Luminiferous's page

I have an idea for a poppet who is a mysteriously animated Mosquito Witch doll, who naturally would be a witch with the Mosquito Witch patron. I can't seem to find a boon of any kind that will allow access to the Mosquito Witch patron though. Could anyone please direct me to one, or at least tell me there isn't one (at this time) so I can stop looking?

I'm looking for a way to delete/remove old locations when entering a new event for Organized Play. I click to select a location and I'm given a list that trails down the entire page, appearing overlaid on top of everything else making some locations difficult to read. I'm afraid if I add yet another location it will trail all the way down and off the page, which would make creating new events impossible as the new locations always appear at the bottom of the list.

So, I was given a gift of a beautiful set of dice with tiny rubber duckies in them. They are adorable and must be used. This means I must play a duckfolk sort of ancestry. Except there really isn't one.

This Post by James Jacobs from forever ago implies there is such as thing as "duckbill tengu" but of course no other mention of them anywhere as it was probably just a joke.

So is there such a heritage or ethnicity for tengu? Wavediver heritage seems a good fit, but nothing rules or lore -wise indicate they don't look like any other sharp beak tengu.

My only other obvious option is the beastkin versatile heritage, but the shapeshifting and beastkin feats have nothing to offer (such as a swim speed).

With GM permission I could just reskin tengu however is necessary, but I'm hoping there is anything canon in Golarion's lore for duck people.

Anyone know of something I don't?

I have a concept for a character that is some kind of "reversible caster". The idea is that any spell she can cast, she can cast an opposite version of it. So if she can cast bless, she can also cast bane. Or if she can cast light, she can cast darkness. Heal and harm, etc. I'm wondering if that is any sort of easy way to sort the list of spells into groups like this without going through each of them one by one or taking guesses based on the names of each spell. Or if anyone could just point me in the direction of a tradition that has a good number of such spells.

Any advice?

Thanks in advance!

This heritage says a conrasu’s exoskeleton is medium armor. Specifically

Your woven exoskeleton rivals the hardest armors that can be found. Your exoskeleton is medium armor in the plate armor group that grants a +4 item bonus to AC, a Dex cap of +1, a check penalty of –2, a speed penalty of –5 feet, and a Strength value of 16, and has the comfort trait. You can never wear other armor or remove your exoskeleton. You can etch armor runes onto your exoskeleton as normal.

For feats and class abilities, and most importantly proficiency, is this actually armor? Is it considered wearing armor for a monk? Is it using medium armor proficiency or unarmored?

Any help or guidance is appreciated. Thanks!

I just finished running a Quest where all the players used level 5 pregens (Quest 5: The Dragon Who Stole Evoking Day). I know from the guide they may apply credit to a 1st level character receiving 1st level gold, but how does that affect Earn Income rolls? Seems like it's almost an automatic success for the pegens to make a check appropriate to a level 1 character, but would be receiving way to much gold if rolling a check appropriate to a level 5.

So, how are Earn Income checks resolved using high level pregens when applying credit to a level 1 character?

When using the alchemist discovery Explosive Missile using a Merciful weapon, does the bomb damage convert to nonlethal?

As I understand it, when I play part 4, I'm to level up the character I played in part 1. What if I had a bad experience playing that character and want to play something else? For playtesting purposes am I stuck?

For my personal situation, I was lacking for ideas and so just attempted to build one of my existing characters and now realize it is just impossible to actually level him up to be the same character character (who is a multiclass monk/rogue).

So I was just going over the various benefits with a potential new GM at my store and was explaining that when she earns her first GM star, she gets a bonus on her free rerolls she uses as a player (from a Character Folio). When going over these benefits in the guide, I couldn't find anything that says you get a bonus to the roll anymore, but rather you receive a number of additional rerolls.

Now, the http://paizo.com/organizedplay/perks page still says you get the bonus to the rolls, but you now also get additional rolls?

I have a 2nd level sorcerer with the elemental bloodline and I would like to retrain into the crossblooded archetype to add the arcane bloodline (because familiars are cool) but I'm not sure how much prestige it will cost. I'm not planning on changing any choices I've made so far (i.e. keeping the elemental ray for now, picking up familiar later) but I'm not sure what all counts as a class feature for this retrain. We're adding a bloodline, and that bloodline adds a new bloodline arcana and class skill, and then there is a list of drawbacks which I'm not sure if they count as separate features or not (which would suck if I had to pay additional prestige for some penalties).

