LucyG92's page

My group is on part 2 of The Hellfire Compact and have just been asked to swear allegiance. They have questions. Firstly, can they 'quit' their new job at any time, and if they do, can their contract be considered void? Secondly, can the PC who is a Thrune Informant have Fex inform their employer of everything they're asked to do, so they don't end up doing stuff that he just wants them to do personally? Thirdly, can they add something like 'until my employment by the archbaron ceases' in the verbal agreement?

I think they're not trying to avoid swearing loyalty to the crown so much as Fex, who they think could betray the crown or be acting purely in his own interests.

I don't really know how flexible this is or how the archbaron should be reacting to this. I'm not the best GM.

Thanks for the suggestions. They decided to play a Changeling, which can choose a first level spell as a spell-like ability.

Hi all,

My player wants to build an unchained summoner with a succubus based eidolon; to fit the theme, they want to be able to cast 'Charm Person', which isn't on the summoner spell list. Is there some way for them to get the spell other than multiclassing or GM fiat?

We just started this adventure path today and my players kind of threw a spanner in the works.

Never saw a need.

Few things last more than a single round against a decent melee build and PC's already die frequently enough.

We don't really do 'builds'. Our fights unfortunately last far longer than a single round, possibly because I'm a poor DM or, as you say, the build thing.

My husband and I have decided we're not happy with how long combat takes and would prefer a grittier feel in general. We're considering lowering everyone's hit points - PCs, NPCs, monsters, everyone - in addition to using the rules in Unchained for wound modifiers etc. Has anyone else tried this and how did it work out?

LucyG92 wrote:

A shark's bite deals 1d8+4 points of damage (http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/bestiary/shark.html#shark) - since its strength bonus is only +3, where does the extra point come from?

Hm, lone, primary natural attack. So one and a half damage bonus from strength.

Since it is rounded down 3 strength bonus = 4 damage bonus.

Ah, thank you :)

A shark's bite deals 1d8+4 points of damage (http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/bestiary/shark.html#shark) - since its strength bonus is only +3, where does the extra point come from?

I posted this in 'Advice' yesterday and just realised it's more of a rules question, so sorry about double-posting.

A Mud Elemental has the entrap ability which lists (for Small) a Hardness of 5 and HP 5. Do the listed values change when applying the Augment Summoning feat? I can't find what they're actually based off.

A Mud Elemental has the entrap ability which lists (for Small) a Hardness of 5 and HP 5. Do the listed values change when applying the Augment Summoning feat? I can't find what they're actually based off.

It's a GM-PC. You shouldn't be doing well in combat. Their role isn't to function as a PC. Their role is to make the PC the hero.

I suppose we think of functioning as a PC as different things - maybe I shouldn't have phrased it the way I did. I just mean I'm hardly going to give them NPC stats/classes and have them stand around and wait for my husband's character to do everything, because I don't think he'd stand much of a chance. The game is made for 3-5 PCs, after all. The characters are also people with their own personalities, ambitions and desires, not slaves. We are both really happy with the way we have that aspect working at the moment.

We're also not really going the 'hero' route. More kingdom building. We do a lot more social encounters than combat.

So if this was just a normal PC, would the current advice stand? Just as someone inexperienced with roleplaying I'd like to know how 'bad' the character is.

It might also be relevant that there's only one player (my husband).

Master_marshmallow -

What is this NPC's role? What purpose does the party have for needing this character? That's the first step.

Well, the other party members are: elven rogue/sorcerer (my husband's character), dwarven cleric of Gorum and a barbarian/cavalier (my husband plays this one in combat). Honestly, we just started off with his character and the cleric and he picked up other party members along the way - we haven't thought too much about party composition.

SmiloDan -
Thanks for the advice, that's really helpful :) I always struggle with using area effect spells well (with enemy NPCs too) because of the risk of hitting allies. Also completely forgot that Bull's Strength isn't a 'personal' range spell...
I used Summon Monster with her a lot when we first started, but we took a long break and aren't as familiar with the rules now, so combat in particular has been taking a long time without adding extra creatures in :/

Regarding using Mount for flanking - I'd never thought about that. Can you? I'll have to check the spell again, I don't know whether the horse summoned behaves like a normal horse in that it would run away from combat...

