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A DM I know allows it, but I questioned the ruling because an SLA isn't a spell; nor is it actually "cast."

Then again, its effects are virtually the same as a spell's, giving rise to my uncertainty.

Although magical and masterwork weapons made out of fragile materials do not possess the disadvantages of a fragile weapon - can weapons made of the materials still possess the Fragile quality?

The PRD says this about Fragile weapons:

Fragile weapons cannot take the beating that sturdier weapons can. A fragile weapon gains the broken condition if the wielder rolls a natural 1 on an attack roll with the weapon. If a fragile weapon is already broken, the roll of a natural 1 destroys it instead. Masterwork and magical fragile weapons lack these flaws unless otherwise noted in the item description.

Note how the weapons are still referred to as "fragile weapons," but lack all the flaws of fragile weapons. Read as written, this passage implies the existence of the feature without its quality - which is invaluable for some feats and several other class abilities.

All special materials that can be used to make Fragile weapons are as follows: Bone, Bronze, Glass, Gold, Obsidian, Stone, and Viridium. Every material is available on the PRD except for Glass, which was taken from Pathfinder #71: Rasputin Must Die! pg. 89.

One large issue is that most Fragile materials on the PRD have the following caveat listed in the material description:

Magically strengthened <material> does not have the fragile quality...

The only materials that lack this sentence are Viridium and Glass. A Viridium weapon must be magically strengthened by a specific treatment at a cost of 1kgp, while the section for Glass weapons merely tells the reader to refer to Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Combat 146 (the PRD section at the top) for further details.

Therefore, does the lack of a disqualifying sentence in both materials allow the Fragile quality in magical or masterwork weapons made from these materials?

If you lose a Suzerain Scepter, your bonus followers are all lost. I haven't seen any other rules though. What happens to your cohort if your PC loses, say, their Diadem of Inspiring Rule? Would the loss not matter because the cohort has already been recruited?

So we have a 3/4ths BAB class with flurry, which is said to function like a monk's. My question is, does the Sacred Fist add an extra attack at their highest BAB at the specified levels, or does their flurry emulate the monk's full-BAB progression completely?

The latter would be cool; the former, not so much.

This weapon consists of a foot-long double-edged blade, with another smaller, curved hook-blade sticking out the side like a rooster’s spur. The blade is strung to a large iron hoop with 10-foot length of rope.

Benefit: The blade can be used as an off-hand melee weapon or thrown like a dagger, while the rope and circlet can be whipped around and swung at opponents as a bludgeoning reach weapon.

Okay, I can throw the blade end like a dagger, which seems to imply that I can do so while still holding the rope. But the range increment is 20' while the rope is 10'. This seems to imply that I don't have to let go of the rope; it might communicate what would happen if I had.

Since this is a single weapon, can you in fact still be wielding the weapon after you throw it, or at least hanging on to the rope end? Would you be able to retrieve the knife end, and what sort of action would that be? Would you need an action to retrieve it at all?

Once per day, the wearer may use charm person. If Droskar is the wearer’s patron deity, any time the wearer crafts a magic item, she may choose to pay half of the item’s construction cost instead of the full cost. The wearer spends time working on the item normally, but at the time of completion there is a 50% chance that the item turns out nonmagical and worthless.

So if I had, say, Hedge Magician (-5%), Requires Skill to Use (-10%), and Requires Specific Class/Alignment (-30% price = -15% cost) could I attempt to craft at 20% cost with a 1/2 chance of failure?

The Magus Flamboyant Arcana and Arcane Deed arcana allows her to take a Swashbuckler deed at the equivalent Magus level, using arcane points instead of panache.

If my magus dips 1 level of Inspired Blade Swashbuckler, could she take the replacement Inspired Strike deed as an Arcane Deed (Inspired Strike) arcana at 12?

I feel this might be useful since a wyroot ironwood rapier would effectively give 1 arcane point back, making the overall cost 1 arcane point to autothreaten a critical.
Not to mention, dipping into Inspired Blade effectively gives another pool of (Int mod+1) panache to play with (although that wouldn't be used with the Arcane Deed).
Plus, the free Weapon Focus (Rapier) and Weapon Finesse would build up nicely to Fencing Grace.