I'm hoping this retrain will only cost me 5 prestige for the bloodline, but I'm suspecting it would be 10 for the change in arcana and class skill.

Is there anyone who has done this or a similar retrain before or maybe just someone who can double check my math?

I understand that GMs with stars may now reply scenarios for credit as either a player or GM with some restrictions. What about a sanctioned module? Can those be replayed?

My regular group has been experiencing some continuous, though inconsistent issues with a particular player. Now this player, in my own experience, is a great guy and generally fun to play with, and the issues people, even myself, have with it all seem exceeding minor to the point of being easy to ignore. But they are adding up, and I'm not sure what to do.

There really would be too much to list as examples, and as I said the vast majority is extremely minor, but the bottom line it is slowing down the game. Both in and out of combat he doesn't seem to have a full grasp of his character's role in the group, and doesn't seem to grasp the role of any of the other characters, and often the purpose of the mission as well. He seems to view his own character as one dimensional: a paladin that smites evil (and has absolutely nothing else to contribute so expresses a desire to smite evil/engage in combat even in social encounters). Not just occasionally, not just every encounter, but each and every chance he gets to express himself.

Today's example comes of playing the pregen gunslinger. Pretty much every time he was given a change to act, it was to shoot something, or state he wanted to shoot something, or otherwise threaten something with being shot. In one encounter in which all the PCs were given a sap and told to fight each other until only one was last standing, he argued in favor is using his extremely lethal pistols for the very reason of his greater chance hitting and greater damage... every turn. He was eventually told that using the pistol instead of the nonlethal sap would be reported as PVP, at which point he opted for the pistol whip deed, which we excepted as it couldn't accidentally kill anyone with a crit and it got the game moving again.

I really don't want to turn him away from the game, I just would like some advise on how to get him to back off a little. I think everyone would be okay if he wants to play a one trick pony provided he only involved himself in encounters where that trick is applicable, and kept quiet otherwise. I think everyone would be even happier if he expanded on what he felt his character was capable of. Even more, I don't want myself or anyone else to just snap one day and blow their top at him.

Entangle says that if you make your save, but are still in the area at the end of the caster's turn, you have to make another save.

What if you failed the save and are still in the area?

It might sound silly, but in the case of an area with thorns, you take damage on a failed save. This would indicate that you either make a save every round to avoid damage, or you have the option of not bothering to escape to avoid damage.

If you do have to make your save each round (regardless of if you are already entangled), does making that save just avoid the damage, or will it break the entangle effect and set you free?

The cleric's Fire Domain grants the spell-like ability: Fire Bolt. Normally, SLAs do not have any components, so I would think this would not require a free hand to use. However, the flavor text indicates the fire is unleashed from an "outstretched hand". Personally, I'd think the flavor text is just flavor and doesn't actually supersede the normal rules for casting, but I'm seeing plenty of room for this to go either way. So which is it?

So far, I'm having my cleric use the ability with a lit torch in hand, saying that's the hand the fire comes from (appearing as if he's flicking it from the torch).

Sorry this is not an advertisement for an upcoming game (but one is soon to follow) but tomorrow I have the privilege to be GMing my first online game.

Tomorrow I'll be running First Steps pt III for a group of (relatively) new to PFS players who've so far only played through pts I and II under a different GM. As it happens that GM is unavailable this Sat so I'm filling in.

Wish me luck!

This would probably be a simple rules question, except it applies to the difference between how some of the GM in my local area handle this issue.

The issue deals with whether a character receives a flanking bonus to attack rolls if the person he's flanking with is invisible. I feel the rules are quite clear, yes. Nothing in the rules or FAQ concerning flanking, threatened squares or invisibility requires the target being flanked to be aware of those who threaten his square. The other GM disagrees, claiming common sense that a target cannot be flanked by enemies he cannot perceive.

At the moment, I'm not as concerned with which of these views would be officially correct, but whether or not this falls under table variation. If it does, then I'm free to handle it my way, and my fellow GM is free to handle it his. Of course, if this is not a mater of table variation, I'd very much like to know what to tell my fellow GM.

This might seem like a silly question, but since it's come up multiple times in my local group I figured it wouldn't hurt to get come clarification/confirmation...

From what I understand, #3-EX The Cyphermage Dilemma is the same scenario as #4-15 The Cyphermage Dilemma, and thus if you have played one, you count as having played the other (because they are the same). So if last year, you played #3-EX when your VC ran it, you cannot also play #4-15 (for credit).

