: Evolved familiar: Claws
is what you end up with at level 10, but the build doesn't kick in until level 7 when you pick up dragon ferocity and begin applying more strength to all your claw attacks. The advantage of this build is that every one of these feats are combat feats, and thus get passed on to your familiar. Additional advantage is that later taking weapon specialization and similar feats also similarly improve your familiar's damage. Another option I thought of is the use of teamwork feats. In this way, any combat teamwork feat you pick up, you also grant to the familiar. So if you pick up, say, coordinated charge, you suddenly get into a situation where you can have your familiar charge an opponent, which grants you an immediate action(swift) to charge your opponent, and now you're next to that opponent and still have a standard and move action to take your full attack. Improved pounce, anyone? Plus, teamwork feats route includes the ability to use "precise strikes" for extra 1d6 to every attack that hits while you're flanking. The current problem I'm having, though, is that the claws build doesn't come online until level 7, so I'm leaning towards going the teamwork feats route. If I go that route, it'll free up a lot of feat slots. So what other options do I have, should I decide to go that route?
Actual FAQ question:
This question came up recently, and I immediately hopped on it with my own answer. However, there was doubt expressed in the thread itself and I decided to do a little digging about it myself. What I found was that it's come up many times on these threads in the past. Sacred Weapon + Bashing Shield Sacred Weapon + Impact Weapon (again) Sacred Weapon + Size Increases And all this was found with a simple search of these forums. In addition, google yielded similar results, where several reddit threads had the same question with varying opinions of the result. Basically, there's two schools of thought. One side focuses on the text in sacred weapon that says: The damage for Medium warpriests is listed on Table 1–14; see the table below for Small and Large warpriests. Seems to suggest that sacred weapon damage is entirely dependent of the weapon and any of its properties, simply is an alternate set of dice that you can choose to use. In this case, a weapon first increases its own damage with the effective size increase, then the sacred weapon dice are presented as an alternative that the warpriest can use. The other school of thought focuses in the text as follows: Whenever the warpriest hits with his sacred weapon, the weapon damage is based on his level and not the weapon type. This seems to mean that the sacred weapon feature replaces the base weapon damage, and the later clause that allows the warpriest to use the weapon's regular base damage is so that a level 1 warpriest wouldn't be punished for using a longsword. If the base dice are replaced, then an effective size bonus to the weapon would further increase it. The only similar ability I can think of is the monk's unarmed strikes, which contains the same language: The unarmed damage values listed on Table: Monk are for Medium monks. A Small monk deals less damage than the amount given there with his unarmed attacks, while a Large monk deals more damage; see Table: Small or Large Monk Unarmed Damage. This seems to have never come up for the monk before, because the monk's unarmed strikes are extensions of himself, but the warpriest's sacred weapon affects weapons that are not part of himself. In addition, any effect I've found that grants effective size increases to unarmed strikes use "as if he were" rather than "as if the weapon were". So is the warpriest's wording a relic of the monk's unarmed strike progression? Is it supposed to limit the size stacking options? I reiterate the original FAQ question and invite discussion as well as a tap of that FAQ request button. What does everyone think?
I just wanted to throw out the bare bones of the idea before I go to bed, just to run it by you guys for anything to add to or otherwise optimize the concept. Kitsune sorcerer
key feat: Fox shape. Take it asap. Probably level 7. maybe from retraining at level 6 if you really want. being psychic spells, you don't have any somatic or verbal components to prevent your tiny fox form from casting any spells. The level 15 ability "wings" can make you sprout leathery dragon wings from your back. There appears to be no language that makes this a supernatural ability that "relies on your original form". You are now an airborne tiny fox dragon of fiery death. With 9th level casting. "I am fire. I am death."
Initially underwhelming, the Deep Magus has been piquing my curiosity the more I think about it. While it can't go crit-fishing like the standard magus, what it can do is take full advantage of the caster-level increasing features that the third level ability provides to increase damage the regular way, instead of relying on critical damage. A big drawback of the archetype, though, is that a great number of the magus's best defensive options are lost in the changes to the available spells. This means that you should plan to take full advantage of the better armor access that you get, which further leads me to believe that this is very much going to be a strength build. With that in mind, I wanted to hammer out the details. First off, what race should I pick? Dwarf is thematically appropriate and gives easy access to the dwarven battleaxe and its attractive 1d10, but has pretty bad stats for the magus. Human is obviously flexible and gets the bonus feat. Oread is also a solid choice thematically, but doesn't seem all that great either. I really like human here, but it sucks to make "just another human", you know? as for the weapon, I really like the war hammer among the martial weapons that the archetype can use. Makes you feel more like thor when you start smashing folks with shocking grasp hammer. to begin with, I just wanted to take a snapshot of the first 5 levels, and see where it's beginning to head from there. Spoiler:
Human Deep Marshal 20 pt buy STR 18 (15+racial+level 4) DEX 10 CON 14 INT 16 WIS 10 CHA 8 Traits:
Because of the lower arcane pool, I would put all favored class points into the 1/4 of an extra arcane pool point. Feats:
By level 5 wealth-by-level guidelines, you should have around 10,500 gp, which is enough to afford a +2 warhammer, as well as around 4000 gp worth of other gear. Probably just wear an agile breastblate while you save up for a magic one made of mithral. Standard spells, such as shocking grasp and shield. Also take blade tutor's spirit to be able to power attack often.
