Kutukant's page

You take a moment to study the man in front of you. He's a plain looking man in plain looking clothes. Not what you would expect from somebody who is able to commandeer the warden's office. You're not even sure you would recognize him again if you passed him on the street.

If he notices your attention, he doesn't seem to mind. He sets the piece of paper in his hands on the desk and slides it over to you. It's a pencil sketch of a gnome in profile. You can't help but recoil when you realize where you've seen this before.

"Gentleman Jack," the man confirms, no trace of mockery in his voice at your reaction.

Gentleman Jack. The Butcher of Brastlewark. His diminutive stature belied his outsized reputation. His obsession with his ghoulish "art" of knifework had held a whole community hostage in breathless anticipation of the appearance of his next victim. He had evaded capture until the Hellknights got involved. Nobody would say just how large the task force was that had brought him in, or how many had been lost.

"He's been seen in Marmorata, a town in Cheliax near our border. He's turned over a new leaf. Given up the killing for more restrained criminal activity," the man says, grimacing. "His new boss is keeping him on a short leash."

You share the man's distaste. Anybody who can keep Gentleman Jack in line is bad news. With a sinking feeling in your stomach you start to realize where this is going...

"I don't give two s&@+s for Cheliax, but the last thing we need is a gangster state on our border," the man says. "Your mission is to eliminate Jack's gang and investigate his links to this new kingpin of crime. Kill everyone associated with that organization and you'll have earned your freedom."

The implications are just starting to settle in when the man coughs, drawing your attention once more. He holds a small ceramic disc between his fingers.

"It's amazing what happens when you get an alchemist and a wizard working together," he says. "This material is perfectly inert. It can be implanted in the human body with no side effects. It won't even show up in general magical diagnostics. But if you probe it too closely..."

He sets the disc down and waves his hand over it, muttering a magical incantation. The disc begins to glow bright white and he hastily waves his hand over it again, casting another spell. The disc explodes in a fireball that is contained in a newly revealed shell of force the size of your head. When it dies down a corner of the warden's desk is simply gone.

"It reacts badly to attempts to remove it. It also activates on command, of course. Wouldn't want you to wander off, now."

With a chuckle, the man continues the briefing. When he finishes you are taken straight to what passes for the prison's operating room where you are put under general anesthesia. You wake with a new scar on the back of your neck. You also have a choice to make.

You and your teammates will be transferred to a new government facility. While the guards are not aware of your new mission, once you decide how you want to approach things assistance will be provided to you. Do you want to:

(a) Escape in transit while the convoy is moving,

(b) Escape in transit while the convoy is bedded down for the night, or

(c) Escape after arriving at the new facility?

Every morning prisoners are given an opportunity to exercise. You are placed in groups of five and forced to walk several circuits along a line painted on the ground in the prison yard. At the far corner of the yard you will be out of earshot of the guards for about ten paces. This will be your only opportunity to discuss matters with your new teammates before the transfer.

While you guys are getting started I'll be going over the crunch of each of your builds. I will pm you if I see anything that needs clarification. If you're doing anything tricky it would probably be a good idea to pm me and give me a heads up before deploying it mid-game.

This is the place for rules questions, ooc chit-chat, and basically anything that shouldn't be on the gameplay thread.

Some explanatory stuff to get things started:

- Please follow the usual conventions for the gameplay thread. This includes bolding dialogue and using the ooc tags for ooc questions. The basic idea is that the gameplay thread should be somewhat readable as a narrative.

- The basic format for this game will be as follows: I'll write a bit of the story, then present you guys with a choice. You'll have a chance to discuss the choice in character (usually). Once you've arrived at a decision you'll get some challenges to overcome (or not). Eventually you'll hit another choice and the process cycles through again. Sometimes the choice will allow for write in options and sometimes it will just be choosing from a list.

- Sometimes the challenges presented will be in the form of combat. Since this is homebrew there aren't any map pregens available. I'd be ok doing combat in narrative form, but I understand that a grid makes it much easier to see what's going on. I'm open to suggestion as to online map presentation software.

Please let me know if you have any questions. Also, if you like you can take this opportunity to introduce yourselves and explain what everybody would know about your characters based on time spent together in prison. The prison experience is a medieval-style supermax. Not totally isolated, but near-total supervision.

An Offer You Can't Refuse...

You were once one of Golarion's most notorious criminals. You may have been a flamboyant terror, inspiring wild stories in taverns across the land. Or you may have been a more subtle villain, a name spoken in whispers when people dared speak it at all. One thing was for sure: you were going to leave a mark on the world.

Until one day you just disappeared.

You're not dead. You're just in an Andoran prison. At least, you think so. As far as you can tell, its a secret site where the government does work it considers necessary for the preservation of Common Rule that it would rather the public not know about. Things like experimentation on captured prisoners.

