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I see now that he IS an Adaptive Shifter. I'm running an AP for a group of experienced PFS players and, like I said, I'm unfamiliar with Shifters. I had told them I was ok with anything PFS Legal when we started, so....There goes the AP. Oh, well. Thank you, everyone.

I have a player with a 6th level shifter with the octopus aspect(a class I wasn't familiar with until now). He used Wild Shape for the first time last session to become a giant octopus, giving him 8 tentacle attacks a round (with grab). I went with it at the time because it was late, but is this right?

Wild Shape:
At 4th level, a shifter gains the ability to turn herself into the major form of one of her aspects and back again. This ability functions as beast shape II, except as noted here. The shifter can turn into the major form of only one of her aspects at a time. Using wild shape to change to a major form or back is a standard action that doesn’t provoke attacks of opportunity. Often a particular aspect’s major form grants abilities beyond the normal effect of beast shape II. Each major form details the abilities the shifter gains with that major form and at what level; she gains these instead of the form abilities from beast shape II, but she still gains beast shape II abilities that are size dependent.

Beast Shape II:
This spell functions as beast shape I, except that it also allows you to assume the form of a Tiny or Large creature of the animal type. If the form you assume has any of the following abilities, you gain the listed ability: climb 60 feet, fly 60 feet (good maneuverability), swim 60 feet, darkvision 60 feet, low-light vision, scent, grab, pounce, and trip.

Large animal: If the form you take is that of a Large animal, you gain a +4 size bonus to your Strength, a -2 penalty to your Dexterity, and a +4 natural armor bonus.

I can see where he's going from one to the other, but it seems to me, the wording about major form of the aspect takes precedent over the spell description. According to that, he would be limited to a regular octopus. Can someone please double-check my reasoning on this? Thank you in advance.

Thank you for this!

I am very late to this party. I had actually forgotten about the physical part of this bundle until a friend asked if I'd gotten my miniatures. I got the $45 dollar bundle, did that level include the minis? I've clicked on Partner Redemptions and it shows where I can arrange shipping for the comics (which I've just done), but it doesn't say anything about minis. Thank you in advance.

Oh like pathfinders need ANOTHER way to set something on fire..

You can NEVER have too many ways to set something on fire....

I'm trying to track down what supplement has the Trait Hunter's Eye. I use Hero Lab for my characters and it lists it as Category: Andoran/Faction and say it appears in Pathfinder Society. I'm trying to make sure my character is legal. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

NO. NO. Its not possible. I can't be the first person to put one of, if not the, best quote ever on this list.

"I have come to chew bubblegum and kick a$$...and I am all out of bubblegum." -- John Nada, They Live.

Another favorite:

"If this be madness, I've neither need nor want of sanity." -- Unknown (Has anyone heard this one before?)

Has anyone come up with a good (simple) way to adjudicate this spell?

We're using Action Points (from UA) in our AOW game, and they've really added to it, IMHO. You roll the AP dice BEFORE the d20, so success isn't assured. To balance player AP's, named NPC's and BBEGs also get them.

Oh, alright, I'll take the bait. What the smurf are we talking about?

Thief-Acrobat from Complete Adventurer (IIRC) is damned tempting, for a 5LV PrC. Its almost tailor made for monks, but, without a house rule, you couldn't go back to monk.

Alex Ross is a phenomenal artist, but I have to say, this is a weak design. All that chrome on top is going to be a pain for the regular art team to pull off, month after month. In truth, Ross himself is probably the only artist who could make it look halfway decent. IIRC, he did a similar design for Spider Man, at about the time of the first movie. THAT one was excellent, harkening back Steve Ditko's early art. But here, it’s just not as sharp.

Is there any way to find out the source of a given image (artist, book/mag title and number, so forth)? I wouldn't mind tracking down the original image some of these came from.

I think with respect to lawful good and paladins, my simple litmus test is "what would Superman do?"

"What would Batman do?", I think, is also a good metric.

