Kristal Moonhand's page

I'm having a bit of a disagreement of the use of the Highlord's Mark ability.

At 5th level, willingly or unwillingly, a highlord’s charismatic and psionic nature bleeds into the environment around him. The highlord can establish a location as his territory, after spending at least a week in the area around it. This location must be an area no larger in volume than a cube that is a number of feet per side equal to 10 feet per highlord level. If it is a public (or at least well known) area, it becomes widely regarded by others that the highlord controls or own it in some way. The highlord’s power influences the appearance of the area through his open heart ability, though objects within it are not changed as to become unrecognizable.

My opinion is that you can spread out the area provided by the ability to cover irregularly-sized areas, or restrict it so that it only covers a single building, due to the very specific "area no larger in volume than a cube that is..." wording.

One of my fellow players believes that it's an immutable cube. So if you're a level 5 Highlord, you get a 50x50x50 cube and just plop is down somewhere. For example, if there's a tower that's 20x20x60, you have to wait until level 6 to fully claim it.

Thoughts?

One of my players on my online server is playing a Gamla (technically a Feelkha, but potato, potahto) Warder. He's using a Medium-sized longsword but a Large-sized shield (cuz we figured using a Medium shield would offer less protection). Anyway, the reason for this is this trait of the Gamla:

Undersized Weapons: The gamla have crude ungulate hands which make it difficult for them to wield properly sized weapons. As such, gamla’s ability to wield manufactured weapons is determined as though the gamla were one size category smaller than they actually are.

The issue arises because he's using Iron Tortoise and needs to make shield bash attacks for his counters, but he takes the the -2 penalty for using an inappropriately sized weapon, because the shield is too big for his clumsy elephant hands.

I'm just... somewhat unsure what to do about this, so I'm hoping for some advice. We're a big community with lots of players, so I can't just make a snap ruling like I would for a home game.

The Phantom Blade Spiritualist says its weapon is "an incorporeal masterwork weapon of its type". If it's incorporeal, does that mean it ignores armor and shields?

Yeah, so just like the title says, can you make metal alchemical cartridges like dragon's breath or entangling shot for advanced firearms? And if so, how much do they cost? I tried googling this but all I got was a good two dozen people asking if metal cartridges being "sturdier versions of alchemical cartridges" meant that they reduced the reload time, which was not at all helpful.

Or should I say, Unchained Shifter? We asked for Shifter to be better and so it is. This archetype is great~

Can we get some kind of clarification on what the dev responsible for the Elemental Monk archetype wanted to do with it? Because as it stands, you trade Stunning Fist and all of your bonus feats for Elemental Fist. It says you can use any element when you attack with it, but Elemental Fist does that anyways, it doesn't force you to choose a specific element. So what's up?

So, upfront, I know that the Final Aspect of Shifter is useless for Oozemorph. I'm just hoping for a FAQ or errata giving them a capstone that they can actually use. How about it, Paizo?

Terrakineticist is a really cool archetype, and I'm having a lot of fun with it, but I have some questions.

1. What happens if you choose Elemental Whispers or Greater Elemental Whispers? Does your familiar change elements as you do? Do you get a new familiar for each element? There's no "wood wysp" so what happens if you're in a forest or whatever?

2. If you get Extra Wild Talent and don't choose a universal talent, do you get a talent for each element?

3. Do you ever qualify for Expanded Defense?

This is only tangentially related, but I hadn't realized until making a Terrakineticist that there's only one level 1 utility talent for Void, which is Void Healer. So I guess if I ever find myself in space or the Negative Energy Plane, I'll be able to... heal undead.

So feinting against a non-humanoid has a -4 penalty... but what if you are a non-humanoid? Does a Ghoran take a -4 for feinting other Ghorans but not Elves? What about the various Native Outsiders?

I mean, I assume it's written like that because the game is humanoid-centric, but the spell Hideous Laughter has this:

A creature whose type is different from the caster’s receives a +4 bonus on its saving throw, because humor doesn’t “translate” well.

so I'm not sure if the rules for feinting are like that on purpose or because the devs just plain forgot that there might be non-humanoid races feinting.

Do you still get your size bonus/penalty to CMB when performing a magic maneuver, like with the Telekinesis spell or Kineticist Infusions? Cuz it really doesn't feel like you should. How would being bigger make you better at grabbing someone with your brain?

We all know a witch's familiar is a familiar, but is it also a spellbook? Would things that affect your spellbook also affect your familiar?

What is your least favorite thing that happens while playing, either in the game or out of it?

Mine is when people don't take the 5-foot to give flanking. It's completely free, just fricken step over!

Question is right there in the title. I'm a bit unsure of the relative "worth", so to speak, of things like trapfinding, trap sense, poison use, no trace, uncanny dodge, etc. Rogue Talents and Ninja Tricks I get, they're feat-equivalent, but the others I have a harder time getting a fix on. Should I be diminishing sneak attack to compensate for particularly powerful abilities?

I can't seem to find anyone talking about this, so has anyone noticed that the Mysterious Stranger's Grit pool is broke as hell?

Grit (Ex): A mysterious stranger is a force to be reckoned with. Instead of using her Wisdom to determine the number of grit points she gains at the start of each day, she uses Charisma. This ability works in all other ways like the gunslinger’s grit class feature.

That means you use your CHA to determine how much you get each day, but your pool itself is still WIS-based. Is this on purpose?

EDIT: The Buccaneer AT also has the same wording, so it's similarly borked.

A discussion came up in my group about whether you could animate a Ghoran's old body, or rez it after they used their seed ability, and that turned into "Can you raise dead/resurrect someone's old body after you've reincarnated them?" What are your thoughts on either point?