The days and nights all run together. Even treatment you once would have described as torture became routine with time. You couldn't say exactly how long its been, but one day there's a break in the routine. They clean you up, give you new clothes, take you to the warden's office.

A man you've never seen before is sitting behind the warden's desk. Before him is a sheet of paper. He taps the paper once.

"Andoran is facing a very serious problem. I'm recruiting a team to... handle the situation. I won't sugarcoat it for you: this mission would be suicide for anybody else. But you just might pull it off and survive."

It doesn't require any great insight to sense that that last sentence is not entirely truthful.

"If you're caught, we will disavow all knowledge of your existence. If you run, you will die. But if you succeed we will consider your debt to society paid off and you will be free to go about your life as you wish. We'll even let you keep your gear."

Are you in?

This will be play by post. At least one post per day from everybody. Unexplained absences of more than two days will result in your character dying off screen. We're running on comic book logic so it might turn out later that your character wasn't really dead, but you may have to wait for a slot to open back up before you jump in.

Ideally I would like to recruit four or five people and a small number of alternates, rotating folks in as characters die. I will pick based largely on the strength of background and capture stories.

I have a couple of questions about the Orator feat and the Student of Philosophy trait. It seems like they're written differently in ways that might have different effects. I'm not sure if that's a deliberate choice or if I'm just overanalyzing everything.

You can use a Linguistics check in place of a Bluff check to tell a falsehood or conceal information, in place of a Diplomacy check to change the attitude of a creature, or in place of an Intimidate check to force a creature to cooperate. You must deliver your attempt in a language the target understands.

You can use your Intelligence modifier in place of your Charisma modifier on Diplomacy checks to persuade others and on Bluff checks to convince others that a lie is true. (This trait does not affect Diplomacy checks to gather information or Bluff checks to feint in combat).

Finally, the uses of Diplomacy, as described in the rules:

Gather Information: Using Diplomacy to gather information takes 1d4 hours of work, searching for rumors and informants.

Influence Attitude: Using Diplomacy to influence a creature’s attitude takes 1 minute of continuous interaction.

Make Request: Making a request of a creature takes 1 or more rounds of interaction, depending upon the complexity of the request.

Suggest Course of Action: at least 1 minute of continuous interaction.

Notice that we don't have "persuade others" on that list. The most natural reading to me seems to be that Gather Information is its own thing and the other three are all forms of persuasion.

Let's suppose that there is a witness to a crime that is hostile to our character. In response we want to persuade the witness to like us and then convince them to tell us what happened. If I have taken the Orator feat, then it looks like I can use Skill Focus(linguistics) to convince them to like me, but then I'm back on the Diplomacy skill to get them to testify. If I have Student of Philosophy then it seems like I should be able to use int for both as both are forms of persuasion.

How about some racial traits:

Human are often adept at subtle manipulation and putting even sworn foes at ease. Humans with this trait gain a +2 bonus on Diplomacy and Bluff checks. In addition, when they use Diplomacy to shift a creature's attitude, they can shift up to three steps up rather than just two. This racial trait replaces skilled.

Some half-orcs use half-orcs' brutish stereotypes to their advantage, causing others to underestimate their intelligence and scheming. Such half-orcs gain a +2 racial bonus on Bluff, Diplomacy, and Sense Motive checks. This bonus increases to +4 against other humanoids. They also receive a +2 racial bonus on Bluff checks to feign ignorance and Sense Motive checks to intercept secret messages, and this stacks with the above bonus. This racial trait replaces intimidating, orc ferocity, and weapon familiarity.

And regular traits:

You gain a +1 trait bonus on Diplomacy checks. This bonus increases to +2 when the Diplomacy check is made to influence those who are already friendly or helpful toward you.

The way I read it these would work with Student of Philosophy since it just changes the charisma modifier to an intelligence modifier. But they would not work with Orator since it is slotting in a linguistics check in place of a diplomacy check.

Does this all seem right? The Orator feat seems rather underwhelming.

Witch guides and witch discussion threads often wax rhapsodic about Evil Eye. I can't help but wonder if I'm looking at the same hex.

The target takes a –2 penalty on one of the following (witch’s choice): AC, ability checks, attack rolls, saving throws, or skill checks. This hex lasts for a number of rounds equal to 3 + the witch’s Intelligence modifier. A Will save reduces this to just 1 round.

This is a mind-affecting effect. At 8th level the penalty increases to –4.

Let's compare:

You can use this skill to cause an opponent to become shaken for a number of rounds.

Shaken: A shaken character takes a –2 penalty on attack rolls, saving throws, skill checks, and ability checks.

Here's the thing: as the Intimimancy guide notes, using a standard action to inflict shaken on one opponent makes you 10% of a contributor for that round. There is a 10% chance that your target will waste their standard action because of your efforts. This is a terrible return on a standard action. Intimidation becomes valuable when you can do it as a swift or free action.

