Lord Vukodlak's page

Best wish backfire ever.

A rather immature player had his character wish for the ability to become irresistible to women, now this was actually from a wish granting entity...

So when ever the player would say the magic word... I can't recall what it was Shazam maybe? Anyway he'd say the command word and "poof" he'd turn into a baby, or a kitten, maybe a teacup pig.

Look at the rules for craft, its based on weekly or daily progress does that make any since when preparing a roasted pheasant with whiskey sauce? No it doesn't.

Officially cook is a profession skill, its on the list.
"The most common Profession skills are architect, baker, barrister, brewer, butcher, clerk, cook""

Lets look at the origins, namely 3.5. The entry in mithral in 3.5 SRD is identical to the one today in Pathfinder except for the line about it not counting towards armor proficiency. Like much of the ported rules it was a copy paste job.

But like many things in he 3.5 SRD the printed material actually had more information, they gave a barbarian's fast movement as an example of a limitation. Thus a Barbarian wearing mithral full plate could still use his fast movement.
"Most mithral armors are one category lighter than normal for purposes of movement and other limitations.(for example, whether a barbarian can use her fast movement ability while wearing the armor or not)."

So a class ability was called out as an example of a limitation mithral removed.

Specific magic items like elven chainmail and the mithral fullplate of speed called out the armors as being treated as one category lighter. These items were later copied and pasted into pathfinder.

The Feycraft armor template couldn't be applied to heavy armor, however it called out the exemption for mithral heavy armor which counted as medium.

In 3.5 in every way mithral counted as a armor category lighter. But then Paizo comes along and adds two sentences about it not applying to armor proficiency and suddenly people take that ball and run with it.

They called out ONE exemption in the paizo rule book. ONE and that was armor proficiency. Thus mithral is counts as a lighter type of armor in all respects.

I have some ideas for the background for your big bad. Feel free to discard

Long ago the the land was wracked with turmoil and civil war. Back then Big Bad wasn't so bad. She was a typical person living a normal life. Until the day her village as destroyed by a warlord and she was the only survivor.

As she lay in mostly buried the rubble of her house a voice in the back of her mind offered her power. The power to fight, the power to bring order and stability the land. As her power and influence grew so did her ambitions and the whisper in the back of her mind grew stronger.
She came to believe this voice was her own inner-self driving her towards her destiny.

And now her final goal is to become a god and turn her empire into a religion with her at the center... but she is deceived. The voice in her head isn't her own inner-self but a God of Tyranny from another world who seeks to gain a strong foot hold in the world. So the Big Bad is in the end a pawn. The jewel will not actually make her a god it will allow the foreign god to enter the world through her.

Now here's where things get twisted, you could put a voice in one of the PC's heads that claims to be helpful and at times it does provide them with useful information. This is the same entity that influenced the Big Bad.

If the PC's gather all the pieces of the Jewel the voice will insist said player use the jewel to become a god himself in order to end the Big Bad's reign of terror. This has the same end result of the Big Bad using the jewel. However I would presume your players are wise enough NOT to fully trust a mysterious voice in their head.

Old journal recovered some some ruined fort belonging to the Big Bad could reveal to the PC's that she has a voice in her head driving her ambitions.

Ahh yes, Bhaal is back along with Myrkul and much previously Bane.

I think its time to kill Cyric, he's pissed of damn near every deity in existence. Several of the gods he killed or was responsible for the demise of have returned to life. I imagine him running through the outer planes being pursued by a horde of angry deities to the tune of "Benny Hill Chase"

I suddenly have an image of an Ogre with a goblin strapped to his shield to help protect him from a brilliant energy weapon... at least the first hit.

*Lightsabers are beams of plasma suspended within a force containment field. So they are in essence solid objects but radiate intense heat allowing them to easily cut through most any material.

Wow, listen to the hate in this thread.

I've got a level 12 gunslinger in PFS and have always thought it would be better and make more sense to have guns target flatfooted AC rather than touch AC.

I don't know the specifics of what metal armor Back Then was like, and I don't really care - it's a lot more believable to me for armor to stop a bullet than it is to believe a character can use his dexterity to dodge the bullet. Yes, magic exists in the world, but this isn't magic.

Hitting a moving target is harder then a stationary ALOT harder, you aren't dodging the bullets you bobbing and weaving to make yourself harder to hit. So no having a gun ignore your dexterity bonus is not believable.

Lord Vukodlak wrote:

The thing is an item with unlimited uses of a spell like disguise self, levitation, or invisibility. Why bother making the PC refresh it every so often. They don't even have to wait for it to expire to refresh the duration.

The primary difference would occur if you lose consciousness while wearing the item. After a few minutes, you would become visible or return to your true appearance. Remember that post about a party requiring a few days to recover a party member who was lost while wearing a ring of invisibility? If the invisibility had a fixed duration, the person would be much easier to find once the invisibility wears off.