Aphasia makes the target unable to understand language for a round or something and apport object teleports small, unattended objects to/away from you.

Usually you need Spell Focus conjuration to qualify for taking Augment Summoning

Ah, that's another house rule I forgot. Spell focus was removed as a requirement for other feats. She has 'dangerously curious' for backstory reasons. What are 'N-1' skills?

Darksol -

To be fair, a GMPC not being powerful in combat or otherwise isn't necessarily a bad thing.

That's true, but as the whole party other than my husband's character are GM-PCs they kind of need to function like a regular PC would. I should have mentioned that in my initial post. I certainly don't want to take the spotlight away from him though. We've been having a lot of trouble with combat lately - the whole party starts dying very quickly or we have a sort of stalemate for far too many rounds. I'm trying to figure out if the party isn't strong enough, or I'm running monsters wrong, or something else. His character used to be quite powerful until he changed some of his Rogue levels for Sorcerer.

This character is a GM-PC who I've been playing with for a long time but I feel she doesn't contribute much to combat. As I'm still relatively new to roleplaying I'm unsure about whether the character is poorly designed or I'm not using her effectively. Stats etc are below. Also, a lot of choices regarding skills and feats were made because of flavour reasons.

House rules in use that may be relevant:
. Anyone can just use Weapon Finesse without the feat
. Dodge feat is combined with Mobility
. Spontaneous casters can Undercast

Sorcerer (Abyssal bloodline) level 6
Human
Stats:
Str - 8
Dex - 15
Con - 10
Int - 13
Wis - 15
Cha - 17

Feats:
Deceitful
Combat Casting
Dodge/mobility
Augment Summoning

Background traits:
Dangerously curious

Relevant items:
Bracers of armour +1

Skill ranks in:
3 Bluff
1 Diplomacy
1 handle animal
1 intimidate
2 knowledge arcana
1 knowledge dungeoneering
4 knowledge planes
2 linguistics
2 sense motive
1 sleight of hand
3 spellcraft
1 stealth
2 use magic device

Spells (have been using the Human favoured class bonus of 1 extra spell known):
0th - Read magic, detect magic, ray of frost, message, light, ghost sound, prestidigitation
1st - magic missile, shocking grasp, cause fear, aphasia, mount, charm person
2nd - apport object, bull's strength, create pit, stone call
3rd - summon monster 3

To identify a spell effect in place you have to sense something somehow---either detect magic, or the spell linked to the hallow going off, or maybe special effects if the GM thinks those linger post-casting. Knowledge(arcana) does not by itself let you sense magical effects, only understand what you are otherwise sensing.

Assuming you have some evidence to go by, you are right that it's a Knowledge(arcana) check. Kinda weird that Spellcraft won't do it, but there you go.

Ah okay, that does make more sense. Thanks!

It seems like the moment a character possesses some rope, climbing isn't hard at all. "A rope with a wall to brace against, or a knotted rope," is DC 5.

Additionally, I can't remember any rules about fatigue when climbing.

So in effect, my Str 8 (human) character can take 10 to climb a slippery(!) cliff-face 110ft high and get to the top in around 45 seconds.

I don't know about most people, but I don't think I could do that. Why is climbing equipment even a thing if it's that easy?

Maybe I've miscalculated or am misunderstanding how tall 110ft actually is...

If a character casts Detect Magic inside a Hallowed or Unhallowed area, what skill/DC is used to understand the spell effect?

I initially thought Spellcraft should be used, but the table only lists 'Identify a spell as it is being cast'.

The Knowledge skill table has both:

Identify auras while using detect magic Arcana 15 + spell level

Identify a spell effect that is in place Arcana 20 + spell level

I think it's implying that if you're not using Detect Magic, you can otherwise still tell there is a magic effect with the second DC?