And yet isn't intimidation four times as efficient as Evil Eye? A knowledgeable player can mitigate the inefficiency by picking out the key stat to evil eye, but I'd hardly say it's better than shaken. You can hit AC if you want, I guess.

Duration is arguably different. If the witch is willing to stagger himself he can keep the evil eye going forever. On the other hand, taking the Memorable trait makes it easy to get shaken stuck for three rounds. That covers a huge chunk of the average fight.

Am I missing something here? What makes Evil Eye a worthwhile use of a standard action?

Boasting taunt:

Benefit: While raging, the barbarian can incite a creature to attack her by making an Intimidate check to demoralize. If the check succeeds, the target is also shaken as long as the barbarian is visible and raging or until it makes a melee attack against the barbarian. The barbarian receives a +2 circumstance bonus on this check for every alcoholic drink she has consumed during this rage. This is a language-dependent mind-affecting effect, and it relies on audible components.

Does the special feature of boasting taunt kick in for all intimidate checks or just for the standard action intimidate check? If you could use it with Dazzling Display or Cornugon Smash it would be pretty useful. If it only works burning a standard action it seems like it would rarely be worthwhile to taunt instead of AM SMASH.

What kind of resources are out there for the enterprising individual looking to make themselves as dirty of a fighter as possible? This is for an unchained rogue looking to take advantage of that inability to clear blindness that is built in to Underhanded Trick. In order to get the wonderful full attack on a blinded opponent you need to beat the CMB by 5.

First question: is there any way to get an enhancement bonus here? Amulet of mighty fists, maybe?

Second question: will weapon finesse give me dex to cmb (weapon finesse on unarmed strike, even?) or do I need to use agile maneuvers for that?

Feats: Improved and Greater Dirty Trick, of course. Nothing else jumps out at me.

Items:
Ioun stone: Dusty Rose Prism Wayfinder resonance (+2 CMB/CMD +1 AC insight)
Gauntlets of the Skilled Maneuver (+2 untyped to chosen dirty trick)
Belt of Superior Maneuvers (+x enhancement bonus, 3x day)
Belt of Incredible Dexterity (+dex)
Burglar's Buckler (+2 competence)
Tattoo, Serpentine (free dirty trick 3x/day on successful attack)
Cracked pale green prism (+1 competence)

Traits:
Equality for All (Andoran) - +2 bonus to your CMB and your CMD when facing opponents who are at least two sizes larger than you. Hilarious on a reduced halfling but probably self defeating.

Bred for War (Human) - +1 bonus on Intimidate and a +1 bonus on your CMB. You must be at least 6 feet tall.

Anything else?

Taunt:

You may be small, but your remarks cut others down to size.

Prerequisites: Cha 13, Small size or smaller.

Benefit: You can demoralize opponents using Bluff rather than Intimidate (see the Intimidate skill description for details) and take no skill check penalty for being smaller than your target.

Bluff:

Bluff is an opposed skill check against your opponent’s Sense Motive skill.

Common uses:
- Convey secret message
- Deceive or lie
- Feign harmlessness
- Feint in combat
- Suggest course of action

A lot of bluff boosts apply only to specific activities, like the Mask of Stony Demeanor (+10 to lie, +5 to feint, -5 to hidden messages) or glibness (+20 to lie).

I have two questions about the use of Taunt:

(1) Does it convert demoralize attempts into sense motive checks or is it the usual intimidate roll but using the Bluff skill instead of Intimidate?

(2) Does the taunt fit into one of the existing categories (i.e. lying or feinting) or is it a brand new thing? In other words, do things like glibness and the mask of stony demeanor apply to demoralize attempts using taunt?

Has there ever been an explanation of how Paizo decides to make a particular action part of the rules or part of a feat? I mean, logically we could have something like:

Feat: Flank

Prerequisites: Combat Expertise, Int 13.

Benefit: When making a melee attack, you get a +2 flanking bonus if your opponent is threatened by another enemy character or creature on its opposite border or opposite corner.

And, as an entry in the rule book:
Combat: Power Attack

You can choose to take a –1 penalty on all melee attack rolls and combat maneuver checks to gain a +2 bonus on all melee damage rolls. This bonus to damage is increased by half (+50%) if you are making an attack with a two-handed weapon, a one handed weapon using two hands, or a primary natural weapon that adds 1-1/2 times your Strength modifier on damage rolls. This bonus to damage is halved (–50%) if you are making an attack with an off-hand weapon or secondary natural weapon.

--

So why do you have to take a feat for Power Attack while you get to flank for free? If anything it seems like it would take more training to coordinate attacks with another person than it would to sacrifice accuracy to swing harder.