First round, you should be able to cast blade tutor's spirit, enhance your weapon into a +4 weapon as a swift action, and then move into melee range of your opponent. Second round, you can start dishing out spell combat intensified shocking grasp, each dealing 7d6 damage thanks to your +2 caster levels from the third level feature and the +4 weapon. 1d8 + 10 + 7d6.
To compare, the regular magus usually has 1d6 + 9 + 5d6 at that point, from what I can remember off the top of my head, accounting for having less enhancement bonus in favor of the keen property and assuming the same strength.
... now that's certainly something I wasn't expecting. I'm willing to wager that I made some sort of mistake in my simple average damage calculations, and there's probably some change as you level up, becoming more dramatic as you hit level 9 when the crit-fisher build begins to catch up to this build in shocking grasp levels. Other than that skeletal build, though, what else am I looking to add? What spells do you guys think I should take advantage of? Maybe fireball to be able to hit an enemy group for 9d6 at level 7? What do you think I should look into doing as I reach higher levels? maybe look into empower or maximize? The archetype feels really interesting and thematic the more I look into it, and now feels rather well balanced in the earlier levels.
To open, I always felt like the eldritch scion didn't do a charisma magus justice, so I decided to work from the ground up and make my own take on it. Any thoughts, advice, balance concerns, etc would be greatly appreciated. Spoiler:
*** Bladed Thaumaturge --- Class Skills The Bladed Thaumaturge gains 4 skill points per level instead of the regular 2. --- Spell casting A Bladed Thaumaturge casts arcane spells drawn from the magus spell list. He can cast any spell he knows without preparing it ahead of time. To learn or cast a spell, a Bladed Thaumaturge must have a Charisma score equal to at least 10+ the spell's level. The DC for a saving throw against a Bladed Thaumaturge's spell is 10 + the spell's level + the Bladed Thaumaturge's Charisma modifier. A Bladed Thaumaturge can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. His base daily spell allotment is the same as a bard of the same level. In addition, he receives bonus spells per day if he has a high Charisma score. A Bladed Thaumaturge's selection of spells is limited. he has the same number of spells known as a bard of the same level, and can choose new spells to replace old ones at 5th level and every 3 class levels after that, just as a bard does. See the bard for more information on swapping spells known. Any Magus's class feature or spell from the Magus spell list that normally uses a calculation based on Intelligence is instead based on Charisma for a Bladed Thaumaturge. This ability replaces the Magus's spells class feature. --- Bonus feats Whenever a Bladed Thaumaturge would gain a bonus feat, that feat can only be selected from those listed as metamagic feats. This modifies the magus's Bonus Feats class feature. --- Spontaneous Metamagic A Bladed Thaumaturge is skilled in applying metamagic to his spells. At 4th level, Whenever he applies a metamagic feat to a spell, he may spend one arcane pool point to apply the metamagic feat to his spell without increasing the spell's cast time. This ability replaces spell recall. --- Arcane Recovery A Bladed Thaumaturge can channel excess magical energy back into himself. At 5th level, Whenever the Bladed Thaumaturge scores a critical hit with a spell or whenever he downs an enemy with a spell, the blade adept gains one arcane pool point. He cannot gain more than one point from a single spell, and the number of points in his pool can never exceed 1/2 his magus level + his Charisma modifier. This ability replaces Knowledge Pool. --- Intuitive Metamagic Once per day at 11th level, the Bladed Thaumaturge may spend arcane points and a swift action to gain the benefit of one metamagic feat he does not possess for one hour. The feat must be one that he meets all prerequisites for, and he must spend a number of arcane points equal to the number of levels that metamagic feat would raise a spell. This ability replaces Improved Spell Recall.
