Kumakawa's page

I've wanted to make a protection domain cleric of Kazutal since I picked up Gods and Magic. But now I'm so keen on a character from the Mwangi that I've been torn. With the Demon Bringers Pantheon that the team just released I don't have to choose! Kazutal/Majagua for the win!

I wasn't planning on doing roguey stuff, much as it pains me to miss out on those. I was thinking of the following outlay at level 1:

Arcana +6
Perception +4
Society +6
Occultism +6
Performance +7
Deception +7
Diplomacy +7
Religion +4
Lore +6 (scam, crowd)
Nature +4

...and grabbing bardic knowledge at level 2.

But if we need a rogue, I can rejigger stats and lose a few of these (a lore, nature, and maybe religion?) to add dex-based skills. I'm taking trick magic item fairly early on, so I was thinking to take the skills relevant to the other magic traditions.

Also, Jessica, play whatever you want, but I'd encourage you to consider Bard - seems perfect for this AP. I'd do it, but I just don't have a Bard heart.

Bri, if you want to make a monk, I'd be happy to go back to bard. If Jessica sticks with sorcerer, we'd have a full caster, melee, ranged, and a skill monkey/party face/minimal healer.

No, it's cool. I expended 10 rounds of insomnia on statting out a monk! (And I think a wolf-riding goblin archer would be an amazing circus act.)

I think I've settled on a strength-based monk and I'll experiment with multiclassing. Monk/barbarian seems like a pretty strong build and animal instinct a good fit for a circus performer. I'm thinking gorilla (for the strongman/king kong vibe) or wolf (to build a theme with Alex's wolfrider).

Big hello to Jessica!

I've been thinking of going with a bard, my first-ever. I need to do some more thinking about his character, but he'd be built around over-the-top b&*+~$@!tery and lots of buffs.

I'm pretty flexible though and Brian is right that we're light on melee, which might be a pretty serious problem. My experience of 2e is that it's pretty lethal.

How would we be in terms of social skills if I made a strongman?

Maybe that was the wrong choice of words. :/

For the first time in my life I'm considering playing a bard. The Occult spell list is weirdly clericky!

Rogue is always an option for me--knife thrower or acrobatic appeals. I was also thinking about an elemental sorcerer cum fire swallower.

Introduce your characters here:

Hey, just checking in. Sorry, Brett, I didn't realize my PMs were disabled!

What tier is this table? I'll get my PC set up today and be ready to play!

I believe the text of the spell says that the spell is dispelled if it fails the SR check against a target, which I take to mean that it poofs entirely.

Cool

By the way, is Meligaster okay? I noticed he/she hasn't posted in several days so I wanted to check :)

She's OK. :)

Three PbP insights/conventions/suggestions to share:

1) If making comments outside of you character and describing actions, good form to use the [ooc] formatting. I've seen it both to clarify the mechanical aspect of what you've described, but also for questions and clarifications, like Tim asking if there are Knowledge checks he could make, for instance.

2) Sometimes b/c of the difference in time posting, there will be something you'll want to respond to, but it seems the conversation has moved on or it's just been awhile and it's confusing if you don't clarify; so in those instances "reply" to the post you are responding to (rather than creating a fresh post) and it'll provide the text in quotes so it's clear to whom your response is directed.

3) Preview button is your friend. I can't tell you how many times I forget a slash, or start with a [b] and end with an /[ooc]

what is this [ooc] formatting of which you speak?

Is there a way to make my profile default to the Enapaishni character? I keep posting under my profile name.

I have not played any of those scenarios with this character.

"Greetings. May I presume that you are Falbin? My name is Enapaishni. We come on Society business."

Diplomacy 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (20) + 8 = 28 to make a good impression

1d20 + 8 ⇒ (11) + 8 = 19

1d20

[1d20] + 8

Bummer that Midnight Mirror is full up. Would love to have joined you.

Is the gnome in this scenario the same one who had his house burned down in an earlier scenario?

