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The spell Wall of Thorns has a parenthetical S in its effect section:

Effect wall of thorny brush, up to one 10-ft. cube/level (S)

What does that (S) mean?

Question about the Invisibility spell. The target says:
"you or a creature or object weighing no more than 100 lbs./level"

Specifically the part about the weight, is that a limit on objects only, or does it also apply to the caster and/or creature targets? Like if I were to cast it on a blue whale or some other suitably massive creature beyond my level's weight limit, would it work because it is a creature? The wording is a little weird.

If your wizard is so far in the thick of things that he is getting attacked as much as your warriors, you done messed up. He doesn't need better AC, the group needs better field tactics. Your 30-40 AC characters should be serving as meat shields to your lower ac and hp characters so they can get their spells off without getting attacked to begin with. If they are running off playing hero and ignoring their team mates who are getting creamed because they aren't doing their job, your wizard is going to get killed no matter how many defensive spells and magical doodads you give him.

I know this doesn't cover your items, but most of my magic shops have a "bargain bin" that contain a variety of cursed magic items that are potentially useful, but have some kind of drawback or don't do what you expect them to do. The drawback may or may not be advertised/obvious.

Here are some examples for inspiration:

- Magical leather armor that is designed to look like full on bondage gear

- Potion of fire resistance (or whatever potion of your choice) that is contaminated. Drinking it causes the imbiber to acquire disease of your choice (I gave them dysentery, which was hilarious a few days later as they had no idea how they got it)

- Ring of fire resistance that only functions underwater

- Intelligent Ring of Jumping that is super pervy and regularly forces the wearer to jump against their will

- Wand of "lightening" - makes things 50% lighter for 1 hour

- Catskin armor - Provides all the benefits of normal catskin armor but is made of literal cat skin/fur stitched together from several small cats. Felines hate the wearer and always act with violent hostility.

- Giant-hide armor - In addition to all the normal benefits this armor bestows, it also makes all giants in the area completely invisible to the wearer

- Dwarven Thrower - Functions normally except in the hands of a dwarf. A dwarf who attempt to throw this warhammer is instead flung forward 30 feet (possibly taking falling damage in the process). The hammer then returns to the dwarf, who must attempt to catch it with a successful DC 15 reflex save, or be struck by the hammer for 2d8+2 points of damage.

- Belt of Stoneskin - The wearer's skin turns to stone whenever the belt is active, which causes reduced sensitivity and mobility. This effectively applies a -4 armor check penalty to skills that such a penalty would apply to as well as a -4 circumstance penalty to perception checks involving touch. People also tend to stare at a walking statue...

- Goggles of Minute Seeing - Provide an accurate, to the minute, HUD of the current time whenever worn instead of the normal effects.

- Hand of Gory - While it functions as a normal hand of glory, it appears to be a freshly severed hand that constantly drips blood everywhere. Whenever the wearer is brought to 0 hp for any reason, their body explodes into a shower of gore.

For spellcasters, you can probably research what spells they are able to cast and from that guess their level/hd within a level or so of accuracy. For non-spellcasters you could probably research their exploits to get an idea of what kind of monsters they have been known to defeat and kind of guess based on monster CR. But HD/Level are an abstract thing that you really shouldn't know IC. Unless someone has a reputation for being the world's greatest swordsman, you really wouldn't have any idea about how tough they are in a fight until you fight them.

When people live underground for extended periods of time, their sleep patterns often go quite wonky. In 1965 Josie Laures and Antoine Senni spent 3-4 months underground in caves in the French Alps. Antoine Senni would dose off for 30 hours at a time, thinking he only had a brief nap, and was surprised when he left his cave and didn't realize it was 2 whole months later than what he thought. There have been other studies since that show people with no contact with sunlight often fall into 48 hour sleep cycles. The 24 hour circadian rhythm is more of a dictation of sunlight and social contract than it is a natural biological mandate. I realize this is probably bringing too much reality into pathfinder and strays far into psychology/chronobiology, but I do want the players to feel somewhat alienated and uncomfortable without the constant comfort of the sun.