The thought process behind all this starts at the very top. First you make the spellcasting go from prepared to spontaneous, and you make it go from intelligence to charisma. Switch over to bardic progression instead of making one up to keep classes consistant, just a bunch of standard stuff. At that point, you run into two problems. One, the archetype is very bland if this is the only change you make to the class. Two, spell recall and knowledge pool do not work for a spontaneous caster as they are written. You could modify them to work the same way for a spontaneous caster, but now you're getting into more "more of the same vanilla magus" and further reducing the options for combining with other archetypes. For this reason, I decided to replace those features entirely. I had to start thinking about the thematic difference between prepared and spontaneous spellcasters, as well as compare how the magus works compared to the wizard. A wizard has school specializations, using knowledge to hone his craft of magic. The sorcerer has bloodlines, and their spellcasting becomes their own through instinct and intrinsic power. I wanted to capture that "instinct" half of it, but I also didn't want to go "bloodline" just like the other archetype. To help me make some sort of decision, I decided to compare the advantages of spontaneous and prepared spellcasting, and what spell recall brings to the table. My conclusion was that the strengths of prepared spellcasting is the ability to apply metamagic without increasing the cast time, and access to a wider variety of spells. The advantage of spontaneous spellcasting is a higher number of spells per day and a higher moment-to-moment flexibility. Spell recall and knowledge pool both serve to bring a bit of spontaneous spellcasting's strength over to the prepared magus at the cost of arcane pool points, which led me to think the replacement abilities should bring a bit of prepared casting's metamagic strength over to spontaneous casting. However, one arcane pool point felt pretty expensive for something that the regular magus can do for free. I started to feel that I was locking something the core magus did behind resource points. I also didn't want to make it free, because then this would instantly be simply better than a core magus because of spontaneous casting with any metamagic, so I kept how expensive it is and decided to introduce a way to replenish arcane pool points. My mind immediately went to the swashbuckler's method of regaining points, and I decided to adapt that in a flavorful way. Arcane points are more powerful than panache points, so I feel limiting it to only being able to be replenished via spells gives it an "eventual" daily limit that prevents the blade adept from taking off. This swung it to "possibly too powerful", so I then decided to force the player to gain some metamagic feats and make him make use of those extra points with metamagic. As it is right now, my main concern is that it is either a little bit too powerful or a little bit too limiting, forcing you to go down the metamagic path with this archetype. However, I also like the idea of using force of will to bend your spells to your needs. Sorry for the wall of text, but I just wanted to explain my process. What does everyone think?
(Name is up for suggestions) I've always been something of a magus nut, and I've also wanted to try a divine variant of the magus. The unique blend of sword and spell has always been interesting to me, and the classes like warpriest and inquisitor never really scratch that itch for a divine gish type. Soooo, I decided to try my hand at making one. What do you guys think? Any suggestions? Ways to improve wording? Balance concerns? Spoiler: Domain: The Champion draws his powers from the deity that he worships. He must select one deity to worship and one domain belonging to that deity. The champion's alignment must be within one step of the chosen deity's alignment. The champion gains proficiency and weapon focus in the favored weapon of that deity and the first level domain power. The champion does not gain any of the domain spells. The champion treats his champion level as his cleric level for the purpose of this domain. This ability replaces the magus's weapon proficiency, improved spell combat, greater spell combat, and knowledge pool. Armor proficiency: The champion is proficient in medium armor. This ability replaces the magus's armor proficiency and "medium armor" abilities. Heavy armor: At 7th level, the champion gains proficiency in heavy armor. This replaces the magus's heavy armor ability. Spells: The Champion casts divine spells from the inquisitor's spell list. The Champion does not need to prepare spells ahead of time and instead casts spells using spell slots like an inquisitor. The Champion can use the same number of spells per day and has the same number of spells known as an inquisitor. The champion gains bonus spells per day based upon his wisdom score (see table blah blah blah). At 5th level and every third level thereafter, the champion may learn a new spell in place of one he already knows. For any class features of the magus that relies on intelligence, use wisdom instead. This ability modifies spells. Divine pool: The champion fuels his abilities through a pool of divine energy. Instead of (X weapon abilities) the champion can enchant his weapon with (Y weapon abilities) ((will figure out later)). The champion has a number of divine pool points equal to half his level rounded down plus his wisdom modifier. Abilities, feats, or features that would modify arcane pool also modify divine pool. This ability modifies arcane pool. Divine spell combat: The champion uses his spell combat ability with spells on the inquisitor spell list. This ability modifies spell combat. Divine spellstrike: The champion uses spellstrike with spells on the inquisitor spell list. This ability modifies spellstrike. Weapon mastery: The champion gains the feat weapon specialization with his deity's favored weapon. This ability replaces the bonus feat gained at fifth level. Magus arcana: The following magus arcana are added to the list of arcana that the champion can select.
Spell mastery: The champion commands spells normally not available to those of his faith. At levels 2, 5, 8, 11, 14, and 17 the champion selects one spell from his domain or the magus spell list of the highest level he can cast and adds it to his list of spells known. If any of those spells use the champion's intelligence modifier, use his wisdom modifier instead. This ability replaces spell recall, improved spell recall, and greater spell access. Like an inquisitor, the champion cannot learn or cast spells of an alignment that opposes his deity's alignment. Likewise, if the champion changes to a prohibited alignment, he loses all of his abilities and spells granted by the deity until he atones.