1) Asmodean Advocate--really cool flavor. Though if you redo this one, you ought to stipulate that any ability that modified the Bluff skill also modifies Profession Barrister when used to Bluff.
2) Herald Caller--such a fantastic summoning archtype and an unusual approach to the cleric
3) Knife Master
4) Heretic Inquisitor
5) I will expend my last vote to downvote zen archer or beg for a good nerfing

I loved Nightblade and Nightglass. Can't wait to tuck into this one!

I ran this yesterday and my PCs loved it. It's such a cool story, and the NPCs make the role play memorable.

My players were especially excited to use the Candle of Conveyance to use the psychic skill unlocks. They used it to read each others's auras, and, more pertinent to the plot, to use psychometry on the braided hair that they recovered from the Pale Silence. I gave them their results in the form of cryptic visions: an elderly elven woman meditating, a distant landscape with celestial silver lions rampant above the horizon (I later wrote lions into the heraldry in the silver pagoda), and six children sitting at the foot of the elderly elf. She cut a lock of her knotted hair and handed it to one of the children, and the vision ended.

They had a lot of fun role playing with the NPCs at the festival. (They chose this location first because of its connection to Tiennese elves, and, presumably to the would-be assassins in the first part. I wouldn't be surprised if this is what most parties opt for.) There's a lot to work with here, and if you're running it, it will behoove you to spend some time thinking about what the NPCs' motivations are beyond clan rivalries--I didn't spend too much time on the politics because there's already a lot going on. One question that the scenario doesn't answer is whether the psychic influence affecting Mata Ryuu responds to detect magic, and if it does, what a spellcraft check would reveal. I imagine this might be answered in part two, but I haven't read it yet. To stay out of the weeds, I just told them there was no aura, but he was definitely behaving as though under a compulsion. They had enough social skills to ace this part, though they didn't press Ryuu on their suspicions after he came back from the crypts, so they won a 2-1 vote.

In Dallo, they met up with Yuzana and were eager to help fight the monsters. They detected the fraud at the stupa, but didn't investigate the dam sufficiently to find the cradle. They used the candle to investigate the forged cradle and saw an image of the cradle being placed in a dark space by a slovenly looking man, and the same man carving a copy of it. They described the man to Yuzana, and she led them to Arkar. They found him playing dice, and after being interrogated, admitted to the forgery. So, they found the true cradle and had the amulet for the daemon fight.

I can see how the fight could be very tough for a party of level 3 PCs, and tough for anyone if enough party members failed their saves in the daemons' opening salvos. But, my players had no trouble with it at the low tier. They had luck on their side: nobody failed a save against slow or hold monster, despite the fact that I targeted the melee guys with low Will for both hold monsters.

That said, I don't think this encounter is too difficult for the tier. The saves on the daemons' spells are makeable (15 and 17, respectively), so no more than half the party should be affected by them, and there are ways of getting around both effects. In addition to Linda's and Scott's suggestions, above, I would say that you can steer the PCs toward the true cradle, which will give them the amulet. If they can't make the knowledge religion check to ID the hallow effect, maybe Yuzana can suggest it as a good place for the ambush.

It sounds like the parties that wiped on this fight couldn't make any knowledge checks or pass their saves, and didn't come with silver weapons or a way to align them. That's a bummer when it happens, but it's not the scenario's fault. DR silver is not hard to get around, especially when the scenario gives you a mithral sword. (It might have been better if this sword appeared in Dallo--maybe even as an offering at the shrine. If PCs go to Dallo first, they won't have it when they need it.)

This is a challenging encounter for sure, but I don't think it's unfair. For a frame of reference, the party I ran for was composed of a halfling cavalier on a wolf, a halfling mounted fury barbarian on a wolf, a rogue/mesmerist, a pregen cleric, and a samsaran magus.

All in all, a great scenario! I can't wait to play/run the sequel.