The locals don't sleep based on circadian rhythms due to there not being a day time. In fact they don't have much of a concept of time at all. How could they? There are no days or anything to break up time into digestible bits. There are tribes in the real world who have no concept of time at all, and even among large countries, perception of time from culture to culture is drastically different.

I get that dawn isn't a specific to the minute time, but when you are that separated from any normal method of time keeping, we aren't talking about being minutes off for your prayers, but likely hours at least.

While there are many adventures where I really wouldn't care overly much about the exact time for prayers, for this particular adventure, I rather not hand wave it. So I want the players to be thrown off by the weird environment, but would like them to at least have some way of overcoming it. If that means a skill check or leaving them to come up with their own method of time keeping, so be it.

My players are in what I imagine to be a common situation for adventurers. They are in an area for a few days where the sun is not visible, so they cannot tell what time it is. For most characters this is not an issue, but for spellcasters (particularly divine ones who need to pray at sunrise) this can be a serious problem.

While there are certainly ways to kind of fudge a clock (for example using a cantrip like light to keep track of time based on the duration), I was wondering if there is any good means that are specifically designed for monitoring time in a situation like this. Would a survival check work? Perception maybe? Is there an obscure magic item out there that displays the time, or at least the current position of the sun?

I am fine making up some sort of magic item for the purpose, but if there is already something out there, I rather make use of what there is than reinvent the wheel.

I made the DC "lets roll and see what happens". The guy ended up rolling a 22 so I figured that was more than high enough. If I had to come up with an actual DC, I guess 10+wis?

Okay, so how would you rule this situation:

A druid casts Diminish plants on a giant tree that an enemy is on. Specifically the prune growth version of the spell which is described as follows:

Prune Growth: This version of the spell causes normal vegetation within long range (400 feet + 40 feet per level) to shrink to about one-third normal size, becoming untangled and less bushy. The affected vegetation appears to have been carefully pruned and trimmed. This version of diminish plants automatically dispels any spells or effects that enhance plants, such as entangle, plant growth, and wall of thorns.

At your option, the area can be a 100-foot-radius circle, a 150-foot-radius semicircle, or a 200-foot-radius quarter-circle. You may also designate portions of the area that are not affected.

Now to me, the spell seems like it is meant to be used on brush and vines and stuff to clear the area, though the druid was apparently intending to sever the branch the enemy was standing on. I am not entirely sure a tree counts as "vegetation" based on the description. I ended up meeting halfway and saying the tree shrunk to 1/3 size and gave the opponent a reflex save to avoid falling off.

How would you all rule it?

I've been running a seafaring game for over a year now and it seems that I am losing one of my players and am in need of a replacement. If you are interested, great! Now I don't want your character stats (yet). Combat slows down action a lot in play by post games so it is not the main focus of the game. I am not super concerned with how well you can throw numbers at a monster to beat it into submission. Anyone can do that.

What I DO want to know is that you are able to put a few sentences together and don't mind playing in a fairly active game where players post daily. I want to see you are able to play a role, not maximize your rolls. Still interested? Okay here is the nitty gritty.

The game is pathfinder, though we are only using the core rules. Nothing from any book beyond the main one. If that is too restrictive for you, I understand, but that's how it is. The group is currently around level 5-6. You will be starting at level 5.

The setting itself, as I said, is a seafaring one. The current (active) party consists of a bard, a thief and a fighter. There are some other characters about but since the players are currently on hiatus, they are basically npcs that help man the ship for the moment. The party has been framed for killing the queen of a major nation and so they are currently on the run from the navy that is looking to execute them. On their stolen ship they have fought sea monsters, adventured through Neverland, saved a maiden sacrifice from a dragon worshiping cult and are now on an island run by pirates, looking for work. They recently lost access to their gold stash and are in need of a better ship. The job they are currently working on involves investigating an artist whose sculptures are as bizarre as they are lifelike. Is she just a skilled, yet eccentric artist or is something more sinister at foot?

If this still sounds like your bag, give me a character idea and we will work from there. Like I said, I am not interested in a character sheet yet. I want to see a background. I want to see story. Of course, questions are welcome.

Since we have a lot of physical types, I would prefer to see a spellcaster of some kind, but it is not strictly necessary if your character seems like a cool fit for the group.