1)How does "reach spellstrike" interact with spells like "chill touch" for the purposes of ranged spellstrike?
Spoiler:
I personally am inclined to say that because reach spellstrike doesn't say you only get one for multiple touches, the additional touches would fall under "allows multiple attacks" and you would be able to use it that way.
The magus can deliver spells with a range of touch with ranged spellstrike up to a maximum range of close (25 feet + 5 feet per 2 caster levels).
2) Does "magic missile" work with ranged spellstrike? Spoiler:
I'm on the fence for this one. On the one hand, it has multiple missiles, but on the other hand it doesn't seem to allow attacks, the missiles simply hit. 3) not so much a rules question, but: What kinds of spells that allow multiple ray attacks exist across all spell lists? I don't know spell lists very well because I mainly play magus types. I may make a samsaran or use a lot of spell blending if the options are good enough.
So, this now seems to be coming up more and more with recent releases. My question is in the title. Is there actually somewhere in the books a clear definition for what is and is not a "manufactured" weapon? Previously, this was fairly simple. A "manufactured" weapon would include anything that was not a natural weapon, an improvised weapon, or an unarmed strike. However, with the most recent release, there's been some injected confusion. Namely the warlock's mystic bolts. The mystic bolts are wielded as if light one-handed weapons, are not unarmed strikes, are not improvised weapons, and are not natural weapons. By previous understanding, this would shunt it into the "manufactured" weapons category. However, they are very clearly not "manufactured" by the layman's understanding of the word, which leaves the mystic bolts in this odd void of non-conformity when it comes to understanding just what type of weapon they are. Back when they released occult adventures, the kineticist and mindblade magus also created this confusion. Kinetic blade conjures weapons out of energy... which means it's not manufactured? unless you're a telekineticist and injecting the blast into a manufactured weapon? It's an odd corner case that is, again, not an improvised weapon, not an unarmed strike, and not a natural weapon. Same deal with mindblade magus. His mindblades are not improvised, not unarmed, and not natural, but are they manufactured? I would also say the same question can be made of the "flame blade" spell. Why is this relevant, you might ask? two immediate examples I can think of: The sense vitals spell only grants sneak attack damage on manufactured weapons, and it's a pretty thematic and powerful option for the new warlock. There's also the combat stamina feat, which keys off of "a manufactured weapon, unarmed strike, or natural weapon attack", which basically discludes only improvised weapons or these nebulous "in-between" weapons that may or may not count as manufactured. So I guess if I were to ask the design team this question as a FAQ, it would be:
I've been trying to find any spells that work like chill touch (the multiple touches part) but I can't find any, though I've little experience in poring through lists. What else works like it?
Mystic bolts:
Mystic Bolts (Su): A warlock can sling projectiles of magical energy at will by shooting a bolt or touching her foe. A melee mystic bolt requires the target to be within reach, and a ranged mystic bolt is a ranged attack with a range of 30 feet. A mystic bolt deals 1d6 points of damage plus 1 for every 4 vigilante levels the warlock has. The warlock must choose one type of damage for her mystic bolt: acid, cold, electricity, or fire. Attacking with a mystic bolt takes the place of one of the warlock’s normal attacks, and she can make a full attack using mystic bolts. The warlock vigilante attacks with mystic bolts as though they were light one-handed weapons, and the bolts can be used for two-weapon fighting (with each hand creating one mystic bolt) and feats and abilities that apply to weapon attacks (unless they’re excluded from that feat, such as with Power Attack). Weapon Focus (ray) doesn’t apply to mystic bolts, but a warlock can take Weapon Focus (mystic bolt) and apply it to both melee and ranged mystic bolts. Creating a mystic bolt requires the hand to be free, but the bolt appears only briefly, so a warlock using mystic bolts has a free hand any time she isn’t attacking with a mystic bolt. The warlock threatens with a mystic bolt, but only if she has a hand free. Because mystic bolts are impermanent, a spell that targets a single weapon (like magic weapon) can’t affect it, nor can a mystic bolt be made with magic weapon special abilities. Abilities that affect all weapon attacks the warlock makes, such as the arcane striker warlock talent, function with mystic bolts. At 7th level and every 6 vigilante levels thereafter, the warlock chooses another damage type from the list above. Each time she creates a mystic bolt, she can have it use any one of the damage types she has selected. The two parts that have me interested are: "A ranged mystic bolt is a ranged attack with a range of 30 feet." and "The warlock vigilante attacks with mystic bolts as though they were light one-handed weapons". By my reading, the only other weapons in the game that both fit "light" or "one-handed" at the same time as "ranged" are thrown weapons. I would personally allow mystic bolts to be used with features that work with thrown weapons, but I'm unsure how other people interpret it. What are your thoughts?