I am so in favor of this. I started playing Pathfinder as a way of getting back into TTRPG's, and PFS was how I learned the ropes and met other players in my area. But, it was a HUGE turnoff to be seated at tables with highly-optimized players who had feats, races, spells, and gear that I'd never heard of.

I think this is a really elegant solution, and I'm excited to see it roll out around here.

The text says that you can conceal the fact you are casting a spell; it doesn't say you can conceal the fact you are using bardic performance. The point of the feat seems to be to allow enchanters to conceal their casting of spells. I would rule that, beginning at third level, the Maestro can conceal her spell use with spell song, though, by RAW, only sorcerer spells that are also on the bard list would qualify.

This is a great candidate for an errata. I'd love to play a Maestro in PFS.

Agreed as to the above. I am making an Oracle of Bones for PFS, fully aware that they're likely to either gimp it or outlaw it before his career is over. I wanted a Seven Spears Juju Oracle but I guess it will have to wait for a home game.

Congrats, Benn!

Thanks for everything you do for us in Philly. There's an awesome community centered around Redcaps.

~Tim

I love the potential for this class. I have a high level dragon disciple who is built mainly for casting, and I've been thinking about making another one that does a lot of what the bloodrager seems built for--using spells for buffing/utility and generally being a beast in melee. I was thinking of four levels of barbarian and one of sorcerer before this class was announced.

So, I just want to add my voice to the chorus asking that the designers please, please consider how bloodrager will interact with the DD prestige class. It's such a cool class thematically, but I think it gets underplayed because it's seen as being less powerful than other options that are out there.

I like this class, but it has a few problems, IMHO.

1- I too was hoping for Dex (or maybe Int) to damage. Level to damage is not as organic and blocks multi-classing way too much, IMHO. If this is out of fear of stacking the damage bonus with Dervish Dance, just change it to Dex (or Int) replacing the Str bonus to damage rolls, instead of adding to it, you can't replace Str twice, so it'd be okay. Give the class cool features and it won't be just a dip class.

2- Reflex as the only good save. This is not a minor disadvantage. This is a crippling weakness in any game that goes beyond 7th level, and a death sentence at 11th level and beyond. Swashbucklers should have good Fort too, IMHO.

3- Forced Weapon selection. Rapier is iconic, but I'd like the option to use my abilities with other 1-handed weapons too, such as whips, chakrams and longswords. That would add a lot of variety to Swashbuckler builds. I suggesting expanding the ability to work with one-handed Slashing weapons too.

4- Why not simply give it Weapon Finesse instead of going the needlessly complicated route of giving the class "all the benefits of Weapon Finesse"? Keep it simple.

The next ones are not exactly problems, but stuff I think could be added to the class without any problem:

5- While 4 skill points is okay, I'd expect a Swashbuckler (such as Zorro and Robin Hood) to have a least 6 + Int. Not that much of a problem, though.

6- Mobility. Swashbucklers don't really get anything to make them more mobile. Other than the Darring-do deed, that is, but that deed is terrible. Give it the ability to add Cha to Acrobatics and Escape Artist checks, spend Panache to move and attack more than once (maybe move as a swift action?) or something like that.

I agree about being railroaded into rapiers, shortswords, daggers. I've been dying to play with a spiked chain and this would be perfect. As written though, it's a no-go.

Kumakawa wrote:

(The sword cane is cool thematically, but it can't be used with Weapon Finesse...

{in Professor Farnsworth voice:} Good news, everyone!:

Ultimate Equipment, pg. 38 wrote:

SWORD CANE: This slender light blade lies within a wooden container that serves as both its scabbard and hiding place. You can draw the blade as a swift action (or a free action if you have the Quick Draw feat). An observer must succeed at a DC 20 Perception check to realize an undrawn sword cane is a weapon rather than a walking stick; the DC decreases to 10 if the observer is able to handle the weapon. You can use the Weapon Finesse feat to apply your Dexterity modifier instead of your Strength modifier to attack rolls with a sword cane sized for you, even though it isn’t a light weapon. You can’t wield a sword cane in two hands in order to apply 1-1/2 times your Strength modifier to damage.