I love magic aura. I had an NPC conman use the spell on some beans to convince the PCs that they were "magic beans". They shelled out all their cash on those beans because they detected as magic. He had a bunch of other "magic" wares as well, but the PCs really fixated on the beans.

Yeah, that is about what I was thinking. I just want to avoid the precedent of people having their companions ordered around on them because someone has a good animal handling roll.

Is it possible for someone other than the animal companion's owner to give them commands using handle animal? This is of course assuming it hasn't been taught the serve trick.

If it is possible, is there any kind of modifier to the check?

Nondetection doesn't make the object absent from detection though. It just prevents scrying and detection spells from working. Its not like they scry and see an empty field where a castle is supposed to be. They try and scry the castle and get no result.

All those other spells say very specifically how big of an object "an object" is for those spells, but this spell doesn't, so I wonder if it was intentional or not. The only mention of objects I can find is regarding breaking objects. It doesnt specify what an object is, but it has a table that lists object AC adjustments from fine to colossal, which suggests that an object can be colossal.

It also lists the hardnesses of several example objects which range in size from manacles to a stone wall. It lists doors as an object, which suggests that a single object wouldnt have moving parts, but it also lists chests, which dismisses that same suggestion.

The reason this has come up at all is that my group is currently on the run in a small ship. Powerful mages are trying to scry them out to find and apprehend them, so they are looking for the easiest way to prevent their location from being found out. A casting of nondetection on the ship seemed like the easiest solution (ignoring the fact that the spell can be pierced with a high enough caster level check).

Skeletons are pretty weak and having an army of them can easily be hindering depend on the situation. In a dungeon setting where you are going down narrow corridors, the PCs wont have much room to move about, making combat hard. If they choose to keep the skeletons up front to avoid getting hurt, oops no checking for traps means they all fell into a 50 ft pit and shattered to little pieces.

Any aoe caster will have no problem tearing them apart, a priest could even blast them with channeling/turning if good or control them if evil. Enemy fighters with great cleave and some clubs would probably tear them apart too. It should quickly become apparent that an army of weak fighters arent as useful as one or two strong undead.

If it is really a problem, you could rule that while you can control a massive army of undead, you can only actually command one at a time (which takes a move action per command). "Okay skeleton #1 attack the paladin. Skeleton #2, also attack the paladin." Oops. Out of actions.

I can't find any reason why it can't work on something that large (other than the gut instinct that it seems like it should be beyond the scope of the spell). So I guess it does.

I have 2 questions about the spell Nondetection.

First is about area of effect. The spell says it can affect 1 object, though it does not list dimensions or weight or any other restrictions for 1 object like many other spells do. In this case, what is an object? Could it be something massive like a wagon, ship or castle? I would lean to yes since the size modifiers for ac for objects in the breaking objects section of the rules lists object sizes ranging from fine to colossal, which I assume a castle or ship would be, but haven't found anything definite in the rules one way or the other.

The second question is assuming the answer to the first question is yes, does that mean anyone who is within the wagon, ship or castle is also protected from scrying? The spell says creatures have their possessions protected, but doesnt say objects do the same thing. But at the same time if I were to use it on a chest, I would assume that the treasure inside the chest was protected or it would be kind of a weird spell.

I was assuming other people could try, but only one person has the skill, so passing it around isn't an option.

The reasoning behind B is that I am not sure having all the spells written on one piece of paper makes them a single item or not since having them written on separate pieces of paper would not.

As for the reasoning behind C, it says you can't activate that item again but it doesnt say why. Is it because the item itself is locked up to further use or is it because you personally just can't figure it out and need some time to get your mind off of it before you can try again?
So if you had 2 identical wands and the former was the case, failing the first wand wouldnt prevent you from using the 2nd (though it would probably make it unusable to other people for 24 hours, since you did something to screw it up). Otherwise if the latter were the case, then you probably wouldnt be able to make use of the 2nd wand either, since it requires the same knowledge, but you could pass the wand around to others to give a try if they have the skill to do it.

So when using the skill, under try again it says: Yes, but if you ever roll a natural 1 while attempting to activate an item and you fail, then you can't try to activate that item again for 24 hours.