Am I right in thinking you cannot use Spellcraft to identify the Hallow/Unhallow spell and must use Knowledge Arcana in this situation?

A party of four is soon going to fight one guard (a Barbarian). The guard knows the area - one floor of a tower - and it's likely he'll have a few minutes to prepare. I want this to be at least a little challenging, and without just adding class levels. What kind of tactics can I use? There aren't really any chokepoints he can use.

that entirely depends if the spell is a cylinder or a sphere in nature

It just says 'radius' :/

If you fly up in the area where a Hallow spell is cast, are you no longer protected?

Yeah, it does seem that way. Is that how people usually run it? Forgoing daylight to ensure people can't scry on you seems reasonable, I suppose. And unfortunately I am the GM! :)

I've heard many times that walls lined with lead can stop attempts at Divination. Does this method require you to have no windows? Can the spell 'find its way in' via those?

If we have a sorcerer with the Abyssal bloodline and Summon Evil Monster feat, who Summons a Pugwampi, how does the Pugwampi's new damage reduction read/work?

Abyssal bloodline grants half level DR/good, so a level 6 sorcerer's Summons' get DR 3/good.

A Pugwampi gets DR 2/cold iron.

So is this now: DR 3/good or cold iron? Or just DR 3/good? Or... DR 3/good and cold iron?

On a similar note, I just ran an adventure in the Dimension of Dreams and added Nightmare creatures.

In particular, I used a Moss Troll which gets Regeneration 5 (fire). The nightmare template which I added also grants Regeneration 5 but

Good-aligned weapons, silver weapons, and spells with the good descriptor cause a nightmare creature’s regeneration to stop functioning for 1 round.

So does the Nightmare Moss Troll have Regeneration 5 (fire, good, silver)?

Thanks for the suggestions. The psychic sounds like the best option. It's still not quite what I was going for, but I think that doesn't exist. I mainly just wanted to give an NPC the ability to enter dreamscapes, influence dreams, send messages via dreams, that kind of thing - and not too bothered about any other abilities - without needing to be high level, but that doesn't seem possible.

Do you think it would be reasonable to switch the casting stat to wisdom? It would suit the character more than high charisma... Then again, I'd want to give them the lucid dreamer feat which is also charisma based.

Dreamstalker mesmerist does look interesting (especially getting dreamscapes as favoured terrain) but there is too much mental manipulation for the character concept. I also like the changeling idea, but the character has already been introduced and is too obviously not a changeling :)

This PC started with a Con score of 9 (-1 penalty) and HD 6.

They got into a fight with a night hag and went from 25HP to 6HP, at which point they got bitten and took a further 4 HP damage and also contracted Demon Fever (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/afflictions/diseases/diseases-paizo- inc/demon-fever/)

They took a full 6 points of Con damage, bringing their Con to 3 (-4 penalty). 1 is drain because they didn't make an extra save.

So I'm unsure as to how their HP should be adjusted. In the CRB regarding constitution damage it says 'multiply your total Hit Dice by this penalty and subtract that amount...'. Not sure what 'this penalty' refers to - the number of constitution points lost (which is 6) or their current constitution penalty (4)?

If it's the points lost, 6, then that's a loss of 36 hit points. Now, in regards to dying, is HP compared to current Con score (3) or their usual score (9, or 8 with the one point of drain)? Obviously in the case of 36HP this doesn't really make a difference...
The alternative is a 24HP loss. Still not much better, I suppose.

I can't see anywhere I'm misunderstanding the rules and the character should actually be alive. Is this right?

Additionally, hypothetically, does the 1d6 Con damage/drain happen every day until the character makes two saves/dies?

Is there a class or archetype that focuses on dreams? One that would get spells similar to 'dream travel' at a lower level, or class abilities which allow them to enter dreams?