I often feel like when I'm using a martial character I have to take feats in order to be able to do something that a real person in the setting would be able to do without hyper-specialized training. Imagine you have a character that's proficient with a whip. What's one of the first things you think of? For me, it's the Indiana Jones whip grappling hook swing maneuver. I know how to use a whip, so can I do it? Maybe some kind of dexterity check? Haha, nope, you get to take three more feats after gaining whip proficiency before you can even try.

How different would a martial play if all full BAB characters had access to all or most of the combat feats all the time, with (say) a -2 or -3 to hit if they invoke a feat that isn't on their character sheet? Barring some infinite power combo I don't think it would really be too crazy.

I love the flavor of the Synthesist Witch but I have this nagging feeling that it kind of stinks.

Second question: do you still get the benefit of the alertness feat when melded?

Not quite a rules question: is there something in beast shape that a witch really wants? It seems very melee focused.

So, Silent Table is on the witch spell list.

Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)

Area 5-ft.-diameter emanation centered on an object or a point in space
Duration 1 minute/level (D)
Saving Throw none (object); Spell Resistance no (object)

DESCRIPTION

You protect an area against casual eavesdropping. Sounds and sonic effects that originate inside the area are muffled for anyone outside the area; Perception DCs to hear or understand sounds leaving the area increase by 20, and any saving throw DCs of these effects decrease by 2. The spell does not affect sounds that enter the area or the Perception checks of creatures inside it.

At first I thought I had found away around all those consequences that GMs like to drop on witches who cackle all the time. Then I remembered my geometry and the distinction between radius and diameter. Is this spell seriously only good for personal sneaking around?

Also, are there any similar spells that affect larger areas? It seems like a little much to take a +3 level metamagic hit to Widen the thing.

A character who has the channel energy ability from a class other than cleric may use these variant channeling rules if the class’s abilities are tied to serving a deity. For example, paladins can select alternative channeling abilities if they serve a deity, as can oracles with the Life mystery (as they serve many deities), but necromancer wizards cannot.

Two questions:

(1) Can a shaman with the life spirit use variant channeling?

I would think yes because the shaman is descended from the oracle, so it ought to get the same treatment. This does raise the same question as the Life Oracle, namely: which variant channel do they get?

(2) Can a witch who is a hex channeler use variant channeling?

This seems a little muddled to me. On the one hand, a witch is an arcane caster. On the other hand, the patron mechanic seems similar to the oracle mystery mechanic. If the Life Oracle is somehow "serv[ing] many deities" because of their mystery then witches are arguably serving a deity via their patron. It feels pretty on theme for a witch with the Plague Patron to get access to the Disease variant channel.

Just wanted to throw some love at the Unsworn Shaman archetype. I think its raw power level is lower than the vanilla Shaman (assuming you lose the level 2 and 10 hexes) but in my opinion the sheer flexibility makes for a unique play experience.

The Plan
The goal here is build a character that is fun to play and mechanically viable without tapping into any of the flexible resources. This allows you to freely engage in daily rebuilds to match your party's needs and/or your whims. My own personal sense of fun is that it's more fun to be stabbing enemies in the face than not, so I like a framework like this one.

If you want the stats for melee you're going to have a hard time with the save or suck hexes. Fortunately you can focus on buffing your party and not have to worry about saves. The basic idea is to get everybody in your party on the fortune reroll train while you do your best reach cleric impersonation. Most GMs will let you chant until a cutscene, and it's actually a little uncommon to have fight -> cutscene -> fight within the same day.

If you're giving everybody constant rerolls and also personally spearing bad guys, I'd say you're pulling your weight.

You will be able to pursue this basic strategy while also enjoying complete flexibility as to your third hex and (at level two) spirit patron. At level four you get another hex to play with. I'll run through a few of the possibilities.

There are of course some solid witch hexes. Evil Eye obviously works well with the all-chanting strategy. Soothsayer can promote action economy by allowing you to pre-buff your party with Fortune. Flight is always good. Slumber isn't being optimized for here, but it's still a free save or die.

The base shaman gets a nice buff in Fury (+2 morale bonus on attack rolls and a +2 resistance bonus on saving throws against fear, extends with Chant). If you're really going all in on buffing you could do a lot worse.

The wandering spirit will open up the world of spirit hexes:

Water Sight: The shaman sees through fog and mist without penalty as long as there is enough light to otherwise allow her to see normally.

Obscuring Mist is on your spell list. If you wake up feeling like getting your Batman on, all you have to do is tell your GM. Just don't forget to go down to the market and pick up some Gravelly Tonic before combat starts.

