LordBiBo's page

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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

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?

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?

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!

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.

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.

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?

Ahoy maties!

I am planning on running a game on a private forum with a small group (I am thinking maybe 2-4 players). The world will involve a lot of island hopping through dangerous, unexplored waters with pirate raids, giant sea monsters and exploring weird islands being a staple. It'll be high magic and high fantasy on the high seas! If that sounds like your thing, lets talk. Due to the nature of playing by post, I am looking for mature players who are more into role playing than roll playing. Space is limited so send me a character concept (fyi starting level is 3, will give more chargen details when you are accepted) and any questions you might have.

Arrr'll be waiting!

So my players were bound up and one of the pcs was an Oracle. He wanted to use his energy body revelation to escape the bonds, but I was unsure he would be able to use it or not. If it were a spell with a somatic component, of course no, but I don't know that these revelations require any sort of spell casting or if they are just a sort of concentrate on them and they do their thing sort of thing.

So... which is it?

So I have a player who seems to have a hard time dealing with consequences. Every time something negative happens to his character, he basically complains and then stops paying attention to the game. For example, if a monster hits him and he loses some strength or a wizard casts blindness on him or he suffers from a curse or whatever. Essentially if it cannot be cured within the next round, he says there is nothing for him to do and then proceeds to do nothing.

I get that it can be frustrating to play a character who is now blind or a fighter who is not longer strong and you have no real cure available to fix it yet (due to being low level), but monsters have abilities that do bad things and I feel like he just needs to accept that it is going to happen from time to time. I feel like my only option to avoid his stewing is to only use enemies that deal straight hp damage and even then I have to be careful that he doesn't lose said fight. To me, as both a gm and as a player in other games, that just isn't fun. The whole fun of winning a battle is the danger that maybe you don't win.

Am I doing something wrong? If not, what do you think I should do with this player to ensure an enjoyable game without having to fight with kid gloves on all the time?