So the group is trying to activate a spell on a scroll. There are 2 separate copies of passwall on the scroll as well as some other spells. If they roll a 1, does that mean:

a) they can't use any of the spells on that scroll for 24 hours

b) they can't use that one particular copy of passwall on the scroll for 24 hours, but they could still try to activate the second copy

or

c) they can't activate the passwall on that scroll, or any other scroll for 24 hours

Yeah, thats about what I thought. Usually if I have a spellcaster who wants to focus on making sure another spellcaster doesn't get their spells off, they just hold action and throw damage spells at the wizard as an interupting action to try and blow their concentration. Magic missile is usually enough, but pretty much anything that does damage will do. Unfortunately most spells useful for that fall into the medium to short range category, which still makes fireball hard to stop in this particular instance unless you have fireball.

So as you all know dispel magic is a handy dandy catch all counterspell. I am 99% sure the answer is yes, but figured I would ask this question just in case.

So when using it as a counterspell, it says this:
Counterspell: When dispel magic is used in this way, the spell targets a spellcaster and is cast as a counterspell. Unlike a true counterspell, however, dispel magic may not work; you must make a dispel check to counter the other spellcaster's spell.

Straightforward enough. Now the issue comes when a long range spell comes into play (we'll say fireball since it is pretty much the most used offensive 3rd level spell ever). So imagine wizard A is casting fireball from 500 ft away and for sake of argument we assume that wizard B knows that is what wizard A is about to cast. Wizard B doesnt want to die, but doesnt have a fireball handy to counter it with, so he wants to try to use Dispel Magic. Dispel magic has a medium range, which is far short of the 500 ft wizard A can throw his fireball from. Since wizard A is so far away, does this mean his spell can't be countered with a dispel magic? It makes sense to me that wizard B should be able to try to dispel the fireball as it flies over, but the spell says you can't dispel instantaneous effects. So as far as I can tell, dispel magic shouldn't work in this particular instance. Does that sound about right?

LordBiBo wrote:

So I was looking at core spells that fix things and we have mending and make whole. As far as I can tell, neither would be able to fix a ship due to their limitations of 1 lb per level and 10 cubic feet per level respectively.

Specifically regarding make whole, would the cubic feet be taken from the overall size or specifically the material contained? Like a ship has a lot of empty space for people and cargo. How would you figure out the cubic footage of the ship for a spell like this? Would it be simply multiplying the dimensions of the ship or would you exclude the empty space? Excluding the empty space seems like a lot more math, but would possibly make a small ship fall within the spell's effect if the wizard is high enough level.

That said, is there already a spell out there specialized for ship repairs or would I have to home brew one?

Ships are INCREDIBLY difficult to destroy with the Pathfinder rule set. You need to have basically scores of catapults to do anything significant to them. They're really more set pieces which get your characters into melee range.

There have been a variety of things that have damaged the ship over time, and gone unrepaired like they have, it has added up. So was looking into options for the players for repairs.

A lot of spells vs ships in this link: Spell Effects in Naval Combat: ...

... Make Whole: This spell affects a ship as if it were a construct.

Make whole says in part "This spell functions as mending, except that it repairs 1d6 points of damage per level when cast on an object or construct creature (maximum 5d6)."

Edit: the cubic feet thing should be ignored regarding ships now.

Oooh! Thanks! The link of spells is really useful.

Thanks for the submissions! I am looking through them now and will send a PM to the final selection shortly.

So I was looking at core spells that fix things and we have mending and make whole. As far as I can tell, neither would be able to fix a ship due to their limitations of 1 lb per level and 10 cubic feet per level respectively.

Specifically regarding make whole, would the cubic feet be taken from the overall size or specifically the material contained? Like a ship has a lot of empty space for people and cargo. How would you figure out the cubic footage of the ship for a spell like this? Would it be simply multiplying the dimensions of the ship or would you exclude the empty space? Excluding the empty space seems like a lot more math, but would possibly make a small ship fall within the spell's effect if the wizard is high enough level.

That said, is there already a spell out there specialized for ship repairs or would I have to home brew one?