Arcane Enlightenment: The shaman's native intelligence grants her the ability to tap into arcane lore. The shaman can add a number of spells from the sorcerer/wizard spell list equal to her Charisma modifier (minimum 1) to the list of shaman spells she can prepare. To cast these spells she must have an Intelligence score equal to at least 10 + the spell's level, but the saving throw DCs of these spells are based on her Wisdom rather than Intelligence. When she casts these spells, they are treated as divine rather than arcane. Each time the shaman gains a level after taking this hex, she can choose to replace one of these spells for a new spell on the wizard/sorcerer spell list.

Feel like playing god for the day? Yoink the tool you need off the wizard's spell list. Taking the Lore Spirit also gets you access to an off brand Studied Target in Monstrous Insight (standard action to do a knowledge check and get +2 to hit and AC against a particular creature for one minute). Hitting things is good.

Heaven's Leap: The shaman is adept at creating tiny tears in the fabric of space, and temporarily stitching them together to reach other locations through a limited, one-way wormhole. As a standard action, the shaman can designate herself or a single ally that she can see who is within 30 feet of her. She can move that creature as if it were subject to jester's jaunt. Once targeted by this hex, the ally cannot be the target of this hex again for 24 hours.

Teleport your barbarian friend into position for a full attack, or blip your wizard buddy out of danger.

Mammoth's Hide: The shaman can touch a willing ally and cause its skin to thicken and sprout thick, shaggy fur. The creature gains a +2 enhancement bonus to natural armor and resistance 5 to cold for 10 minutes.

If you are truly committed to buffing your pals this could be on your list. Doesn't get extended with chant but does last a good long time.

Crystal Sight: The shaman sees through stone, earth, or sand as easily as if it were transparent crystal. Her gaze can penetrate a number of feet equal to her shaman level (or 1/12th this thickness of metal). The shaman can use this ability a number of rounds per day equal to her shaman level, but these rounds do not need to be consecutive.

Could be handy if you're adventuring somewhere with stone walls. This hex illustrates the power of the Unsworn Shaman early on--the vanilla shaman can't flex into this hex until level 6. If he wants to get it before then he has to commit to the otherwise underwhelming Stone Spirit.

Cauldron and Fetish are available if your campaign allows for crafting to allow you to make potions and wondrous items in exchange for a total investment of zero (0) feats.

You are also of course customizing your spell list by changing out wandering spirits every day. You can use the human FCB to get spells off of the cleric list as needed.

Alternative Plan

If you want to go in a more casty direction, you could do a witch-like load out of 7/14/12/12/18/14 and go on a grand tour of the available save or suck hexes. The Unsworn Shaman can go way deeper into witch hexes (one through extra hex, then one in each of your flex hexes) compared to the normal shaman. This kind of stat array would also make it a lot more viable to flex into the healer role as needed.

Bottom Line

A vanilla shaman who focuses on exploiting any particular Spirit will do a better job of it than the Unsworn Shaman. However, the Unsworn Shaman can be built into a reasonably capable framework that retains a unique level of flexibility. You can practically rebuild your character every time they go to sleep.

You might not ever be the most optimized shaman for any particular situation, but you'll pretty much always be able to find a way to contribute to any given party in any given situation.

Did I miss any good Shaman tricks? Is there a vanilla Shaman build that blows the Unsworn Shaman out of the water in every possible situation? I'd love to see more discussion of the archetype that goes beyond counting the total number of hexes available.

It seems like the Esoteric Magus archetype is supposed to be to monks what the Hexcrafter is to witches. I'm curious about how thoroughly you guys think they combine. In particular, this:

At 4th level, an esoteric's arcane pool is also considered a ki pool for the purposes of meeting feat and ability requirements. Points from an esoteric's arcane pool can be used for abilities that normally require ki. If an esoteric gains a ki pool, he can use points from his arcane pool and ki pool interchangeably (though not special points such as drunken ki).

And this:

Benefit: On a successful unarmed trip attack against a target your size or smaller, you may throw the target prone in any square you threaten rather than its own square. This movement does not provoke attacks of opportunity, and you cannot throw the creature into a space occupied by other creatures.

Special: A monk may gain Ki Throw as a bonus feat at 10th level. A monk with this feat can affect creatures larger than his own size by spending 1 ki point per size category difference.

If an Esoteric Magus gets Ki Throw, can he spend ki to affect larger creatures than himself? On the one hand he's supposed to be able to use his ki pool like a monk does, but on the other hand he isn't a monk.

The short and sweet FAQ candidate here is this: When a feat or enhancement applies to unarmed strikes and explicitly does not apply to natural attacks, does Feral Combat Training allow one to apply that feat or enhancement to the selected natural attack anyways?

Diving into more detail:

Choose one of your natural weapons. While using the selected natural weapon, you can apply the effects of feats that have Improved Unarmed Strike as a prerequisite, as well as effects that augment an unarmed strike.

The big one here is the Brawling armor enchantment:

The wearer of brawling armor gains a +2 bonus on unarmed attack and damage rolls, including combat maneuver checks made to grapple. Her unarmed strikes count as magic weapons for the purpose of bypassing damage reduction. These bonuses do not apply to natural weapons.

