Larris Magpie's page

A Calistria following swashbuckler has taken the Opportunist religious trait from Ultimate Campaign (+1 to AoOs). When performing a parrying deed, its description says, "the swashbuckler makes an attack roll as if she were making an attack of opportunity;" which I interpret as the +1 trait modifier is indeed applicable to this roll.

Not as clear to me is the opportunity of following up a successful parry with a riposte: "the swashbuckler can as an immediate action make an attack against the creature whose attack she parried". Is it reasonable to treat this second attack roll too as a "bonus" AoO, applying any AoO-specific modifiers, negative and positive?

I'm asking both RAI and RAW, if anyone knows if this question has been raised before.

I like to avoid having my PCs get equipment that's unique to specific cultures on Golarion when my PC's not part of that culture. But in the equipment collection books (Adventurer's Armory, AA2, Ultimate Equipment), the cultural ties of each item as it was first published in other Pathfinder products is not specified, whether it's from OGL or space reasons.

I first noticed this where the daredevil softpaws of the catfolk in Advanced Race Guide became generic daredevil boots in UE. Another example: the Adventurer's Sash was said in Seekers of Secrets to be sold exclusively in PFS lodges (presumably to Society members), but in AA2 it's available for all.

Knowing the original source for each item would help when I decide its availability.
Does such a table exist for either anthology?

I know the Archives of Nethys site does reference sources for each item, but then I have to click through each and every entry from the list on the source page. I just wonder if anyone knows if someone has already made a spreadsheet somewhere?

I'm looking to restrict my own PC for flavor's sake here, just to repeat that…

Inspired by the big spellcraft/spellcasting detectability debate, I thought I’d share my personal interpretation of Pathfinder spellcasting logic and internal consistency, while leaving most of the details of timing and perception, stillness or visibility to that other thread.

In our Rise of the Runelords campaign, I have written an in-character paper for the Cypher Lodge of Riddleport. (The character is a Linguistics/Knowledge/Spellcraft orientated cypher hunter transmuter/cyphermage.)

The document is in excess of 4,500 words of fanwank flavor fluff, but it provides me with what I think is a pretty coherent understanding of the practical (if not theoretical) workings of metaphysics and spellcasting in Pathfinder, at least from the point of view of this magic-user IMC. Anyway, the explanations should be adaptable to most settings. =)

Here's my somewhat condensed list of takeaways.

• Great will must be imposed in order to bend the laws of nature. (Echoes of thelemic magick here)
  
• I disregard the passage describing “two types” of magic. There are no arcane and divine “sources” of magical power. I don’t know of any instances where this is a decisive factor in practice anyway.
  
• The phrase “Unlike arcane spells, divine spells draw power from a divine source” becomes accurate only when substituting “draw power” with “act on an invested willpower”. Divine spellcasters channel the will of something greater than themselves, arcane spellcasters must muster their own (free) will. (Note that witches seem to be a special case.)
  
• Therefore, generally way more precision is required for doing arcane magic than for divine magic, even if the spell effect is identical:
  ** Loud and forcefully presented verbal components in a commanding voice.
  ** Armor means risking interference with the somatic part, arcane casters can’t get away with just waggling arms around. (Note how arcane bard spells are more lenient in this regard, but OTOH they always require verbal components.)
  ** Material components for sympathetic magic instead of just providing a holy symbol.
  
• Every caster has just a limited reservoir of willpower available to spend before rest is necessary to regain it. The more powerful magic, the more force of will is necessary. This improves with experience and (cap)ability increases.
  
• Spellbooks are collections of formulae and algorithms detailing the exact manners in which patches, rifts or wrinkles in the fabric of the plane (or however magical phenomena are explained) may be inserted or exploited in order to fool with nature in different ways.
  
• These formulae are so incredibly, unfathomably complex that the symbolic notation script used for documenting them relies exceedingly heavily on mnemonics, to the point that they draw on the uniquely personal traits of every individual caster copying down their spells.
  
• Thus, deciphering and understanding another person’s script takes time, which can be reduced with the assistance of the person having written the spellbook.
  
• During the preparation of spells, the actual algorithmic procedure from the arcane spellbook for evoking the spell effect is in fact followed. Likewise, the divine rituals are performed, partly as praying and/or meditation. There is no memorization and no cramming. The change in the world is made ready, like carefully setting a mainspring-powered trap or meticulously mixing reagents, and it merely awaits the throwing of the switch or adding of the catalyst to take effect.
  
• The caster’s mind and/or body then functions much like a spell completion item for spells prepared. The spell resides in the caster, almost-cast until the last components and triggers are applied.
  
• Like scrolls, the magic energy stored in pre-cast form may be released in other ways than just completing the spell.
  
• The minds and/or bodies and/or souls of spontaneous casters are permanently imbued with a magical conduit of some sort.
  