So from reading various threads and looking at various options, I've come up with a basic skeleton, but I still feel like it could use some work, perhaps in feats I may have missed or other character options entirely. I have the social aspect pretty much worked out, so I'll be focusing on the combat options. 1- Two-Weapon Fighting feat
I want the character to be dex based, since strength to damage isn't a thing for mystic bolts anyway, it means I can lower strength by a lot and rely on the light armor of the warlock in conjunction with high dexterity for my AC. Notable spells are invisibility for helping with the startling appearance feature and chill touch because of "can sling projectiles of magical energy at will by shooting a bolt or [u]touching her foe[/u].", but I'm having trouble figuring out more spells that lend to the concept, especially since the warlock doesn't have the action economy that the magus does. My main problem with the build is basically that I seem to be running out of options fairly quickly. I can take piranha strike, but because I have to forgo the "touch attacks" portion of mystic bolts to make piranha strike work, it doesn't seem worth it. I took a look at possible style feats, but I couldn't find one that seems to complement this particular build very well either. What direction can I take this? Or possibly what bits do you think I might be missing?
Quick question. Can a warlock using mystic bolts benefit from the two-weapon defense feat? From the entry on mystic bolts:
Creating a mystic bolt requires the hand to be free, but the bolt appears only briefly, so a warlock using mystic bolts has a free hand any time she isn’t attacking with a mystic bolt. The warlock threatens with a mystic bolt, but only if she has a hand free. Because mystic bolts are impermanent, a spell that targets a single weapon (like magic weapon) can’t affect it, nor can a mystic bolt be made with magic weapon special abilities. Abilities that affect all weapon attacks the warlock makes, such as the arcane striker warlock talent, function with mystic bolts. Two-Weapon Defense:
Basically, it comes down to this: When not actually attacking, is the warlock still considered to be wielding two weapons? I can see it being no because they're not currently manifested, but I can also see it being yes because the warlock threatens with them.
The basic idea is that, in order to alleviate the issue of "feat tax", limited feats, or balance the optimization issue a little bit, what if we introduced a system where a character gains "points" to spend on feats? In introducing this system, each feat would have to be evaluated and given a "point cost". For example, skill focus would be 1 point, and the other end of it, sacred geometry, might be 5 or 6 points. Standard combat or generally "good" feats are 4 points or so. level 1, a character begins with 4 points. Humans gain another 3 or 4 points at level 1. Every level (not every odd level), a character gains 2 points. A VMC character instead gains 1 point every level. Would this improve the balance of the game, do you think? Encourage more varied builds?
The wording seems a bit ambiguous. Given that full attacks normally allow naturals attached to the tail end of the action, yet that onky certain weapons may be used with flurry, it leaves room for multiple readings. 1) the monk with feral combat training gets all flurry attacks, as well as whatever extra is granted by feral combat training.
I lean towards 1, but admittedly i am a bit biased. What do you think?
I'm pretty sure this works, but I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything. Can I take a fuse grenade and light it, then use sleight of hand to plant it into the pocket of some unsuspecting victim? Related, and perhaps more important for me, can an arcane trickster use Ranged Legerdemain to accomplish the same thing from 30ft?
For example, if I had a leather armor +5, its AC value would be 2 and its enhancement bonus would be +5. Shroud of water, when I use burn on a water wild talent, extends its AC bonus to both the shield and the Armor form. For the easiest argument, let's say in this situation I'm simply level 2 and I've invested 0 burn into the defense. Leather armor = 2 Armor bonus, 5 enhancement bonus
What is the final bonus to my AC for these two? is it 9 or is it 7?
A polymerized spell is two spells occupying the same slot. The polymerized spell's final level is equal to the sum of the component spell levels plus three. When you cast a polymerized spell, roll a percentile. 01-10 - resolve the effects of the lower level spell only. If same level, DM choice.
--- What do you guys think? I was thinking of what would happen if you combined color spray and diamond spray, and came up with this idea because of it.
First, I wanted to just clarify how the mauler archetype works. Improved strength means that at, say, level 7, the mauler has +3 strength. With the size increase, going from, say, tiny grants you a size boost of +4 STR and an ability bonus of +2, bringing the total increase of strength from a tiny familiar to +9. From diminutive, the increase is +11 instead. Small familiars simply get the +5. So, if I were to put together some familiars final strengths, I might get, as the notables who get 16 or higher (also not including dinosaurs or aquatics), King Crab-16
Now, not only is the fox clearly the best in terms of STR, it's also my favorite thematically, so it is, so far, my best choice that I can think of. Additionally, I plan to take the "evolved familiar" feat at least once to add two claw attacks to the bite attack the familiar has. At medium size, that'll be a 1d6 and two 1d4 attacks, all made at full BaB and at +4 strength. With haste(which I will be casting anyway), that's another 1d6 bite attack. Is there anything I'm missing or getting wrong? I would love more ways to improve the familiar(I'm taking beastblade magus, don't try to stop me! :P) other than what I'm already doing? One of the things I'm going for is to have the mauler familiar cast a multi-touch spell on itself, go in for full attacks with all its natural attacks, then cash in on sweet attacks of opportunity.