The Pummeling Style FAQ used similar language ("No, Pummeling Style is intended to work with only unarmed strikes. Add the line. “You can only use Pummeling Style with unarmed strikes”. This will be reflected in future errata.") but the actual errata has more specific language ("This ability works only with unarmed strikes, no matter what other abilities you might possess.").

As far as I've seen this question has been argued back and forth inconclusively on the forums with reasonable people on both sides. I will admit that I tend to think that the language in the Brawling description is intended to clarify things for those players who tend to think that natural weapons are unarmed strikes, and that accordingly Feral Combat Training controls. However, I can see where people are coming from with the argument that "do not apply to natural weapons" means "do not apply to natural weapons" no matter what.

This might not be the most hotly contested issue out there, but Feral Combat Training is a heavy feat investment and it would be nice to be clear on what it's actual limits are for players considering taking the plunge.

As fun as the Hexcrafter Magus is, there are some areas where it seems to struggle a bit. I'd like to see how you would address those weaknesses.

The goal: Build a Hexcrafter Magus that can run the gauntlet below.

The tools:
- 20 point buy.
- Any PFS legal race is ok. Ditto any PFS legal trait or feat.
- No starting stat can be below 10.
- The character is now at seventh level.
- You have 15,000 GP to spend (this is less than WBL... we're saving some money for the days you aren't running the gauntlet).

The team: You will be accompanied by:

- Butch Deadlift. Seventh level fighter, maxed out strength, swings a two-handed greatsword very hard.

- Dirk Backstab. Seventh level chained rogue, disarms traps and tries to flank people.

- Flash Powerwaster, a blaster wizard whose spellbook is limited to magic missile, scorching ray, fireball, and ball lightning.

They all have cure light wounds wands that they can use semi-reliably out of combat. Everybody has essentially limitless food and water.

The challenge:

Part 1: Your team will proceed into a dungeon filled with increasingly powerful undead. You will be permitted to rest after every three or four encounters. However, the CR on the encounters will rise by 1 after every rest period. The encounters will vary in structure: sometimes a bunch of weaker enemies, sometimes one big dude and a couple minions, sometimes just the one BBEG. Once your whole team is dead, you'll be resurrected back at the dungeon entrance and sent along to Part 2.

Part 2: Your team will now venture into a dungeon filled with vermin. Some swarms, some giant bugs. Again, you can rest after every three or four encounters. And again, the CR will be ticking up after every rest. You will keep going until you die, then rez back at the surface for Part 3.

Part 3: The final dungeon is filled with a mix of vermin, undead, and constructs. The weighting of each category will be even overall, but might tilt randomly one way or the other on any given day. Same structure as before with three or four fights per day and gradually increasing difficulty.

So, how do you build your hexcrafter to get as far as possible in each dungeon?

I've been kicking around ideas on using Hex Strike, but it's hard to beat the foundation provided by a Hexcrafter. I know from the FAQ that you can spell combat with unarmed strikes, but that does leave a few questions.

(1) Can you use your arcane pool to enhance a punch that can deliver a Hex Strike? It's not clear to me if you can straight up enhance your unarmed strike. I know you could enhance a cestus, but then it's not clear to me if a cestus-punch can deliver a hex strike.

(2) Order of operations. Let's say I have Enforcer and Hex Strike (Slumber). I punch somebody, doing nonlethal damage. Enforcer lets me do a free action intimidate on them, while Hex Strike lets me do a swift action slumber hex. Can I choose the order that these two things fire off in? If not, which goes first?

Same question, but now the bad guy is already shaken and I'm wearing a Cruel Amulet of Mighty Fists. Does he become sickened before I deliver the slumber hex? On a related point, if I have a cruel amulet going and the slumber works, do I gain temporary HP?

(3) Enforcer shenanigans. Say I have a Frostbite spell going with at least one charge left. I use a wand of Blade Lash to make a trip attempt against a bad guy. It succeeds. Since I touched him while holding a charge, he takes Frostbite damage. Does this trigger Enforcer and let me intimidate him?

Let's suppose I have a wand of Blade Lash in one hand and a claw attack in the other. I pass my UMD check to activate the wand and tap my claws.

First question: Do I get to try and trip somebody within 20 feet with my extendo-claws?

My inclination is to say yes because claws are treated like weapons for things like Weapon Focus. The mental image is a little weird but hey, it's magic. I know sometimes people get a little hinky with natural weapons and stuff like this so I wanted to see what your initial reactions are to this scenario.

Second question: Assume I don't have Improved Trip, the target is 20 feet away, and the target can't reach me from 20 feet away. My trip attempt will provoke... can he attack me, or is the AoO doomed to be wasted?