We mainly need a replacement for the main spellcaster. Depending on the character, I might possibly accept one more. For races, any of the core races are fine. None of the expanded ones. One of the PCs is a fairy, but that was the end result of a hastily made wish, she used to be human :P

There is no point buy, stats are assigned from these: 18, 16, 14, 12, 10, 8. Starting cash is 6,000 gold. Traits are the standard ones that races start with.

I've been running a seafaring play-by-post game in a home brew world of mine for some months now. We have 3 players, but could really use a spellcaster. Preferably a wizard/sorcerer but a bard could work too. We currently have a ranger, rogue and druid.

The setting is a chain of islands where giant sea monsters are a constant threat. The party has stolen a tiny rickety ship and is on the run from the navy (which is run by elite elven archer paladins) because they were framed for assassinating the queen of one of the more powerful island nations. They've faced pirates, a werewolf, a kraken and a mess of weird things while stomping about the island of Neverland. They are now in a small fishing village after narrowly defeating some pirates and rescuing a young maiden who was captured on her way to serve a mysterious deity known only as the Red Goddess.

The campaign is play by post and uses the core rulebook only. Characters are currently level 5, so you will be starting with the minimum xp required to get you there. I have some special rules for character creation, but the focus is on role play over combat. I require a character bio and try to draw from them during the course of the campaign. If you write me up a bio that says you have a bounty on your head, well guess what someone is going to come trying to collect it sooner or later. If your bio says that you were once a famous pirate, well someday you are going to find people who recognize you and may or may not take kindly to your exploits. I also give free goodies related to backgrounds so if you are a writer, this is the place for you.

I should note that the campaign is really active. Some players post multiple times a day. Any prospective players should be able to post (mostly) daily. Missing a day or two because you have responsibilities is fine (stuff happens after all), but if you don't have the time to participate on a regular basis, this game is probably not for you. I've already had 2 players bow out because the pace of posting was more than they could keep up with.

If you are still interested after reading all that, lets see a character concept (no stats or anything, as I said, I have special rules for chargen). Feel free to ask any questions!

By the way, I threw up a section into the board where guests can post. Throw up a character background/concept there if you want to be considered.

Either has quite a bit of room for customization. Of course being a spell caster means that a large portion of customizing is in spell selection, but sorcerers have bloodlines and wizards have specializations, familiars/bonded items as well as all the skill points in the world (since they typically have high intelligence) and a bunch of extra feats. Sorcerers cast more spells per day and have the freedom to choose on the fly, but wizards get access to higher level spells a little faster and can learn as many spells as they like. Plus with scrolls they can write down spells that they might want to use sometimes, but are too situational to prepare all the time.

Both can be fun and both have lots of room to fill weird niches. If you dont feel like playing a spellcaster is your thing though, I understand. Nothing worse than being forced into a character that you really don't want to play for party balance.

So how lenient would you be the...arcane part. I have a character, that fits well into any seafaring game and even more so on the island you described. He's a swashbuckler/Waves Oracle though. Probably 3/17 at the end. Here's the backstory.

** spoiler omitted **...

I like the backstory, but we already have a 2 weapon fighting rogue and a ranger, so a swashbuckler would just be doubling (or tripling) up I think. Also we have a druid, so was really hoping for wizard/sorcerer possibly a bard instead of a cleric. Besides that, oracles and swashbucklers aren't core rulebook.

Where is this game taking place? Can you provide a link. That way we can see what the game is like so far.

Sure. The game is on a private forum so I can throw up notes and game info for reference later down the line. The forum only shows the last 30 days worth of posts by default so be sure to tell the forum to show posts from the beginning as there is a lot of setting info and assorted campaign notes that you wont be able to see otherwise.

Here's the link:
http://s13.zifboards.com/Akamaru_Games/index.php

DM LordBiBo: Question about the 1d4 attribute option -- do we have to assign the numbers to stats before the roll?

Yeah, thats the general intent of the rule. A slight risk/reward roll.

Glad to see the rapid interest. Unfortunately I only have room for one of you guys, so that means I need to figure out who among you will best fit with the group as well as enjoy the game style. I come from the role play school of gaming, so more than your builds, I am interested in hearing about your characters. What are their personalities like? What are their likes and dislikes? Do they have families? Why did they get into magic? I want to see that your character is a person, not just a list of numbers you point at the bad guys when combat starts.