Accomplished sneak attacker
Sense vitals This spell makes your eyes shine blood red and allows you to see the vital areas and weak points of creatures within 30 feet of you as a warm glow. This allows you to use any manufactured weapon to make sneak attacks, as the rogue ability of the same name, dealing an additional 1d6 points of damage; this additional damage increases by 1d6 for every 3 caster levels you possess beyond 3rd, to a maximum of +5d6 at 15th level. This additional damage stacks with other sources of precision damage. The situation is, for example, if you took 3 levels of rogue and 4 levels of wizard, and also had Magical Knack. Rogue base is 2d6, accomplished sneak attacker pushes you up to 3d6. Sense vitals would add 2d6, up to 5d6... but this amount(5) is greater than half your character level rounded up(4). How, exactly, does it interact? Does the feat "turn off" for the duration, so that your sneak attack would simply be base class + spell? Would the feat explicitly prevent the spell from raising your sneak attack above that hard limit? Or are the sneak attack dice provided by the spell not "your number of sneak attack dice", and thus they all stack seamlessly? It seems to be a puzzling situation.
Question in title. First, relevant texts:
At 1st level, an eldritch archer gains a bonded object as per the wizard's arcane bonded object; it must be a ranged weapon, and it can't be used to cast a spell once per day. (1)Holding her bonded item does not prevent the eldritch archer from providing somatic components for her spells.
1) shows that the normal reason for being unable to hold anything in the other hand, the somatic component, is bypassed. 2) removes the limitation that prevents a normal magus from dual wielding, even if he has still spell.So the question we're left with, I think, is this. Does "An eldritch archer must use a ranged weapon for spell combat." throw a wrench in this whole thing? I can see it interpreted both ways. What do you guys think?
I've seen people say the infamous phrase "I'm a roleplayer, not a rollplayer!", but what strikes me from that statement is the assertion that one cannot be both. Is that really what people think? For example, I myself am both. I love making a character concept and background and then properly playing that character, but I also love taking a character concept and making the most out of that character build that I can. It just kinda seems off to me when a player will focus on one aspect and bash the other aspect, as it seems to be that they are both part of this game and both things that I draw enjoyment from. How do you wonderful people of the forums feel about this?
Question in title. If I wanted to splash a level in wizard for some reason, would I be able to take an arcane bond and have other people enchant it, paying normal costs?
I've already taken improved initiative, as well as the reactionary trait, and my dex is as high as humanely possible. Beyond those things, what other methods are there? magic items, or the like? A magic item would be preferable, since I want to always have the iniative bonus. Can't always prepare for an initiative roll, after all!
Title. Ability:
An arcane trickster can use Disable Device and Sleight of Hand at a range of 30 feet. Working at a distance increases the normal skill check DC by 5, and an arcane trickster cannot take 10 on this check. Any object to be manipulated must weigh 5 pounds or less. She can only use this ability if she has at least 1 rank in the skill being used. Note: "ability to cast Mage Hand" is a prerequisite to take the PrC. Thoughts?
For a high level game we're playing, there's a slight possibility that my character might get executed for something that I won't go into detail, but enough that I'm working on a secondary character in case things hit the fan. The character level will be 15, and here's the concept I have so far: 1 unchained rogue
The idea is that I can use magical abilities to aid in the delivery of sneak attack, and if I'm invisible it's real easy to stack up quite a bit of damage in a single spell combat. However, one thing that I noticed is that there will be a very small amount of HP on this character, at least for a level 15, and the BaB will be low which means I'll need to rely on every other method that I can get (such as sneak attack, who knew). The problem with it is that I have zero experience playing a rogue, so I don't know what tools are available. How do I mitigate the low HP, perhaps what tools can I use or what items specifically to look out for. In addition, is there a nice magus archetype to look into? What arcana might be valuable other than the obvious Prescient attack?
The Figment familiar archetype states that when the familiar dies, he returns with 1 hp after the master next wakes up, but also states that when the master is knocked unconcious, sleeps, strays too far from familiar, or the familiar enters an antimagic field, the familiar disappears. The question is, when this happens, how much HP does the familiar return with the next time the master wakes up?