Third question: If I'm wearing a body wrap of mighty strikes +1, can I use it to add its bonus to the trip attempt?

Unchained seems to be pushing rogues towards a battlefield control and debuff kind of role. I thought I'd see how far it's possible to go with that. I also kind of always wanted to play a half-orc wearing a fedora.

The basic idea is that you get your choice of debuffs. You're set up to pump intimidate pretty high, so you should be sending people fleeing from combat almost at will. When you run into creatures that are immune to non-lethal or immune to mind-affecting you can trip them from a distance. When applicable, weapon snatcher lets you disarm with a sleight of hand check which should be succeeding most of the time.

Vanish and Scout should let you get a decent number of sneak attacks with the associated sickening/debilitating injuries/STR damage. You also should have a high enough UMD to pull off Obscuring Mist + fogcutter lens shenanigans if your party is on board.

I didn't have combat reflexes in there early because I personally rarely experience multiple provocations in a turn. If you redid the build without a whip focus it would open up room for that as well as the dazzling display -> shattered defenses chain. But then you don't get to use a whip, so...

My big concern is the usual rogue problem of not landing my attacks. Arguably going for a trip build just spreads out the mediocrity instead of making the character good at anything. Assuming a +2 whip and +4 dex item (and +2 dex from leveling) at ninth level a trip attempt will have a CMB = 6 BAB + 7 dex + 2 whip + 2 improved trip + 2 greater trip + 1 weapon focus + 1 trait = 21.

Would that cut it? Would an attack from invisibility cause them to lose their dex to CMD?

Any other suggestions? I like the idea of whip-cracking battlefield control but I also like the idea of running a reasonably effective character.

Enforcer:
Whenever you deal nonlethal damage with a melee weapon, you can make an Intimidate check to demoralize your target as a free action. If you are successful, the target is shaken for a number of rounds equal to the damage dealt. If your attack was a critical hit, your target is frightened for 1 round with a successful Intimidate check, as well as being shaken for a number of rounds equal to the damage dealt.

Skill unlock: Intimidate:
5 Ranks: If you exceed the DC to demoralize a target by at least 10, it is frightened for 1 round and shaken thereafter. A Will save (DC = 10 + your number of ranks in Intimidate) negates the frightened condition, but the target is still shaken, even if it has the stalwart ability.

My question is, do these work together? In other words, if I hit somebody for nonlethal, take my Enforcer free action, and beat the DC to demoralize by at least 10, what happens?

I see two possibilities:
- Target is shaken for a number of rounds equal to the damage dealt.
- Target is frightened for 1 round and then shaken for a number of rounds equal to the damage dealt minus one (target is not frightened if it makes its will save).

Any ideas which will be the consistent ruling? The distinction turns intimidate from a very appealing skill unlock to a very meh one, so I'd like to know.

My question is specifically in regard to True Form:

At 7th level, a pact wizard's familiar reveals its true form, automatically transforming into an outsider improved familiar of the chosen subtype.

Is "seventh level" the character's seventh level overall or his seventh Wizard level? It seems like familiars kind of bounce back and forth in terms of which one they use.

I suspect getting an improved familiar off of a one level dip would be too good to work, but I figured I might as well check.

Knocking people the f*** out. The moving parts:

A Tengu has a natural weapon bite attack that deals 1d3 damage. The alternate trait Claw attack gives two claw attacks as primary natural attacks that deal 1d3 points of damage, and are treated as having the Improved Unarmed Strike feat for the purpose of qualifying for other feats.

The natural attacks table tells us that bite attacks are Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing while claw attacks are Bludgeoning and Slashing.

Putting all of this together, a Tengu rogue who gets a full round sneak attack will take three attacks with no penalties to hit. At fifth level each attack will do (1d3 + 1 + 6 + 6d6, average 30) nonlethal damage, not counting any bonus due to the rogue's attributes.

Am I missing anything? This seems like a pretty nice way to build a combat capable rogue for only two feats and a trait.

Is it just me, or does a three level dip in Hunter really turbocharge the Mounted Fury barbarian? The half-orc teamwork feats seem like they had their power level set based on the assumption that you would have to coordinate a bunch of (half) orcs to get them, rather than using something like Hunter Tactics to give it to your animal companion.

Let's look at a build.

At level 5 I think it's reasonable to assume he has a +1 weapon.

With animal focus (bull) or a belt, Smashy can push his strength to 30 when he rages. When he two hands a lance, power attacks and charges, he's going to be at +17 to hit (4 BAB + 1 weapon + 2 charge + 2 horde charge + 10 STR bonus -2 PA) for damage of 3 * (1d8 + 1 weapon + 2 horde charge + 15 STR bonus + 6 PA), an average of 85.5 points if my math is right.