I'm looking for a monster with a lower CR but otherwise similar to a night hag, that would invade dreams. The PCs are level 6 so CR10 is a smidge too high... :)

I'm making a haunt that was caused by a group of hunters being lured out away from safety and then attacked/eaten alive by an evil creature (thinking some kind of fey or a hag, maybe?) - just trying to pick a spell effect for it. Given the nature of the haunt, I thought something involving nausea would be suitable but all I can find is Stinking Cloud. I don't think this quite works as it's a poison effect. Can anyone think of anything off the top of their head?

Also would it help the situation if I multiclassed as a sorcerer? (Or make it worse?)

So I'm a bit confused about how the Synthesist moves when merged with their Eidolon. Say you have an Eidolon which looks like a snake, so no limbs. When merged, can the Synthesist still walk around and wave their arms about? Can they attack with those arms even though the snake Eidolon couldn't? I realise they wouldn't be able to cast spells due to the specific point made about that (that's why I'm wondering about the other stuff).

On the other hand, if the Eidolon has multiple limbs that the Summoner doesn't have, like extra arms, presumably they can still be used? It's just this bit that sounds like it casts doubt:

The synthesist wears the eidolon like translucent, living armor.

Maybe it's not a good idea after all, then... What if you halved the summoner's or eidolon's hd?

or just skip it entirely for a biped eidolon-merge.

I'm a bit confused about this having had a think about it and reading the description in the APG. If the eidolon mimics the summoner's movements, wouldn't it have to have the same limbs? Would a quadruped just stand on its hind legs to do so? Would it be impossible to have a serpentine form eidolon as a Synthesist, for example?

Can it even use attacks using limbs the Summoner doesn't possess? Like tentacles or something.

Admittedly I might just need some sleep... lol.

Thanks for all the replies. Sounds like it should be okay as long as I don't try to make it too powerful. The reason I'm looking at Synthesist is because I had thought it would cause less problems than the original Summoner, so I'm glad I'm right about that.

We are using a point buy system, but I'll be sensible about it. :)

Rosc - thanks for the tip about the arms!

My GM has said I could play a Summoner with the Synthesist archetype. Having briefly looked into it a bit as I have some confusion over how bits of it work, I came across some people saying it's broken, outshines the Fighter, that sort of thing.

I don't want to tread on toes or break the game. I don't do optimizing, my feat choices etc are for fun and specifically to fit character concepts. So bearing this in mind, will using this class/archetype still cause problems?

I really like the flavour of the class - if anybody has suggestions on how to, well, make it weaker, I could discuss those with the GM too.

We haven't had the first session yet and aren't making characters until then, so I might end up going with something else entirely to fit with the party, so this might be irrelevant, but I'm kind of slow when it comes to making decisions so I want to prepare.

Sorry, Kingdom might have been the wrong term. It's more like two towns and a castle - I don't think their leader would really qualify as a 'king', but there's no greater governing body above him either.

So, there's a long story behind this, but basically a Succubus has agreed to depose the leader of a small kingdom and instate another character as the leader (who has no current connections with/presence in the region).

I can think of ways to force a change of leadership, but am stuck with how to specifically get this character to be in charge with no efforts from them themselves. Politics and subterfuge tend to be a bit beyond me :/ (But I'm trying to get better!)

Any ideas would be very much appreciated. Thanks :)

So does your opponent's square get counted as part of the distance? I always thought it was those squares inbetween that of you and the opponent.

That's 15'. Here's the rule:

Diagonals
When measuring distance, the first diagonal counts as 1 square, the second counts as 2 squares, the third counts as 1, the fourth as 2, and so on.

But there's only one diagonal between them, so it is the first diagonal and therefore counts as 5ft?

So we have 9 5ft squares like so:

1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9

The PC is on 3 and NPC on 7. PC wants to throw a dagger at NPC.

We're suddenly very confused over how much space there is inbetween the two characters - I say 5ft and the PC's player says 15ft. We've been playing the game for a year now and can't seem to decide :p Can anyone help?