Sweet! Happy to stand corrected.

I really love this class and I got started playing it in a PFS scenario last week. I love it because I love sneaky, versatile, skill monkey types and I think the rogue is pretty busted. A few thoughts:

-I agree with what I take to be the consensus, that at low levels, the investigator can't do much in combat. I did a total of 4 damage the other night during a scenario-length dungeon crawl.

-This class is not SAD. It is meant to be a dexy build for the sake of sneaking, disabling traps and locks, and making the other really fun, dex-based skill checks. So, you need Int, Dex, Con if you want to live long enough to start the sneak attack progression, Wis if you want to spot those traps, and, if you want to play more of a social rogue type, Cha. The thing about being a skill monkey is that you have to have the abilities that underlie the skills you want to use. People will alway find ways to damage-optimize. It's no reason to gimp classes that excel at other phases of the game.

-Inspiration is the biggest reason to play this class and 1d6 is the right level for it to start. The thing about making skill checks, is that if you fail, you often don't get a second chance. It's great to improve your odds of success when you absolutely, positively must stealth that guard or disable that magical device.

-Please no guns. I understand the reasons for wanting a Philip Marlow, but guns ruin fantasy games. Hitting touch AC with a Dex-based character to do the kinds of damage guns do is ridiculous. I've had more than one scenario ruined because a gunslinger one-shot all the encounters.

-I think poison use is fine thematically. Whether it is out of keeping with the detective of literature is immaterial. Just because Sherlock is the point of departure for the class, doesn't mean that the Investigator has to be a jot for jot representation of him or anybody else. My problem with poison use is that it is not very good. It's expensive, you burn action economy using it, and it doesn't often deliver. I have a level 9 ninja in an adventure path, and I think he's used poison twice, with the baddie making the save both times.

-I am a bit conflicted about sneak attack. I think it's fine thematically. Pathfinder games turn on combat in a way that Sherlock's adventures did not, so every class must have a way to participate. The problem is the mechanics. I see this class as being all-in on the role of skill monkey, and only doing damage as a secondary role. At first glance, the lower dice progression makes sense, except that being effective with sneak attack requires an investment in feats like two-handed, mobility, etc. If you want to be a combat rogue, I say play a ninja. With the lower progression, I don't think I'll build the class to get the most out of sneak attacks. I think this class should be doing something in combat other than drawing blood. Maybe give the class Combat Expertise (an Int-based feat anyway) and something like whip proficiency to make maneuvers at range. (The sword cane is cool thematically, but it can't be used with Weapon Finesse. At 3/4 BAB and minimal strength, I don't think I'm going to be using it.)

-Suggestion for a replacement: What about an ability that lets the Investigator make a knowledge check to ID the baddie's weaknesses. In addition to the usual benefits, the investigator can, with a high enough roll, simulate the effects of magic properties that hit those weaknesses. For example, if he passes the check by 5 or more, he can simulate the ability of a +1 magic enhancement; if he passes it by 10 or more, he can simulate a +2 enhancement, and so on. This ability could be limited by costing Inspiration points. Perhaps, consistent with my opinion that the Investigator shouldn't be dealing damage, he could spend a standard action (and maybe more inspiration points) to hand out these insight-based buffs to PCs that are better at whacking things. This fits thematically, in that the Investigator can think his way out of any jam, and mechanically. It's really a buzzkill to end up in combats when no one can get around DR, and this would be a good thing for a brainy character to do in a fight.

I'm a little late to this thread, but...

+3 (trained), +4 (dex, assuming a buff (collar of dexterity)), +6 (ranks), +3 (competence), +2 (MW tool) = 18

18 v. 25 = 72%
18 v. 30 = 60%

Remember, pickpocket (sleight of hand) is different than steal (combat maneuver).

At 6th level your "familiar" is smarter than most fighters and a lot of paladins, so I don't know how much "commanding" you need to do, but probably a little extra instruction on how to pick the mechanical lock would be helpful. Perhaps a tiny manual to put in the same belt pouch the racoon puts his tools & loot.