Assume you have a White-haired Witch (or other class) with a prehensile hair natural attack with reach equal to or greater than 10', Combat Reflexes and the Final Embrace feat.

My understanding is that any enemies that approach within your range can take attacks of opportunity and be grappled as a free action as per the Final Embrace feat and therefore Grab (Su). Is the free action grapple applicable only after successful attacks, or can the character maintain multiple ongoing grapples as free actions?

Gut instinct tells me no, but still unsure if this is allowed. Can a character take an archetype that modifies the bonus feat list, and another that replaces it?

Specifically, I was looking at dipping into the Master of Many Styles and Monk of the Seven Winds archetypes.

Looking to run an extremely funny mini-session suggested to me a while back. May I have some advice about the specifics, please?

Character Creation: 32-point buy, Level ???, standard WBL. All Paizo races, classes and alignments are available.
Description: Your character is trapped in an indestructible X' by Y' by Z' room with the other players. In the middle of the room lies a Harrowed Deck of Many Things.
Objective: Win by escaping the room. You may use any means at your disposal.

Some possible addons:
1. Air and light are limited. The Harrowed Deck of Many Things lies on a wooden table with a single lantern. There is no food and water.
2. PC death is impermanent. After an hour, dead PCs reappear with the ghost template.

Issues to fix before running:
1. How would you prevent PCs from simply teleporting out of the room? Have them all be too low a level to cast Teleport? Or Teleport Trap the entire place and make that permanent?
2. If the Deck is damaged, it randomly teleports elsewhere to escape. Would you keep this mechanic, magically negate it or Houserule it away?
3. Starting level and room dimensions?
4. More Houserules: Does the Deck replenish its own cards, or do drawn cards disappear forever? Would you alter the time limit between drawings?

Any other suggested addons or issue fixes would be lovely. =)

Green skin, really long ears, short height and high dexterity. Young life spent in seclusion, so he has no idea what his native race was like. Plus the speech problem. Think about it. Now, I've no idea what this would look like mechanically but really really want to play something like this in the future. The only class that should not be included is Barbarian (for obvious reasons).

Some optional flavor things might make the build stand out -
1) No armor worn/ possibly a dip or a few levels in monk. Acrobatic.
2) Proficiency with a two-handed blade, possibly a katana.
3) Telekinesis?
4) Healing?!

Anyways, help, please? :D

Normally, smoke such as smoke from a smokestick is treated as a fog cloud spell, which is to say that all sight is obscured past melee range (5 feet).
But the Ifrit Firesight feat allows a player to see through smoke without penalty. So, given these conditions, say an Ifrit with this feat used a smokestick or a spell of Obscuring Mist with a smokestick, creating smoke.

Givens: One enemy is inside the smoke, is visible to Player 1, and can only be seen by Player 2 once he arrives within 5' of said enemy.

Player 1 is an Ifrit with this feat who has spotted this enemy, which is in the smoke. She wants to direct Player 2, who is a fighter, towards the square where the enemy is hiding, even if Player 2 can't currently see that square. This is done with the intent that once Player 2 enters a square adjacent to the enemy, he will see the enemy.

So Player 2's character needs to be capable of perceiving Player 1 to receive directions. Can this be done, and can it be done only by auditory instruction alone (Player 1 is in the smoke and further than 5' away from Player 2)? Can the enemy hide from Player 2 and not Player 1, since there is no concealment against Player 1, and can Player 1 break the enemy's stealth simply by pointing out where it is?

Noble animals are intelligent, talking animals introduced in a 3.5 third-party splatbook, converted for Paizo a year or two ago and partially available on the PFSRD.

The animal selection is huge and allows several interesting things to be done, though the text limits you to Core classes only. Most animals have some form of Wis bonus and are nonproficient in armor (dogs, elephants and horses can wear barding) and weapons, but gain various bonuses from Deeds - basically an alternate set of feats you only get by spending XP and meeting the Deed's requirements.

Currently, I'm thinking the armour nonproficiency lends itself to casters. As an animal you can also get humanoid familiars/companions - which opens up some completely hilarious possibilities.

But, what do you think would be some interesting things to build as an animal PC?

Reach for the sky!

I'm a huge fan of Bang! and Pathfinder, but the former usually is too short while the latter can go over dozens of encounters, which; let's face it, would not suit many of our friends who would otherwise be playing. So I thought, why not play both?