Combat will happen, but the emphasis of the game is on role play and story building. You don't need an optimized build (and quite frankly many of the players currently in the game barely understand the rules so they are far from optimized). Feel free to make some decisions that don't necessarily make sense mechanics wise, but totally do from your living character's perspective.

Maybe your wizard is a talker and you take something like the persuasive feat and throw some skill points in diplomacy and intimidate. Maybe your sorcerer is a bit of a coward and has fleet and run for feats so he can get himself away from trouble when things look ugly (or expeditious retreat for that matter). Maybe your wizard is a dwarf and swings around a battleaxe. Maybe you are an abjuration specialist (seriously, when have you ever seen one of those)! Maybe your secret desire was to be a dancer, but wizarding seemed like a more sensible career choice.

I know the people who tend to come to these boards are often extreme optimizers who have their builds from levels 1 to 20 already planned out, including what equipment they should have at the time. Trust me, it is unnecessary. I dont believe there are useless skills or builds, just ones that require more creativity to get use out of. Dont worry if throwing some skill points into profession (piss boy) doesn't sound like it will be useful in the course of the game. You might be surprised. I want to see creativity and imagination and above all I want to see players who know how to cooperate with a team. So tell me your story! Tell me your character's goals in life. Things they want to see and do before they die (since let's face it, the mortality rate of an average adventurer is pretty high). Surely they have more dreams out of life than to be constantly better at murdering monsters.

Chargen rules:
- core rule book only
- Starting level: 4
- Starting gold: 3,000 (though you can purchase any mundane items worth less than 50 gp that you can physically carry for free)
- assign these numbers to your starting stats: 18, 16, 14, 12, 10 ,8
- All characters automatically receive max hp for their hit dice every level
- You have the option of rolling a 1d4 to lower any one stat by that die roll and raise another by the same amount (once you choose this option, you have to go through with it).
- every character starts with 1 rank in swim and it is considered a class skill for everyone
- each character gets one extra free feat. This feat must not be combat related however and should play a part in their background (if you need help with this, let me know).
- Write me a bio and/or draw me a picture and I will give you something super spiffy for your character. the better the bio and/or picture, the spiffier the thing(s) I give you will be.
- no traits

Ideas for skills/spells that might be useful and in theme include:

spells:
mend
create water*
animate rope
alter winds*
make whole
*slightly modified for this campaign, ask for details if you want to take it

skills:
profession: sailor
profession: navigator
craft: maps
craft: ships
knowledge: geography

feats:
exotic weapon proficiency: cannon

I have been running a seafaring campaign for a few months now and it seems that our wizard has dropped off the face of the planet. I would like to replace him with another arcane caster if possible. As most of my players are newbies to Pathfinder, I would like anyone who is interested to mainly stick to core rule book stuff, though some minor things from other books might be allowable with DM permission.

Here is the story so far:
While at the 30th annual Peace Day festival, the party tests a combat simulator. The simulator creates illusory combat situations that allow the users free reign to test any abilities they like in a life-like combat situation. After defeating the simulation, the party eventually moves on to watch Queen Mabel III give a speech. Midway into the speech, the queen is assassinated by a group that both looks like and uses similar abilities to the PCs. With the city in chaos, an elite paladin order of mainly elven archers searches the city for the framed PC "assassins" and are none too gentle about it.

Their lives in danger, the party flees the small island kingdom and makes their way to the open seas aboard a stolen ship. Though they seek to clear their names, the royal navy (run by the same paladin order) is hunting them and making their investigations difficult. Their escape would have been short lived as the royal navy was about to destroy their tiny ship with a salvo of cannon fire from one of their massive warships, but as fate would have it, the warship attracted the attention of a kraken, which distracted the paladins long enough for the party to escape.

The seas are not without their dangers, with massive monsters being a fairly common occurrence, especially when one sails away from protected trade routes. The party, not wanting to be found by the royal navy, of course took to sailing off the protected trade routes and have made their way north to a kingdom of mages that might have some explanation as to how they were framed, and with that information they might be able to figure out who did it. Unfortunately, without supplies, charts or navigation equipment they were lost at sea and starving.