There might even be a tiny "Vest of Escape" as well.

Yes, your pet horse Mr. Beaky might be able to work the latch of his stall door, but isn't picking the barn door lock with a carrot anytime soon. Your weasel familiar Sneakers will be in and out of the royal treasury faster than you can say "Faster than Chitikka Fastpaws".

The problem is that, by RAW, you cannot give the familiar 6 ranks in either skill, because the ability description explicitly states that the ability uses the animal's skill ranks, not the PC's. I've been considering making a carnivalist because it's so cool as a concept, but it doesn't look like a playable build to me.

Got a pretty sweet dhampir boon I just couldn't think what do with if you have something your looking to trade.

Do you still have that Dhampir boon? I have an Ifrit I'd be happy to trade for it.

Thanks for all the clarifications John!

For everyone else, monster stats are in the GM Shared Prep folder! This one was quite a doozy to compile. TWO TEMPLATES on the same creature! For shame, Ryan!

Then the Babaus MAYBE drink a potion of cat's grace. And then some pretty crazy 4-player adjustments.

PHEW!

Where is the shared prep folder? Would love to save some time building out those templated monsters!

I ran this the other day and it will be the last society game I ever GM.

In the first encounter, the bard at the table had a +20 something to his sense motive so he sussed out her lies immediately. A brief combat followed, in which the gunslinger one-shot the 130 hp nighthag.

The Glabrezu encounter went much the same, except that I had him take a surprise round to use power word stun on the gunslinger. Of course, the gunslinger had some kind of gadget that made him immune to stun, so I wasted the only action I was to get. The mage had his familiar use a wand of haste, the inquisitor baned evil outsider, raged, power attacked and lunged to do 116 pts of damage while also avoiding even a single AoO. The gunslinger promptly ended the combat.

I pushed them through the shadow lodge encounter, because really, what a complete waste of time that would have been. The inquisitor used the spell that gives him a +30 to perception checks so I just read off the loot in the basement while I started filling out the chronicle sheets. Feeling my PFS career coming to a frustrating end, and hoping to salvage something of the evening, I skipped the scorpion encounter.

The boss had just enough time to summon 3 babaus before the wizard d-doored the gunslinger and inquisitor into close proximity with Caggrigar. The gunslinger promptly did 20d8 damage to him, and I was forced to spend two rounds rolling the babaus' d6+5 damage while the gunslinger reloaded

Pathfinder Society is broken.

I am planning to run the Mask of the Living God module this weekend and I just learned that modules and APs are designed for a 15 point buy. Does that apply to all modules?

My players intended to use their PFS characters, but I'll have to make them roll up level 3's using 15 points. Please clarify, if you can. Thanks!

So, I am running an adventure path, and in an upcoming encounter, the party will face a mud shaitan in a muck-filled room with a deep pit of quicksand in the middle of it. Included in the shaitan's tactics is that if any PC gets trapped in the quicksand, he is to use transmute mud to rock to encase the PC in stone.

My question is this: if the party cleric is the one who gets trapped (and let's say she is fully immersed in the muck when the spell goes off), can she cast transmute rock to mud to escape?

The spell has VSM components. I don't think she'd be able to satisfy the somatic components within the stone, thus making this a death trap for her if she's the one who gets caught in it. I'd like to hear your thoughts before I take somebody out so ruthlessly.

Does a saddle for a small creature weigh half as much as a standard saddle? RAW looks like no, but it would make sense, wouldn't it?

Ryan Koetsveld wrote:

There is currently no way to get a flying mount as a cavalier in PFS

Uh, Potion of Fly is only 750 gp. Grayson feeds one to Ozzy whenever it looks like it might be good idea.

Kumakawa wrote:

With a small character, your strength is likely not going to exceed 14 and your lance will be doing d6 damage. Assuming you get to spirited charge at fifth level, you'd be doing 4d6+8 damage on a charge, 7d6+14 if you crit.