While I agree with most of the posts here about paladins not havin to be Awful Good or Lawful Stupid, there is something I think bears pointing out. All the suggestions here require the paladin to make the sacrifice, to compromise his feelings, belief, etc. The anti-heroes get to go blithely on their way. Referring to recent OOTS, Hinjo's desire to press on and continue fighting for his city, his home, is legitimate. (OK, I'll stop playing with BBCodes now.) Choosing the lesser of two evils , is still choosing an evil (last time, promise).

Sorry, just felt it had to be said.

Armor check penalty and arcane spell failure are two separate stats for armor. Reducing the armor check penalty by making the armor masterwork has no effect on arcane spell failure. Using a special material, like mithril, can reduce both, but again, they're two separate functions.

Specifically, Legion of Sentinels. IIRC its a Soc/Wiz 3 illusion spell that creates a small squad of swordsmen in one place (I don't have my copy handy). It states that the swordsmen can make one AOO a round, have AC 25, and I forget how many hits, but it doesn't say what bonus to hit or damage they have. Can they make a regular attack on your round? Does anyone have a clearer idea of the particulars of this spell? Thank you for your time.

For the Bastard Sword (two words, people) alone, I'll get a deck....If only a store in my area carried them. Someday!!!!

Thanks all.

Except that all core classes are banned. Like I said, this is partly my own fault. The players may only take the classes from the complete books, the minatures handbook, and some of the monster classes from savage species. The scout doesn't have the option of multi-classing into fighter. Part of the point of this campaign was to test all the whining and teeth gnashing about how superior the complete classes are over the core classes.

Maybe you need to reiterate to the players that this campaign was supposed to be (partially) an experiment, to playtest the non-core classes? Perhaps you'd be better off limiting the races to core.

The duskblade needs 1) a speed boosting item or spell for a retreat and 2) smart tactics. Get in, lay the smack down for a couple rounds, then get out. He doesn't have the staying power of a barbarian or a fighter, so he shouldn't push it. Even with the "-blade" in the name, he'd be better off as a spiked chain wielder with Improved Trip.

The duskblade CAN do the job, but, admittedly, he will get chewed upon doing it. A couple of months ago, in the Eberron section of the wizards site, they had a series called Clockwork Wonders and a item called gliding boots. Similar to boots of springing and striding, they allowed you to make a 10' adjustment without drawing an AOO, instead of a 5' one.

I have a wizard specialized in summoning and support. Are there any "official" alternative monster lists out there? Would substituting monsters with the same CR an (easier) alternative?

As has been mentioned before, choosing an actor to "play" your character is a good idea, and I'm going to try that soundtrack idea.

One thing I do is ask myself some quick questions about the character, like what his (or her) favorite color is, are his parents still living/when did they die, how does he wear his gear and why, that sort of thing.

For some strange, I been thinking about these rules from the swashbuckler issue of Dragon (#301). They look good, but has anyone used them? Converted them to 3.5? Just wondering.

Champions was the system that got me started role playing. It may be a bit intimidating at first, but once you get the hang there is almost NOTHING you can't do with it.
Marvel had a decent character generation system, in the basic set. Stay away from The Ultimate Powers Book, or as we came to call it, The Ultimate Game Balance Destroyer. DC Heroes was a close second to Champions as a system. We used MSH to generate characters then converted to DC for one of the most memorable campaigns I've ever played.
I never got to play Villains & Vigilantes, but it had THE best random character generator of them all. No matter what I rolled up, the power sets were always internally consistent and easy to find a rationale for. Good times, good times....

With WotC pulling the licenses and owning the rights to Greyhawk, will Paizo be allowed to continue the boards for Shackled City and the rest? Also, does Paizo own the copyright to "Adventure Path"?

Ender, I think you’d be better off with a melee build. The fighter’s strengths lie in close range physical combat. The wizard’s strengths lie in range and versatility. Fighting a sniper’s duel in an essentially open field against a wizard is playing his game on his terms. With fly, he’ll be able to take the high ground and negate whatever cover you can find.

Also, depending on how the officiating DM handles it, winning initiative may not be as important as you think. From what you’ve described, the two of you will be placed randomly on the field. Unless you wind up in line of sight from the get go, you’ll be relating you moves to the DM in secret until you do. As a DM, it’d be easier for me to have you roll for initiative once you’re placed and then take turns on movement.