After defending their ship from a megalodon, they made their way to an uncharted island that they soon learned was called "Neverland". There they have met mermaids, fairies, shapechanging wolves, pirates, and a massive roc (which ate the heavily injured megalodon). The mermaids have stolen the PCs ship and threaten to sink it if they do not retrieve a feather from the roc. Luckily, helping to defend the fairies from a wolf threat has rewarded them each with the ability to fly (at least while in Neverland). They are now within the roc's nest, attempting to steal both a feather and an egg (the ranger hopes to hatch it for her animal companion).

Obviously this is all a very short summary of events but it should give you an idea of the campaign so far and I hope it sparks your interest.

I have been running a seafaring campaign for a few months now and it seems that our wizard has dropped off the face of the planet. I would like to replace him with another arcane caster if possible. As most of my players are newbies to Pathfinder, I would like anyone who is interested to mainly stick to core rulebook stuff, though some minor things from other books might be allowable with DM permission.

Here is the story so far:
While at the 30th annual Peace Day festival, the party tests a combat simulator. The simulator creates illusory combat situations that allow the users free reign to test any abilities they like in a life-like combat situation. After defeating the simulation, the party eventually moves on to watch Queen Mabel III give a speech. Midway into the speech, the queen is assassinated by a group that both looks like and uses similar abilities to the PCs. With the city in chaos, an elite paladin order of mainly elven archers searches the city for the framed PC "assassins" and are none too gentle about it.

Their lives in danger, the party flees the small island kingdom and makes their way to the open seas aboard a stolen ship. Though they seek to clear their names, the royal navy (run by the same paladin order) is hunting them and making their investigations difficult. Their escape would have been short lived as the royal navy was about to destroy their tiny ship with a salvo of cannon fire from one of their massive warships, but as fate would have it, the warship attracted the attention of a kraken, which distracted the paladins long enough for the party to escape.

The seas are not without their dangers, with massive monsters being a fairly common occurrence, especially when one sails away from protected trade routes. The party, not wanting to be found by the royal navy, of course took to sailing off the protected trade routes and have made their way north to a kingdom of mages that might have some explanation as to how they were framed, and with that information they might be able to figure out who did it. Unfortunately, without supplies, charts or navigation equipment they were lost at sea and starving.

After defending their ship from a megalodon, they made their way to an uncharted island that they soon learned was called "Neverland". There they have met mermaids, fairies, shapechanging wolves, pirates, and a massive roc (which ate the heavily injured megalodon). The mermaids have stolen the PCs ship and threaten to sink it if they do not retrieve a feather from the roc. Luckily, helping to defend the fairies from a wolf threat has rewarded them each with the ability to fly (at least while in Neverland). They are now within the roc's nest, attempting to steal both a feather and an egg (the ranger hopes to hatch it for her animal companion).

Obviously this is all a very short summary of events but it should give you an idea of the campaign so far and I hope it sparks your interest.

Some uses I might make out of it include:

Touching the ground to make a protective wall around myself (perhaps sucking up the stone beneath an opponent to make them fall into a newly formed pit)

Sealing a pit that I made with a previous casting

Permanently locking a door

aid in construction of stone buildings

smoothing over rocky ground or making smooth stone floors into rough terrain

repair broken stone objects

build a quick stone ladder

If a druid uses wild shape to turn into an animal, are they then affected by effects that affect animals? For example, if the party has hide from animal cast and the druid turns into a dog or whatever, can the druid see the party?

If they are affected, what happens when they change form? For example if someone cast charm animal on the druid while a dog and the druid turns back to human, would they remain charmed since they were a valid target at the time of casting or would their reverting back break the spell?

I guess the same question applies to their elemental and plant forms at higher levels.

There is a 2nd level spell called "lay of the land" that bards, druids, clerics, rangers, and witches get. It gives you instant knowledge of the geography of an area within a 1 mile radius. Doesnt get much more map makery than that.

Perfect. 10 points to Pizza Lord.

You sure? I an not sure I draw the line there because it is kind of like touching its clothing. If you were to poke a bird with a stick, that would cause the spell to break. If the bird were wearing plate mail and you touched the plate mail that would also cause the spell to break. Touching a bird surrounded tightly by an egg doesn't sound that different.