• Scribing spell scrolls and crafting other spell completion items means externalizing the storage of the prepared spell outside oneself. (Like allocating program memory externally at compile-time. Sorcerers allocate internal memory at run-time.) The main lifting of exerting willpower is done during the item creation process.
  
• The writing on a scroll describes briefly and symbolically how the scriber personally has prepared this specific instance of a spellcasting, and gives unique instructions for its completion. This is why high-level scrolls are no larger in size than low-level ones, even if the high-level spells take up more pages in a spellbook. (Casting time could possibly be a more relevant factor.)
  
• When casting a spell, it is only a matter of completing it properly. The spellcaster adds the situationally conditional parameters by adjusting the use of required spell components.
• Through these, the caster’s will is also unequivocally expressed. (“I command: Make it so!” or “In the name of $DEITY, amen”).
  
• The components may or may not consist of mnemonically enhanced language symbols, elaborate poetry and/or interpretive limb signs. It’s all individual. But which general effect (spell name, not the specific parameter values of target, distance, etc. or color of the magic missiles) that these components are designed to make is still recognizable to spellcrafty observers during casting time (as the spell is being cast).
  
• As a spell is being cast, its counterspell will always be faster to set off, since it has no need to detail many of the situational parameters. This is how a spell used as a counterspell may interrupt a regular version of itself even if the counterspellcaster must first identify the spell.
  
• Persons skilled in Using Magic Devices may recognize a spell scribed on a scroll and improvise the verbal and somatic components needed for its completion, which will vary according to the spellcasting and scribing habits of the person who originally crafted the scroll, and possibly to the person currently using the scroll as well. The divine/arcane dichotomy is actually quite important in this case because of the difference in components employed by divine/arcane casters. So a rogue activating a divine and an arcane scroll of the same spell would in fact behave a little differently during the completion of each of them.
  

What do you think? Does this make sense, or is it nonsense? With what, if anything, do you particularly disagree? All comments welcome!

I notice that the RAW for the Cyphermage prestige class is different from that of e.g. the Loremaster (with which it otherwise seems to have shared blueprints) in very few places.

The difference I care about is the spell level progression:

Spells: When a cyphermage gains a level, he gains new spells per day as if he had also gained a level in an arcane spellcasting class he belonged to before he added the prestige class. He does not, however, gain any other benefits a character of that class would have gained. This essentially means that he adds the level of cyphermage to the level of whatever other arcane spellcasting class he has.

Source: d20PFSRD.com

Spells per Day/Spells Known: When a new loremaster level is gained, the character gains new spells per day as if he had also gained a level in a spellcasting class he belonged to before adding the prestige class. He does not, however, gain other benefits a character of that class would have gained, except for additional spells per day, spells known (if he is a spontaneous spellcaster), and an increased effective level of spellcasting.

Source: d20PFSRD.com

From this alone it would seem that the Loremaster does gain the increased effective casting level benefit from the prior class, while the Cyphermage does not.

However, I'd very much like to know if this is in fact overruled by this FAQ answer, which does seem to save the day for the Cyphermage:

Prestige Classes and Spellcasters: Does a wizard (or other character that uses a spellbook), receive bonus spells to add to his spellbook when he gains a level in a prestige class that grants an increase to spellcasting?

No. The increase to his spellcasting level does not grant any other benefits, except for spells per day, spells known (for spontaneous casters), and an increase to his overall caster level. He must spend time and gold to add new spells to his spellbook.

Source: FAQ

So which is it? Is the Cyphermage really a badly amputated Loremaster, stuck casting low-level versions of high-level spells (if that's at all possible) or could its prestige class features description do with a little bit of clarification like the Loremaster text?

I am struggling to rationalize why bards may cast arcane spells with only a Somatic component while wearing light armor and still get away with no arcane spell failure risk. I thought of it when reading the Ki Arrow description, but the phenomenon applies to more spells.

In my mind, the rationale behind the armor rule would be that the bard spellcasting methods greatly emphasize the verbal component and rely far less on the precision of the arm movements and gestures of the somatic components than wizard/sorcerer castings of the same spell, but moreso than the cleric's crude ritual handwavings.

I would houserule that any bard spells cast silently would risk ASF as normal. On The other hand, as they are spontaneous casters I’d give them Eschew Materials as a bonus feat.

Options?

The utterly helpful inner front cover of the Varisia: Birthplace of Legends Player Companion provides among other stuff the following:

Skoan-Quah (Skull Clan)
Oracle Mysteries: Bones, lore, nature

I have two big problems with this:

Firstly, the bones mystery revelations are almost all necromantic and related to creating or controlling undead, the greatest taboo of the Skull Clan. Cf. this old post by James Jacobs.

Secondly, the omission of the Ultimate Magic oracle mysteries from the entire list leaves the very essential ancestor mystery inaccessible for the Skoan-Quah shaman oracles.

This is just wrong. IMNSHO the bones mystery should officially be swapped for ancestor in this list.

Opinions?