Do I remember the post I made about the party member who got lost? yes yes I do.

The thing is an item with unlimited uses of a spell like disguise self, levitation, or invisibility. Why bother making the PC refresh it every so often. They don't even have to wait for it to expire to refresh the duration.

It be like having a flashlight with unlimited batteries that you have to flip the on switch every ten minutes or it shuts off on its own. I would rule that magic items such as hats of disguise or rings of invisibility are continuous effects as that is what makes since and is far less annoying.

Now if you attack someone you'd need to reactivate the ring of invisibility

Titanic, Tremendous, Brobdingnagian, "That's no mountain"

Guns are expensive, prone to misfire, and difficult to get multiple attacks with. For all their disadvantages over bows they gain one solitary bonus, they count as touch attacks within the first range increment. If you're prepared to allow firearms DON'T make removing there ONE advantage that easy.

I go in reverse; instead of deciding what to ban, I make a list of what is allowed based on what I can see fitting thematically into the world. If a player wants something that isn't on the list, it's their job to show me how it fits into the established world.

Bingo

-Relies on Precision damage, which rogues can tell you shuts off in a stiff breeze. It doesn't have a formal definition, but chances are pretty good it shuts off vs

Elementals
invisibility
Oozes
Anyone with a miss chance from blur
Anyone standing in the dark
Fortification
invisibiliy

You are correct it doesn't have a formal definition that being said.

Sneak attack specifics "A rogue cannot sneak attack while striking a creature with concealment." One could say, That doesn't make the creature is immune to sneak attack he simply can't be targeted with the ability.

Now if we take the above to be true.

Precise Strike says. "Any creature that is immune to sneak attacks is immune to the additional damage granted by precise strike," and that abilities that protect against critical hits work against precise strike. It never mentions concealment, and concealment never says you're immune to precision damage.

So one could read the rules to say that concealment has no effect on precise strike.

Circle of death and cloudkill actually kill them.

Nauseated means no attack and a single move.

Swarms do not make attacks, they do automatic damage to anything in the same square as them.

Swarms attack, it is repeatedly called an attack in the swarm attack entry, its listed in the melee entry nothing you have said or shown has done anything to dispute the fact that swarms attack.

Show me the line that says the swarms attack is not an attack? being automatic doesn't matter its still called an attack. Would you also exclude a swarm from taking damage if the subject it was damaging was protected by fire shield? or some other spell that damages attackers?

What TGMaxMaxer said. And if your players want to get more interpretative about it, it's pretty simple: swarms contain thousands of individual creatures. When you damage a swarm they still do full damage to you, because there are thousands more in place of the thousands you killed. On a condition like nauseated, sure if they want to get really "let's be real" about it, they nauseated thousands of the creatures, but there are thousands that succeeded and so they're still going to bite you.

And yes, you are always allowed to have creatures vomit on your players. I mean, that's at least 50% of proper GMing, in one form or another.

That's not how swarm saves work, would you make swarms immune to circle of death or cloudkill too? The swarm makes saves as a whole body. If the swarm fails a save against a debilitating effect(one that's capable of affecting an unlimited number of creatures) If the swarm fails its save against stinking cloud then most of the swarm is nauseated and the remaining unaffected members aren't enough to deal damage.

automatic damage and attacking are different though. Standing in fire is automatic damage. The fire is not attacking u, u are just taking famage while standing in it. Replace fire with swarm and u get the gist.
To me attacking would mean using an action to do so and since swarms dont use an action, its just automatic...eh well the fire example comes to mind.

So by your logic a nauseated creature can make Attacks of opportunity because those don't require an action?

The damage a swarm deals is due to the hundreds or thousands of creatures attacking those in its space. If they fail a saving throw and become nauseated they should be just as effective as a singular large creature.

Nauseated does only what it says it does. Limits the creature to a single move each round. At the very most, this is all a swarm would have to deal with.

Even if you have the swarm get the nauseated condition, they do not need to make an attack to cause damage/distraction.

Beastiary, Monster rules, Swarm Traits wrote:

Swarm Attack: Creatures with the swarm subtype don't make standard melee attacks. Instead, they deal automatic damage to any creature whose space they occupy at the end of their move, with no attack roll needed. Swarm attacks are not subject to a miss chance for concealment or cover. A swarm's statistics block has “swarm” in the Melee entry, with no attack bonus given. The amount of damage a swarm deals is based on its Hit Dice, as shown below. **Table omitted**

A swarm's attacks are nonmagical, unless the swarm's description states otherwise. Damage reduction sufficient to reduce a swarm attack's damage to 0, being incorporeal, or other special abilities usually give a creature immunity (or at least resistance) to damage from a swarm. Some swarms also have acid, blood drain, poison, or other special attacks in addition to normal damage.