Benefit: The magus can deliver ray spells that feature a ranged touch attack as melee touch spells. He can use a ranged touch attack spell that targets more than one creature (such as scorching ray), but he makes only one melee touch attack to deliver one of these ranged touch effects; additional ranged touch attacks from that spell are wasted and have no effect. These spells can be used with the spellstrike class feature. There are two sides I can see to it, and I think it all comes down to what a "ray" spell is. 1) A ray spell is a spell with "ray" in its name. Therefore, only spells such as "ray of enfeeblement" and "scorching ray", as "ray" spells that feature a ranged touch attack, may be used with this arcana. 2) A ray spell is any spell that involves a ranged touch attack. Therefore, you are not limited to the above spells and can also use spells such as snowball. I have seen it interpreted both ways, so I'm now finding myself curious. Is there some work on what the exact definition of a "ray spell" is?
... his ladder breaks?
I can't seem to find an answer for this. Basically, I have a character that will be dipping a few levels in a class that has fewer skill points per level, but that won't be a problem since I don't need full ranks in the fly skill. However, there's no way to work it around that I can sink that whole deficit into only the fly skill unless I save some skill points for later levels to keep the relevant skills at max.
Question in title. Im on my phone so i cant paste the text, but i'm of the opinion that it should work. What it comes down to is if spell combat counts as a full attack for more than just haste.
Title.
Tattooed Spell (Sp): At 5th level and every 6 levels thereafter, an esoteric can permanently tattoo one spell from his magus spellbook onto his body; the first tattooed spell must be of 2nd level or lower, the second must be of 4th level or lower, and the last can be of any level. The spell that is tattooed must not have an expensive material component or a focus. The esoteric can prepare any tattooed spell without needing his spellbook. Additionally, he can cast each of his tattooed spells as a spell-like ability once per day. When the esoteric uses these spell-like abilities, the tattoo associated with the spell-like ability glows as light for a number of rounds equal to the spell’s level. This ability replaces bonus feats. By my initial reading, I want to say yes to spellstrike, since spell-like touch spells still follow the rules of touch spells, but no to spell combat, since they're not actually spells.
Current working thoughts: Sorcerer class, Crossblooded archetype.
Level 7, Take the Fox Shape feat, since psychic casters can still cast while polymorphed, and there are several advantages to being smaller when a caster. Focus mostly on fire spells, though keep tools to punch through things that are resistant to fire, just in case. His name shall be "mozilla". Aside from the obvious joke, i really do want some kind of psychic kitsune, and especially interested in having that kitsune be in fox shape 90% of the time. What other ideas can you guys think of? I really like the idea of playing firefox, but there might be more out there.
Question in title. I'm fairly sure it would not, since polymorph effects don't affect your mind at all, but I'm not 100% familiar with polymorph rules so I'm unsure if there's something I missed. What do you guys think?
Basically, I'm about to be a first time GM with my regular gaming group, and I'm not sure if I'm ready. Basically, is there any advice anyone can give me? Any way to speed things up so I'm not constantly referencing a rulebook? Advice for statting out encounters? Reference material for newbie GM's, maybe? Any advice or anecdotes you could provide is appreciated, as I'm a little nervous going into this.
Bladed dash: When you cast this spell, you immediately move up to 30 feet in a straight line any direction, momentarily leaving a multi-hued cascade of images behind you. This movement does not provoke attacks of opportunity. You may make a single melee attack at your highest base attack bonus against any one creature you are adjacent to at any point along this 30 feet. You gain a circumstance bonus on your attack roll equal to your Intelligence or Charisma modifier, whichever is higher. You must end the bonus movement granted by this spell in an unoccupied square. If no such space is available along the trajectory, the spell fails. Despite the name, the spell works with any melee weapon. There are all sorts of things that have me unsure about it. What do you guys think?
The question, as said in the title, is:
To make sure everyone knows what I'm talking about, I will paste the entirety of the power attack feat and bold the description section.
As you can see, the bolded text is part of the feat, but it is not within the prerequisites, benefits, or special sections of the feat. This is the feat's description, and the subject of this question. Normally this is not an issue. It is usually obvious what the function of the feat is. However, I've noticed several examples of feats that simply work differently from the description, and this ends up spawning a pretty significant amount of controversy. As far as I can tell from these forums, there seems to be a pretty significant distribution between people who interpret the rules as if the descriptions were part of the rules text, and those who interpret the rules as if the descriptions were pure fluff and not to be projected into the rules. --- Examples where this has come up:
Controversy: The description mentions other forms, thus many people think that you require some sort of shapeshifting ability, even though said requirement is nowhere mentioned within the prerequisites, abilities, or special sections of the feat. 2) Thunder and Fang:
The controversy: Again, due to wording in the description that is not detailed in the other sections of the feat, there is healthy debate on whether you can use the feat's benefits for other things, such as wielding an earth breaker with other weapons, or even dual wielding them. 3) Pummeling style(pre-errata):
Which was errata'd into:
Controversy: This was even more obvious, since the word "Punch" was found in the rules text, yet they still had to errata it due to unclear language. There was quite a bit of argument, almost from the same perspective: The description is important as rules vs the description is only fluff to how the feat functions. From here we come to something I personally found as an additional example, a feat that I'm sure we're all pretty sure works exactly how it works.