Here are my suggestions, which may or may not be worth the paper they’re printed on:

- As I said earlier, I think you’re better off with a melee build. Focus on a spiked chain as your main weapon. It gives reach and allows adjacent attacks, and can be used for trip attacks. Get an animated (defending?) tower shield, since it can provide cover. If your budgetary rules will allow it, get a luck blade instead of a ring of three wishes. It’ll give you a re-roll and a +1 luck bonus to all saves in addition to three wishes. It only has to be on your person to use, so you can still wield the spiked chain and frees up a ring slot. You should have both a ring of protection or freedom of movement and a ring of counterspell: disjunction.
- All of this does depend on getting the wizard to come to you. Use an instant fortress as soon as you find a space for it. Enter, but leave the door open, and either ready an action to close it if he tries to target a spell (like fireball) or spell effect (like cloudkill) through it or have a cube of force on setting one for the cloudkill. He’ll either have to burn resources to destroy the fortress or walk into the trap. Once inside, he’ll be less likely to pop off any AOE spells. Set spiked chain to puree and enjoy.
- Barring that, wish him into your own cube of force (solid mode) and then wish yourself into it as well. Again, set spiked chain to puree and enjoy. This would also work as a second match tactic, if you are going two falls out of three.

About ten years ago, I played in an all-warrior AD&D campaign. In the middle of the dungeon, we find a +3 greataxe. The only problem: none of us had WP: Axes. So we continue on and come across three chests. We'd encountered a similar setup before and, by sheer luck, avoided their traps, so we're worried about these new ones. It then occurs to me, "Hey, that axe was 5 or 6 feet long. We'll use it to smash the locks. So what if we're not proficient." Well, it worked and on we went. A little later we came to a door with no key. We all tried to simply break it down, but we all failed. I said, "I pull out the +3 lockpick and try again." Nailed it on the first try and thus was born the Fighter's +3 Lockpick.

Read the Mordant's Need books FIRST: The Mirror of Her Dreams and A Man Rides Through. If you can read those two books without slitting your wrists, you may then ATTEMPT to read the Covenant books. "Mirror" was hard to get through (the heroes could do no right) but compared to "Covenant", it is positively cheerful.

If I had read "Need" first, I might have had more patience for "Covenant". I slogged through the first one and started the second, but I just couldn't finish it.

What really turned me off about the Chronicles was what Jade was referring to. It seemed like every other page, Thomas was telling himself (and us)," This isn't real, this isn't happening, I'll die if I believe..." Makes it just a *touch* hard to get into and stay in the story when the main character, though which we are supposed to experience it, jolts us out of it every 30 seconds.

Thank you, everyone, for your comments. I had just about decided to stick to duskblade (the PHB II even recommends that as the best bet). I was just wanting to see what my options were. Thanks again.

Duskblades were what sold me on the PHB II. I'm playing one in AoW and have been looking a possible PrC to go into, but I haven't found one I like. The best I've found so far is Dragon Disciple, but it'll push my 5TH level spells out of reach. I'd like one that continues my spell advancement. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thank you, for your time and attention.

You should be able to write directly on to SuperBeast's 9-pocket sheets with either china markers or wet-erase, battlemat markers.

Also, 3M makes a low tack Scotch Magic tape that would lift off of the cards with no problem. It is a (semi-) clear tape with Post-It note adhesive. A couple of strips across the back over the note area should laminate it nicely.

I’ve been reading the boards for a while now, but this is my first post, so I hope you’ll forgive me for being a little long-winded:

When I was about nine years old, my oldest brother made a sword out of a piece of aluminum for the SCA. The hilt was wrapped in cord and had wooden bed knob, painted black, for the pummel. It was the coolest thing I’d ever seen. It was about as tall as I was, but was really light, because of the aluminum. I could hold it with one hand, but had to use both hands to swing it. Years later, as I was making my first AD&D character, I read the description for a bastard sword. My mind went instantly to my brother’s sword. And so, it became a tradition for my characters to wield bastard swords.

And so, (dramatic pause) I will declare for the bastard sword!