Swarms do not threaten creatures, and do not make attacks of opportunity with their swarm attack. However, they distract foes whose squares they occupy, as described below.

Swarms possess the distraction universal monster rule. Spellcasting or concentrating on spells within the area of a swarm requires a caster level check (DC 20 + spell level). Using skills that involve patience and concentration requires a DC 20 Will save.

The wording for nauseated says, "Nauseated creatures are unable to attack." It doesn't matter that swarms don't require an action to attack the damage they deal is still called an attack and thus being nauseated prevents a swarm from dealing damage.

Until you can find the line that says swarm damage is not an attack, nauseated effects them fully by RAW.
And logically speaking if one nauseated rat can't attack then a thousand nauseated rats should be equally disabled.

Wait I have the threat. Halt or we'll unleash the rust monsters! When it comes down to it quite often a character's gear can be more valuable then their life.

I designed this serptine race and thought I'd share for critique. The basic idea being upper body Human, lowerbody snake.

Appearance and Physiology.
From the waist up Nagi are almost indistinguishable from a human though lacking a bellybutton. Below the waist Nagi are serpentine possessing the lower body of a snake usually shaded green but brown is not uncommon. Their eyes come in shades of amber, blue, green and on rare occasion violet. Nagi hair comes in the same colors as humans with the exclusion of black hair and the addition of violet and blue shades. While Nagi share many characteristics with reptilian creatures such as scales and being ovoviviparous they are warm-blooded and nurse their young. Nagi are pregnant for just over ten months and almost always give birth to fraternal twins.

Society
The Nagi are a rather reclusive preferring limited contact with outsiders choosing only a few representatives to trade with other races and very rarely so they allow non-Nagi into there hidden villages. Elves are the most common exception due to the belief they would respect there privacy more then other races, Halflings are the second most common exception because no one ever gives a damn about Halflings. They prefer to establish communities in warm forests or deep underground near thermic vents due to the difficulties in sheathing their lower bodies in warm clothing. Some believe their communities can be found underneath a few major human cities but the Nagi refute this assertion claiming the smell of wererats would be to unbearable.

Standard Racial Traits
• Ability Score Racial Traits: Nagi are physically strong and manipulative but tend be rash and easily swayed by their passions. They gain +2 Strength, +2 Charisma, and –2 Wisdom
• Size: Nagi are Medium creatures and thus have no bonuses or penalties due to their size.
• Type: Nagi are monstrous humanoids.
• Base Speed: Nagi have a base speed of 20 feet, but their speed is never modified by armor or encumbrance, they also possess a swim speed of 20ft giving them a +8 racial bonus on any Swim check to perform a special action or avoid a hazard. Nagi can always choose to take 10 on a Swim check, even if distracted or endangered when swimming. They can also use the run action while swimming, provided that it swims in a straight line.
• Hold Breath: Nagi can hold their breath for a number of rounds equal to four times their Constitution score before risking drowning or suffocating.
• Languages: Nagi begin play speaking Common and Nagi. Nagi with high Intelligence scores can choose from the following, Akio, Draconic, Dwarven, Eleven, Giant, Sylvan and Undercommon. See the Linguistics skill page for more information about these languages.

Defense Racial Traits
• Armored Scales: The Nagi's scaly lower body provides +1 natural armor bonus, this stacks with the natural armor bonus provided by a sorcerer's bloodline.
• Legless: Nagi's have the upper body of a human and the lower body of a snake and are thus immune to trip however they can not wear any item occupying the foot slot and armor costs twice as much as it must be adapted to their body structure.(yes they lack a magic item slot that is an intentional disadvantage)

Magical Traits
• Enclave Protector: The Nagi have a +1 to the caster level of any abjuration spells they cast. Nagi also gain the following spell-like abilities: constant—nondetection; 1/day—faerie fire, obscure object, sanctuary. The caster level for these effects is equal to the Nagi's character level.

Senses Racial Traits
• Darkvision: Nagi have darkvision out to 60ft

Nagi, male
7ft.1in. 230lbs. 1d10 ×5lbs.
Nagi, female
6ft.10in. 195lbs. 1d10 ×5lbs.
Nagi typical "stand" no taller then your average human but their body length is significantly longer which is whats represented in the table.

Alright so I'm building a race using the race builder tools

Its type is monstrous humanoid which grants it dark vision 60ft. Does it still cost 3 points to change that to darkvision 120ft. From what I can tell that appears to be the case but it feels like a rip for types that come with darkvision.

Also ball park estimate on this racial trait

Nagii's have the upper body of a human and the lower body of a snake and are thus immune to trip however they completely lack the foot magic item slot and armor costs twice as much as it must be adapted to their body structure.
*Hence why the race can't just be humanoid they aren't.