This is not quite correct. Spirited Charge with a lance is 3 dice, and a critical takes it to 5 dice. Crit multipliers are additive, not multiplicative, when they stack. So doubling with the lance, then doubling again with Spirited Charge, makes it 3x. Then tripling with the critical takes it to 5x damage.

Why is your strength only 14? My halfling cavlier, Grayson, runs with 18 Str, 12 Dex, 10 Con, 10 Int, 8 Wis, and 16 Cha at 8th level (started at 16 STR, put both level bumps in there).

Also, you are missing the most important part of all this. Damage for a small cavalier has nothing to do with the dice and everything to do with all of the things you add AFTER the dice.

Don't forget the ways to increase damage - Power Attack, Mounted Mastery, etc. These all multiply along with the damage dice on a spirited charge with lance. At level 12, Grayson's charge string is something like this:
Non-challenge, non-large target - +2 ghost touch, heartseeker, adamantium lance at +21 for 3d6+75 - that is on a ride-by attack wheeling charge, so no provoking, and if I hit, I get a free sunder/trip/disarm/bull rush attempt that also does not provoke.

If the target is large or larger, I invoke Risky Strike, taking a -1 penalty to AC to make the damage roll 3d6+90.

If I challenge the target, it gets ridiculous.
+23 for 3d6+111 on a medium or smaller opponent
+23 for 3d6+126 on a large or larger opponent

On a crit (19-20 with Mighty Charge), it is 5d6+185 on a challenge against a medium or smaller target and 5d6+210 on a challenge against a...

Thanks for the clarification. I figured I was missing something (working off of the core rulebook and the APG I often am).

There is currently no way to get a flying mount as a cavalier in PFS, this is not a hint that there may be a way to get a flying mount some time in the near or far future. A druid with boon companion and 4 levels in fighter will net you a flying mounted nightmare of death (which is what i assume you want) that will make GMs and other players sigh as one shot enemies in a scenario which may lead to people not playing with you due to sucking out all the fun.

Just as a note, if you can one shot enemies of a appropriate CR with minimum damage from a not crit, it's probably time to retire that character.

I think the damage output from a flying medium-sized cavalier is a valid concern, but it would hardly be the only build blowing up encounters. More to the point, the issue I have with this position is its effect on a build involving a small druid--a halfling say--taking a dip in cavalier to become a small, winged lancer. I hit upon this thread because I've been thinking about making one, and I don't think it's OP at all.

With a small character, your strength is likely not going to exceed 14 and your lance will be doing d6 damage. Assuming you get to spirited charge at fifth level, you'd be doing 4d6+8 damage on a charge, 7d6+14 if you crit. And that's having sunk all of your feats into being a charger, probably sinking all your skill ranks into Ride and Handle Animal, eating an AoO on every rideby, being fairly useless when not mounted, and running the risk of instant death if you get fireballed out of the sky. Hardly OP. By contrast, a fifth level magus routinely does 6d6 plus his strength, plus his enchantments, going to 12d6 on a crit.

I think the rules as written account for this reality by making medium-sized flying mounts available to small druids at level one. I'd like to multiclass into cavalier because I like the concept of buffing your friends against the boss encounter as you swoop down into melee and/or swooping in with a cure spell as needed. Taking a dip in fighter lacks the je n'est sais quois of a cavalier.

The bigger issues with taking levels in fighter, as you suggest, is that the animal companion won't level with your druid, and, if anything, it exacerbates the risk of an OP lancer (by making more feats available early).

My two cents.

I am GM'ing for a party of six players and having a worsening problem of balance within the party. The problem is that four of the players are new either to Pathfinder or to TTRPGs entirely. (I myself am coming back to it after not playing since 2.0.) The other two are veterans and built much more powerful characters than the other four.

They're dominating all the encounters and it feels like it's starting to suck the fun out of the game. I've got a paladin who never gets to do anything because the fully optimized inquisitor has already shredded every combatant on the field.