A PvP encounter of this sort continues until one group wins. Then it ends.

Some basic rules from Bang! that should be used:
- 1 Sheriff, 0-2 deputies, 2-3 outlaws, and 1-2 renegades.
- Randomized selection for who gets what position.
- Only the Sheriff's identity is known.
- Sheriff and deputies win if outlaws and renegades die; outlaws win if sheriff dies; renegade(s) win if everyone else dies + sheriff dies last.

A few special features from the card game I think should carry over:
- Sheriff receives a penalty if they kill a deputy.
- Limited weapons, ammunition, and healing sources.
- Range comes into play, but players remain on a single map.
- Each character possesses a unique, powerful advantage.

Some rules and goals for a Pathfinder version:
- PvP-centric; focused on a single short encounter. Most players will die.
- Everyone is a gunslinger. Everyone. Archetypes possibly allowed.
- Low amount of NPCs. Focus is on player interaction.

Now, these are only the framework towards setting up a Pathfinder game, so I have a huge amount of questions about the actual material.

Questions
1. Starting out - What starting level should everyone be? Point buy is mandatory for balance, but how many points should be given? What about starting wealth and equipment?
2. Published materials - Are there any resources, Paizo or third-party, that could improve game quality?
3. Leveling - Should this happen at all? (Ex. variant rule - a player levels whenever he/she kills someone else)
4. The map(s) - Given current firearm ranges, what would be a good-sized map, and what should it have? Are there any premade maps that would do nicely?
5. Character advantage - How good should this be? A feat, traits? A high-level deed, possibly?
6. Round progression - Roll for initiative, or not at all?
7. NPCs - What NPCs, sentient or otherwise, should be added (if at all)?
8. Story - What could justify a firefight to the death of this calibre?

Input, advice, suggestions, or completely unrelated comments of any sort are highly welcome. You're wonderful.

If the splash weapon itself does no damage, could you break it in melee on a willing target and splash everything adjacent to said target?

I was hoping to make it look like I was attacking an ally to the enemies (they're not hostile to me) without actually doing damage, and racials prevent either of us from being affected by the splash itself.

Thanks!

It's been established that the Titan Mauler archetype for barbarians cannot, in fact, wield weapons of size categories larger than their own beyond one step and one-handed. This has turned many people off from the archetype, including myself, for quite some time.

This is an older subject than most, but I've been unable to find discussion on the topic: some time ago Jason Nelson suggested two versions for his own (read as intended) revision to the Massive Weapons ability in this thread, removing the size limit cap for larger weapons at the cost of a scaling penalty to attack rolls. These penalties were meant to be reduced proportionally to barbarian levels.

My questions are -
1. How worth it is this adjustment? Would other barbarian archetypes still outshine the revised Titan Mauler?
2. What could be some useful applications for this ability beyond the direct increase to damage dice? (Are there any?)

Thanks!

Recently, a discussion with my DM has left me puzzled. I was going to post this up in Rules Questions, but then realized that more people who were familiar with the spell would likely frequent this section.

For those of you who have used the Biting Wind spell (available in the Genius Guide to Ice Magic pdf here, or quoted on the PFSRD here), or are familiar with making Read As Written interpretations - Does the wording of the spell...

1. ... Allow multiple summoned animate winds from multiple castings at any given time? Or, does it-
2. ... Mean that subsequent castings eliminate each previously summoned wind, allowing only one active wind at a time?

Thank you so much for your help!

I'm somewhat puzzled over the wording of the rules here:

Attempting to deceive someone takes at least 1 round, but can possibly take longer if the lie is elaborate (as determined by the GM on a case-by-case basis).

In addition to this next rule:

Feinting in combat is a standard action.

In addition to one other rule:

Speak: In general, speaking is a free action that you can perform even when it isn't your turn. Speaking more than a few sentences is generally beyond the limit of a free action

So, feinting takes a standard action because it creates a mechanical benefit in combat. This suggests that while a Bluff takes at least 1 round, the amount of time expended should usually take less than a full-round action.

Next, the only limit I could find to speaking as a free action is no "more than a few sentences." So, according to the PRD, would it be legal to take your Swift, your Move, your Standard, and then add a simple Bluff that's not a feint (ie; it adds no direct combat benefit) as a free action?