My take: It seems like, if you were to take descriptions as being important, you could easily argue that in addition to being the only character threatening an opponent, you must also be threatened by more than one opponent, due to the description saying "when outnumbered". There are probably lots of other examples where this conflict has come up, but I am not all-knowing, so I can't quite think of them. There are probably lots of examples where this will come up in the future, as well. --- Basically, here's how I feel about it. I've heard it voiced that the description is sometimes important to determining the function of the feat, but I don't believe it should work that way. In my opinion, it should be always important or never important, because otherwise you spawn a whole bunch of doubt in the whole thing and you'll constantly have people second-guessing the description vs the mechanics, instead of instantly knowing whether they need to pay attention to it. If it's always important, then I think it's important to make the language consistent with the feat, so that no conflicts arise, such as my reading of Artful Dodge. It's important to meld in your description with the text in a way that summarizes without adding too much to the word count, so that readers can quickly get an idea if that feat is for them. On the other hand, if it is never important, I think that it's important to avoid using any language that can be mistaken for rules, such as keywords, feat names, ability names, etc. If the description is fluff, make it suggested fluff. For the record, I am in this camp, because I believe that suggested fluff is important to include to make the books feel a bit more alive, but should not be mandatory, as your character's own fluff is half the fun of the game as far as I'm concerned. I realize that this is quite a question to ask of Paizo, but I think that it's equally important to get straitened out in order to minimize future confusions. In fact the way a lot of descriptions are written, I feel that it's almost required to errata quite a number of them to go with this ruling, if this ruling is ever made. However, I still feel it is important enough to ask. Should descriptions have any bearing on the function of the feat, or should they be considered fluff? What do you guys think?
Basically, how do you guys calculate damage when your damage is doubled? One way is has more variance, but the other way is more consistent. Now that I think about it, are you supposed to do it one way or the other?
A conductive weapon is able to channel the energy of a spell-like or supernatural ability that relies on a melee or ranged touch attack to hit its target (such as from a cleric's domain granted power, sorcerer's bloodline power, oracle's mystery revelation, or wizard's arcane school power). When the wielder makes a successful attack of the appropriate type, he may choose to expend two uses of his magical ability to channel it through the weapon to the struck opponent, which suffers the effects of both the weapon attack and the special ability. (If the wielder has unlimited uses of a special ability, she may channel through the weapon every round.) For example, a paladin who strikes an undead opponent with her conductive greatsword can expend two uses of her lay on hands ability (a supernatural melee touch attack) to deal both greatsword damage and damage from one use of lay on hands. This weapon special ability can only be used once per round, and only works with magical abilities of the same type as the weapon (melee or ranged). Basically, my question is simple. Can A magus who is wielding a weapon with the conductive property deliver both a spell and a pool strike as part of the same attack?
The feat in question: You can take the form of a fox whose appearance is static and cannot be changed each time you assume this form. Your bite attack’s damage is reduced to 1d3 points of damage on a hit, but you gain a +10 racial bonus on Disguise checks made to appear as a fox. Changing from kitsune to fox shape is a standard action. This ability otherwise functions as beast shape II, and your ability scores change accordingly. Now, I know that since you as a human do not have a bite attack, you don't suddenly gain a 1d3 bite attack. However, it doesn't say that you have to have the "change shape" supernatural ability in order to benefit from this feat. It simply says "you can take the form of a fox". There's one possible hiccup, that being "Changing from a kitsune to fox shape", but I think that this is gotten around by the line in racial heritage where it says "for the purpose of taking traits, feats, how spells and magic items affect you, and so on". It shouldn't be much of a stretch to say that "how feats affect you" falls under that.
As a TL;DR, bear's balance allows you to enter a rage instead of succumb to fear when you fail a saving throw against fear, and furious spell allows you to cast spells while in a rage. What do you guys think? Seems like an interesting way to get rid of the weakness against fear effects. However, it's still a bit worrisome that intimidate checks don't involve a saving throw, so it still doesn't protect against that.
Psychic pool:
Rapid manifest
Basically, I wanted to confirm if I am correct in thinking that the mindblade retains the ability to (if he needs to) manifest a psychic weapon as a standard action. I'm not sure how it would come up, but perhaps you really need your swift action for something else, or you've been disarmed but you've already used an immediate action prior to this.
Basically, I want to know if the mindblade immediately gains access to those spells, or if they're only added to the overall magus spell list, and the mindblade must then use a "spells known" slot to gain access to that spell. I've seen it argued both ways, so I want to be sure what people think of it. For me, I think that the mindblade should immediately gain them as spells known, since it says "to her magus spell list" and not "to the magus spell list".
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