I'm not trying to make it significantly more likely they will get a disease, just remove the inconvenience of rolling saves constantly - but at the same time I don't want to reduce the chances. Rolling all the saves at the end of combat might be a good idea, then.

Right, so that's as I thought. :/

Thinking of houseruling something like one save at the end of combat (if they're alive, anyway...), with some kind of modifier based on how many times they were hit, to save constantly rolling for characters with good fortitude saves.

In combat with, say, a dire rat, where their bite attack can inflict disease - must the Fortitude save be made every single time, or just once?

I've always assumed it was every time, but having a player roll a fortitude save over and over again actually seems quite annoying.

Yeah, I know, but he didn't want to go with that as he couldn't use a lot of the spells he wanted. It does work differently, too.

My player wants to create a voodoo doll that he can use to deliver touch spells to a specific person (in particular, inflict light wounds).

The doll would require something from the person, like hair or nails, and could not be used to deliver touch spells to anyone else. The target would receive a Fortitude save to negate damage, and damage dealt would be half the normal amount.

He would use it to slowly hurt his enemies who most likely have no magical healing available, so the damage would accumulate over time.

Barriers between him and the target would be of no consequence, not sure what kind of distance limit to impose yet. He would be casting the spells as normal and so would use up spell slots.

At this point I should probably mention we have a house rule where anyone can create magic items, without the feat.

The character is currently level 1 (Oracle with the Seer archetype). Is this something they should be able to create? I'm not sure there's anything like it in the books to compare it to. Would it just be a CL1 item?

I think it sounds okay in terms of game balance, as it would take a long time to kill anyone with it, and if they did receive healing he'd have to start over, but would like opinions on this.

As he is, in fact, the only player, I don't have to worry about fairness on anyone else either.

I'm not sure what other spells you are looking at, but these should be fine.

He suggested the same could be applied to Sleep and Deep Slumber - other than that, I'm struggling to think of others.

My husband asked if I could implement this house rule, based on something he read in Occult Adventures.

Basically, spells like Cure Light, Moderate and Serious (?) Wounds would be 'Cure Wounds', which is then cast at the appropriate spell level.

So, for example, an Oracle would have 'Cure Wounds' as a level 3 spell known, but could cast that as Cure Light Wounds using a level 1 spell slot, or as Cure Serious wounds in a level 3 slot, without having to know all three levels of the spell as separate spells. But they would have to know the spell at the highest level they wish to cast.

I do like the idea, as the spells are essentially doing the same thing. It would apply to Inflict Wounds, Summon Monster, and other stuff along the same lines. As a new GM, though, I'd like to check it's not game breaking or anything. I can see how it's a pretty big thing for spontaneous casters, but doesn't sound like it should really cause any problems.

Thank you for the suggestions! Lots of options there. Will definitely get some smelling salts and the folding pole (we don't have a Rogue).

Ah, I probably should have specified I'll be on a pirate ship, so stuff like bedrolls and cookware won't be necessary. I'm also not sure whether a waterskin is. The hip flask is there to hold rum and such ;)

I love Alchemist's Fire but am not sure whether that's okay on a ship?

I'm making a Storm Druid for Skull & Shackles. Equipment so far:
Leather armour - 10gp
Scimitar - 15gp
Sling + 10 bullets - 1sp
Backpack - 2gp
Waterproof belt pouch - 1.5gp
Compass - 10gp
Fishing kit - 5sp
Flint/steel - 1gp
Hip flask - 1gp

Any suggestions for the last 29gp, other than something to fill the hip flask with? ;)

Ah, well, that's a shame. Thanks for the replies.

I'm thinking about making my 1st level Storm Druid a Wordcaster, mostly because it would be really cool thematically with the type of person my character is, but also because I haven't tried it out before.

Has anyone else tried the system with a Druid and how was it?

A sorcerer needs 8 hours of rest to regain their spell slots. Am I right in thinking 'rest' is not exactly the same as sleep? Also, does it actually have to be a consecutive 8 hours since the CRB doesn't seem to specify?