A mounted fury who can't use the teamwork feats is going to be at +13 to hit and 70.5 on the damage. He's also more limited in his choice of mount. At level 7 Smashy can take boon companion, flip over to an axebeak, and then AFAICT his mount will be able to make attacks on the charge as well (at a cool 26 STR, +2 to hit/damage from horde charge, and a bonus trip tacked on to the end).

Does going straight barbarian give you anything that you lose out on by taking the dip? I guess the obvious one is more rounds of rage, but it seems like you wouldn't need that many if each charge is vaporizing a bad guy. Losing the 1 BAB seems well worth it for the teamwork feats.

Is there some long term loss from losing the three levels of barbarian? Ragelancepounce comes online pretty late in a PFS character's career, and I'm honestly not sure it outclasses amplified rage by enough to be worth the wait.

The basic idea is to make somebody who is a Dethklok style over the top heavy metal self-parody but who can still pull his weight in a PFS scenario. This was inspired by the Lone Wolf Rider build and the Mad Max flaming guitar guy.

Did I miss anything that would make him either more effective or more metal?

Does standing on a floating disk grant a higher ground bonus? Just eyeballing it a three foot height difference seems like it would affect a battle, but I've never seen a precise definition of what constitutes higher ground.

I've seen people default to a five foot difference but if your classic "high ground" scenario is two guys fencing their way up a staircase I don't think that's typically five feet of vertical height difference.

I've seen questions posted about level stacking that kind of get at this question, but I've never seen it answered directly.

Here's the scenario:
A character starts out as a Witch. As her initial hex she takes slumber.

She then takes her next four levels as a hexcrafter magus. At level 5 (her fourth hexcrafter level) she uses the class feature to take the misfortune hex.

She gains two more levels as a magus, and uses her seventh level feat to take Extra Arcana: Hex Arcana: Flight.

She gains two more levels as a magus, and uses her ninth level feat to take Extra Hex: Evil Eye.

The question is: what level do these hexes use?

I could imagine several possible logical rules.

Level stacking: Add together "hex-capable" classes and use that level (in this case, 9).

Highest level: All hexes use the highest hex-capable class level (in this case, 8).

Originating class level: Hexes use the level of the class used to acquire them. Here Evil Eye and Slumber would be at level one, while Flight and Misfortune would be at level eight.

In general my understanding is that you can only stack levels if the rules explicitly provide for it. I don't think they do so here (do they?). So that's out. Is there anything in the rules to let us choose between the highest level theory and the originating class theory?

The Hexcrafter Guide had some interesting ideas about playing the Hexcrafter Magus as a debuffing machine. One suggested build started with a dip into White-Haired Witch to spiff up the available prehensile hair and lay on a staggering number of debuffs. However, it seemed to rely on some fairly aggressive rule interpretations and by all reports wasn't that fun to play in an actual campaign.

How about starting with one level of Winter Witch? You pick up a familiar and get to take a first level hex, and one of your choices is this:

Frozen Caress (Su) Whenever the winter witch casts a touch spell, she can infuse the magic with cold as a swift action. This grants the spell the cold descriptor, and adds 1d4 points of cold damage to the spell’s effect. If the touch spell allows a saving throw, a successful save negates this additional cold damage.

If I'm understanding the rules correctly this would let you throw around Rime Shocking Grasps once you get a magus level and entangle everybody you hit with a weapon. Is that right? Is that worthwhile?

I'm putting together a sorcerer for use in PFS, and I'd appreciate hearing from you guys whether you think she's mechanically viable.

My philosophy here is that Pathfinder is a team game and I want my character to always be a valuable member of the team. I'm not looking to be the guy who broke the scenario that one time. That said, if I'm called upon to bring the pain I'd like to make a decent showing.

I also want to keep things mechanically straightforward and not take any levels outside of sorcerer. I'm more confident I'm following the rules properly that way and I think simpler character sheets tend to be a little more easily accepted.

1: 4d4
2: 5d4
3: 5d4
4: 8d6, 4d6, 2d6
5: 9d6, 4d6, 2d6 (+ entangle)
6: 10d6, 5d6, 2d6 (+ entangle)
7+: 10d6, 5d6, 2d6 (+ 1/2 pt per die, and/or + entangle)

My questions:

(1) Is this level of damage output enough to be useful in a level appropriate PFS scenario? At what point are enemies going to be routinely making their saves? Am I better off tabling the freeze plan until I can afford a metamagic elemental rod and going with the Orc or Dragon bloodline to goose damage early?

(2) Is there something I'm missing that I could be doing to be less of a glass cannon? My thinking is that by focusing on Burning Arc as my workhorse I'd be free to use the bulk of my spells known on other stuff. I figure by level 6 we'll be going into combat with everybody Mage Armored, then I'll do a first round Haste, second round (Freezer) Burning Arc anybody that looks troublesome.

Thanks for taking the time to look this over.