Well, most of the things that make a rogue a rogue is their skills and luckily wizards get tons of them. So rather than putting them in your wizard skills, just throw them into rogue skills. Put a feat into light armor so you can wear the leathers and you are golden. You wont be as good as an actual rogue at it, but good enough to fake it. Just don't cast anything when anyone is looking and you'll be fine.

Puzzles can be fun, but they generally require a lot of prep and props to keep them interesting. Some puzzles I have used in the past include:

chess puzzles (set up the board in the middle of the game and the players have to figure out how to win given the situation already in play)

music puzzles (a door opens up if the players play a certain series of notes on an instrument, sometimes I have the notes spell out things, but with the limited letters available it can be difficult)

Jigsaw puzzles (the players find pieces of stone tablet or sword or whatever as they defeat monsters and must put them together to find a key word or the pieces themselves form a key. I usually do this by writing on a piece of cardboard and cutting it up)

Riddles (perhaps a door has a magic mouth trigger that only opens when a riddle it speaks is solved, or some variation thereof)

Actually, another question is this:

Does an egg count as an animal? Assuming it is fertilized and will hatch if given the right circumstances that is. I say this because Hide from Animals specifically ends if you touch an animal, so would it end when you pick up an egg?

I personally would think that the egg shell of a roc would actually be pretty tough. If it were as delicate as a normal egg, it would crack open under its own weight so I imagine it being roughly the thickness, toughness and weight of pottery. Heck, it might actually be as tough as "rock" which might be a reason for its name. Obviously with a hardness of 8 for stone, the little guy would never be able to get out. Pottery isn't listed in item hardness, but a hardness of 3-5 and like 10-15 hp might be reasonable. With its 1d6 bite attack, it could eventually peck its way out of there and having such a tough egg would help explain why the critter is combat ready as soon as it gets out of its egg (it has to be to get out). Real chicks usually take a few pecks to get out of their eggs anyway, so it makes sense. Also would be a simple enough mechanic to see when the egg hatches if, for example, one of the party members was dropped into a nest of eggs to feed the new babies right when they were about to hatch...

My google foo has found nothing on how much such a a giant clay pot should weigh, but experience with larger plant pots makes them pretty darned heavy. 10-20 lbs is a guess (but I have never weighed one to be sure, so I could be wrong). Plus a big ole bird. And yes, while men range in size, I would think that a creature that will soon become large size would be on the larger side of the spectrum, which is why I say the egg should be up around 200-300 lbs.

Oh, I am not worried about the realities of raising it as it will be an animal companion and according to the rules:

Rocs taken as animal companions by druids or rangers are typically newly hatched birds—a baby roc is the size of a person and ready for flight and hunting within minutes of hatching. Unfortunately for druids seeking animal companions of legendary size, an animal companion roc is limited to Large size—still large enough for a Medium druid or ranger to use the flying beast as a mount.

As for Enlarge, that only lasts 4 minutes at their current level (and I think they only have it available on a wand that casts it at 1st level anyway). 40 minutes for hide from animal should be sufficient, but I doubt 1 minute of enlarge will be.

I dont see a single person carrying it, but maybe 2 in conjunction. Even if one person could technically carry the weight, eggs dont have handles or anything so I doubt one person could carry it. Do 2 people carrying 1 item count as "carried equipment"?

Also on a side note, they are thinking of using Hide from Animals to hide themselves from the Roc momma and are planning on casting it on the egg to make it invisible as well, arguing that the baby roc is a creature. I am thinking that while the roc is a creature, it's egg is not so it doesn't work on the egg (though the baby inside might be invisible to momma).

So my group is really set on getting their hands on a roc egg, and I am up for letting them, but they need to get it out of the nest and back to somewhere where they can hatch it. My question is just how big and heavy would this thing be and what would it take to move it? It is born a medium size creature, so I am imagining an egg large enough to contain a human. Assuming they are curled up in that egg a bit, I am guessing it should be something like 3 or 4 feet tall and maybe 200-300 lbs? Does that sound about right?

Thanks everyone for your interest in the game. Unfortunately all slots have been filled. Happy gaming!