What should I do?

I have found the encounters to be pretty easy, and I've also found that my players are behind where they should be in terms of leveling (they are about to encounter the succubus and are not quite at level 6).

At first I thought this was because we have a large party (6 players) with two of them being highly optimized--I have a maxi-minned inquisitor thrashing the monsters with a greatsword and a magus using electric slap for 6d6 dmg.

I've tried increasing the number of monsters, ,which didn't up the difficulty much, and I've tried adding the advanced template, which, with the AC boost, has only frustrated the players. I may have to do a bit of both to find the right balance.

I only started playing/GM'ing Pathfinder a few months ago, and picked up SS to help me run an adventure. I wish I had read these threads first, because, as other commenters have noted, this AP leaves a lot of work for the GM to do. That said, my players have generally been having a great time. The sandbox style of play is great if the GM can step into the role.

Smuggler's Shiv was a blast, but RtR has started feeling like a sequence of meaningless encounters on the way to something important. The blame for that falls on me, and I'm thinking of ways to juice the storyline a bit. (I'm planning to have one of the party members become a double agent for another faction.) I think this will work for our party given the situation they've found themselves in: one of players was killed and they have no way to raise her. The cleric is planning to ride back to meet the expedition (Sargavan Government) to see if it is carrying a scroll of Raise Dead, and if it has diamond dust to erase the negative levels. I am going to have the Aspis Consortium intercept her and offer to help raise the dead rogue in exchange for her help. By the time the party finds out about it, the government will be an adversary and they will find themselves the reluctant allies of the Consortium.

Thanks alot guys. Really appreciate it!

I've just gotten into gaming with minis and I haven't had any success using crazy glue to assemble them. I have a fighter mini with a large-ish sword that needs to be attached to his arm. I've glued it on three times, and three times it's fallen off the first time I used it or transported it. Can you recommend a better adhesive?

I am pretty new to Pathfinder and I am bewildered by the rules regarding the use of magic devices such as rods, staves and wands. Can anyone give me a primer on their use?

I read the rules as follows:

rods are generally activated by a command word, and can be used by any class with skill ranks in UMD

staves and wands are activated by spell trigger, thus they can only be used by a caster of the appropriate class, though a wizard, for example, could use an arcane staff or wand to cast a higher level spell than she otherwise could

the rules for using a scroll are pretty clear in the rules, viz., they can only be used by casters of the appropriate class and level.

Assuming a character could use a device, she must still satisfy a UMD check every time she tries to use it. Is this correct? If so, it seems odd to me that UMD is not a class skill for wizards. Why would it be easier for a rogue to use a staff than for a wizard?

Also, if all of the foregoing is correct, then it seems unreasonably difficult to use a magic device. I am building a sorcerer and I want to be able to use devices to broaden her spell list. It seems to me that if I have to apply the UMD skill every time I use even a basic magic item, there will be a high possibility of failure (even with skill ranks, a DC 20 seems hard to hit). Am I missing something?

I am pretty new to Pathfinder and I am bewildered by the rules regarding the use of magic devices such as rods, staves and wands. Can anyone give me a primer on their use?

I read the rules as follows:

rods are generally activated by a command word, and can be used by any class with skill ranks in UMD

staves and wands are activated by spell trigger, thus they can only be used by a caster of the appropriate class, though a wizard, for example, could use an arcane staff or wand to cast a higher level spell than he otherwise could

the rules for using a scroll are pretty clear in the rules, viz., they can only be used by casters of the appropriate class and level.

Assuming a character could use a device, she must still satisfy a UMD check every time she tries to use it.

If all of the foregoing is correct, then it seems unreasonably difficult to use a magic device. I am building a sorcerer and I want to be able to use devices to broaden her spell list. It seems to me that if I have to apply the UMD skill every time I use even a basic magic item, there will be a high possibility of failure (even with skill ranks, a DC 20 seems hard to hit). Am I missing something?