I'd like to get some wider feedback on my archetype for the Alchemist. It's gone over pretty well with the group I play with, but I'd like to know what the community at large thinks. For reference, the AT is supposed to play kind of like the Psycho class from Borderlands 2.

Linky

Vishkanya and Drow both get Poison Use as a racial ability, which is worded exactly like the class ability used by several classes. So, does it count for feats that require the "poison use class ability" as a prerequisite? This is a straight rules question, please don't tell me to ask my DM.

From the new Elemental Masters Handbook, there's a Kineticist Form Infusion called Energize Weapon that lets you light your sword on fire (or whatever element you have). However, it doesn't allow you to use Gather Power with your hands full. Was that intentional? Am I really supposed to spend burn every turn I want to attack? At least with Kinetic Fist your hands are already free...

I also feel like this should be backwards compatible with Kinetic Knight, like how the healing stuff from Phytokinesis let you qualify for Kinetic Chirurgeon.

The Pack Rager Barbarian archetype gives this ability:

At 2nd level and every 4 levels thereafter, the pack rager can take a bonus teamwork feat. This teamwork feat must also be a combat feat.

This ability replaces the rage powers gained at 2nd, 6th, 10th, 14th, and 18th level.

I have two questions about that. First, do you need to meet the prerequisites for these feats? Most things that give bonus feats say one way or the other and besides a comment from JJ I can't find anything concrete on which is the default.

Second, do you have to take the feats? It says you "can take" one, which is permissive, unlike most archetypes that give bonus feats. Holy Tactician, for instance, says you "gain" them. It also says you need to meet the prerequisites, which contributes to my confusion.

Thanks in advance~

My copy of the ARG says that Aasimar and Tieflings age at the same rate as the geniekin races, but the official Paizo site says they age at the same rate as humans. Which one is right? Were aging rates errata'd at some point and I just missed it?

Ah, alternate classes, the gift that keeps on being confusing... Has there been an official answer on whether or not the Antipaladin can take Extra Mercy for an extra Cruelty? I mean, its pretty obvious to me that they should be able to do it, but the wording is vague.

If no official answer exists, what are your thoughts?

So you can't have the same enchant on a weapon multiple times, but does that count for enchants that are variable, like Bane? Basically, could you have a +1 Bane (Undead), Bane (Demon), Bane (Dragon) weapon?

Thank you~

If you use the Training enchant to put Two-Weapon Grace on a weapon and have all the prerequisites except for Two-Weapon Fighting, do you still get DEX to damage when flurrying with the regular monk? The flurry says you treat the attack as if you have TWF, so I'm not sure if the "treat as if" is enough to make the enchantment fire...

Simple question, are you flanking if you are inside an enemy's space? Say you're a Medium creature underneath a Huge or larger creature with an ally adjacent?

A few players I game with have had a disagreement over the weapon enchants Vorpal and Heart-Piercing.

Firstly, can an Amulet of Mighty Fists with Vorpal on it be utilized by a monk with, say, the Tiger Style or Weapon Versatility feats?

Secondly, is a thrown weapon considered "ranged" when determining whether or not Heart-Piercing can be put on it? For instance, a starknife or maybe even a rapier with the Sharding or Throwing enchantments?

Thank you for your thoughts~

I've found something in Betrayal Feats that doesn't make sense and was hoping someone could explain it to me.

Characters with class abilities granting allies access to teamwork feats (such as cavaliers or inquisitors) can select these teamwork feats normally, but allies who are granted these feats can use the feats only as initiators, not as abettors. An inquisitor could not grant an ally the Ally Shield feat and then use the ally as a shield, for example, but he could allow that ally to use him as a shield.

Which is all well and good... If you're a Cavalier. However, that's not how the Inquisitor ability Solo Tactics even works!

At 3rd level, all of the inquisitor’s allies are treated as if they possessed the same teamwork feats as the inquisitor for the purpose of determining whether the inquisitor receives a bonus from her teamwork feats. Her allies do not receive any bonuses from these feats unless they actually possess the feats themselves. The allies’ positioning and actions must still meet the prerequisites listed in the teamwork feat for the inquisitor to receive the listed bonus.

(emphasis mine)

So do betrayal feats just do nothing if you're an Inquisitor, or does the Inquisitor ability override the rule meant to keep you from using your allies as human shields whenever you want in the first place? Remember, it calls out class abilities that involve "granting allies access to teamwork feats", which Inquisitor specifically does not.

So I'm playing a monk and I recently lost an arm. Luckily, someone clued me in to the Clockwork Prosthesis item so I wouldn't have to be a one-armed monk. Now I'm the Steampunk Monk, or Steamonk, if you will. I saw that it could be enchanted and I was like, "Oh sweet, I can enchant my punches like an Amulet of Mighty Fists!"

But then I got to thinking. Alchemist lets you get more arms, which can then be replaced with clockwork and enchanted. So if I wanted, I could potentially be a four-armed clockwork cyborg with magic fists of justice. Just saying that makes me drool...

Now, I understand that I don't get more attacks from Vestigial Arms, don't worry. But I do have some questions about how this is gonna work.

1. Do I have to put a +1 enhancement on each arm or only one? Since it technically affects my unarmed strike, which is a single "weapon", I would think it's the latter, but each arm is a separate item, so it could be the former.

2. If I have to enchant each arm, would all the +1s stack together since they're all affecting the same thing? I don't believe they would, but I'm asking just to make sure.

3. If I make a single attack, would all the enchants on the arms fire at the same time? Like if I had Flaming on one arm and Shocking on another, would I do fire and electricity damage? By RAW I would think so, but it seems weird, like I'm punching someone with all my arms at once.

Thanks in advance!