If you spoke very loudly - for example, if you ran around and screamed "Fire!!!" - would it be possible to affect more than one target? I mean, this sounds reasonable enough, but I'm hoping a simple Bluff in combat could cost a swift action or less. Maybe even if a Move action or Standard action could be used as part of your Bluff (Laced Flayleaf? What Laced Flayleaf, officer? -Hide with Sleight of Hand-), but I don't see any rules accounting for that.

I've been working on a build granting lots of dodge bonuses, so searching for all potential weak points has been rather high on my list.

Things I've been able to recall are:

Being flat-footed
- Not acting first in the combat round.
- Failing on a balance check

The Defensive Strategist trait seems rather handy in fixing this, as do, to a lesser extent, high numbers in initiative and acrobatics.

Losing Dexterity bonus to AC
- Being feinted against
- Something invisible attacks you
- Being helpless (paralyzed, bound, held, sleeping, or unconscious)
- Climbing
- Lifting heavy things, and therefore, also taking STR damage past your threshold
- Being blinded
- Cowering
- Pinning something or being pinned

Having ranks in Sense Motive, access the Uncanny Dodge class ability, and spells like Glitterdust and Freedom of Movement all seem like methods to counter, though I can't think of anything to fix blindness at the moment. Fear immunity also helps, though I'd strongly question how my character had advanced to Cowering in the first place.

I do have several questions regarding this most likely incomplete list:
1. Is there a distinction between losing your Dodge bonus and losing your Dexterity bonus to AC? I think they're the same - if you have other sources you lose those too, right?
2. What other ways to lose your Dodge bonus have I missed?
3. What ways to counter these conditions have I missed?

Thanks!

You can find the descriptors for the sorcerer Rime-blooded Arcana and druid/magus/witch Frostbite Spell here and here, respectively.

See quotes from the Bloodline Arcana:

Whenever you cast a spell with the cold descriptor, you may select one target of the spell to be slowed (as the spell) for 1 round. A Fortitude save (DC 10 + the level of cold spell + your Charisma modifier) negates the effect.

And the transmutation [cold] spell:

Your melee touch attack deals 1d6 points of nonlethal cold damage + 1 point per level, and the target is fatigued. The fatigued condition ends when the target recovers from the nonlethal damage. This spell cannot make a creature exhausted even if it is already fatigued. You can use this melee touch attack up to one time per level.

By definition, the target of the spell is the creature touched. No ambiguity there. But working out how the targetting functions with the arcana, if you multiclassed or went Gestalt, is a bit more puzzling.

Issue #1 - Are casting/targetting simultaneous or separate time requirements? Here, the target isn't specified during casting, it's what you hit from the touch attack. Do you pick the thing you're planning to hit ahead of time for the arcana, or would this work on anything you hit? Would it not work at all since it's not "whenever you cast the spell?" What if you were a Spellstriking Magus attacking immediately after casting?

If the requirements are separate, what happens to Frostbite, which scales by 1 use/level?

Issue #2 - How often would it apply? "You may select one target of the spell to be slowed" suggests, RAI, a single target. So no (1) Frostbiting/slowing multiple enemies... I think. Would the arcana (2) Expend itself in one hit, causing one save and one 1-round slow on failure? Or if you slap the first creature over and over, repeating the targetting process but still hitting this one target, would the RAW rules enable (3) Application of the arcana multiple times to one opponent, causing multiple saves and 1/round slows?

Even if (3) worked I suspect DMs wouldn't allow it. But I'm extremely curious as to what would happen.

If my magus somehow had Combat Reflexes and Snake Fang, could she -

1. Cast Arcane Mark and attack with her scimitar using Spellstrike to deliver the touch, triggering an attack of opportunity
=> IF the attack misses, unarmed strike (free action opportunity attack) with Snake Fang
=> If her unarmed strike hits, follow through with another unarmed strike (immediate action) using Snake Fang, then
2. Attack again with her scimitar using the free attack provided by Spell Combat/Spellstrike?

Are these 2 weapon/2 unarmed attacks legal for a full-round attack? The only thing I can see that MIGHT get in the way would be the 1 swift action/immediate action per round limitation, but I didn't catch anything about that in the description for Spell Combat and Spellstrike. Thanks!