Is this correct? A few players in my area have said that because they have different print on their chronicle sheets (#3-EX vs #4-14), they are officially different scenarios for determining credit. I'm pretty sure they are wrong but figured I'd ask.

Could someone help me out in figuring the cost of certain ammunition for a gunslinger, specifically if he's crafting the ammunition himself?

Alchemical Cartridge (paper, adamantine bullet)
Alchemical Cartridge (paper, silver bullet)
Alchemical Cartridge (paper, cold iron bullet)

Some of these seems pretty straight forward (cold iron would be double the cost, crafted at half the cost, so could cost my gunslinger 12gp per cold iron cartridge), but the others confuse me. Does the adamantine cartridge cost 36gp (half of 12+60) or 66gp (half of 12, +60) or something else? Similar for silver... Alchemical Silver says it costs +2gp per piece of ammo (implying a normal cost of 14gp per, and either 7gp or 8gp to craft), but there's a separate entry for a silver bullet in Ultimate Combat which costs 25gp; I'm completely lost here.

Could someone please help shed some light on what these costs should be?

Note: I know this is probably just a general rules question, but it's for a PFS character and I'm aware of (but lack an understanding of) special rules for purchasing ammunition for gunslingers in PFS.

I have a half-orc barbarian who will eventually dip into sorcerer and head into dragon disciple. Almost all of my characters for PFS so far have been human and it's been easy to pick a faction, but I'm not sure about this guy. He's dumber than dirt, is complicatedly kind-hearted and his favorite game is hitting things as hard as he can.

Woot!

After today's reporting, I have received my 2nd GM star. Brag, brag, brag. Now I think I'll have some celebratory ice cream.

What happens when you cast a spell which targets X on a target which is something other than X. For example, what would happen if I attempted to cast charm person on a shapeshifted rakshasha?

I'm guessing the spell is successfully cast, but simply has no effect on the target, and the caster realizes this (as opposed to thinking the target simply made his save).

However, other possibilities occur to me. Since the target is invalid, can the target even be targeted? If so, upon realizing this, can the caster then select a different target upon casting the spell?

Perhaps there's something else I haven't thought of.

Their entry in Bestiary 3 says they cast their list of spells as a 3rd level sorcerer, so are they sorcerers for the purpose of using spell-trigger and spell completion magic items? For example, would a faerie dragon need to make a UMD check to use a scroll or wand of a spell on the sorcerer/wizard list?

I'm considering rolling up a reach weapon type something for PFS, but never having used reach weapons (as a player) I'm not sure what to do. Are there any good builds someone could point me to or otherwise some handy advice? I'm not necessarily looking for an optimized build, just something fun. Perhaps something with a naginata.

In issue arose yesterday when the group cleric opted to channel positive energy to destroy a few skeletons. On of these skeletons was currently under the influence of a command undead spell cast by another player. The player commanded the skeleton said this counted as PVP, I said it was not because the skeleton didn't belong to the PC and was merely "charmed".

Now I'm curious. Is this really PVP? On the one hand, the PC did expend resources to gain control the skeleton, but on the other control does not equal ownership.

Would this have been different if it was a summoned creature rather than a charmed/commanded one? Again, it is a spell effect which the PC would have spend resources to acquire, but again not actually owned. In either case it's a spell being cast.

I've been wondering...

If you are invisible (per the spell invisibility, and use a full attack to make multiple attacks, is your target denied his dex bonus to all of your attacks, or just the first one? I'm assuming it's just for the 1st, but I can imagine a circumstance where one could deliver multiple attacks simultaneously (such as with TWF), so logically the invisibility wouldn't drop until both attacks resolved. I'm just not sure if it's intended to work that way.

One of my players as a rather awesome character concept which involves fighting with a pair of fighting fans. Other than personality and some background info, everything else about the character (class, archetype, etc) is up for consideration.

However, I think the fighting fan as a weapon sucks. It looks fun, and is very stylistic, but just not an effective choice of weapon.

What can I do to make it effective, or at least an attractive option?

Thanks!

Looking over all the various poisons, I was wondering if any of them besides the ones that deal Con damage are in any way lethal. Doesn't seem like it, but I keep seeing some of them used in PFS scenarios and modules and such to indicate how something dead got dead, even though the poison present doesn't deal Con damage.

Regardless of what the modules indicate, how should poisons work? If it doesn't deal Con, can it kill you?

Merry Yuletide!

So, something weird happened in our game last night. My sorcerer attempted a coup de grace on a sleeping target. It played out well and the target died, but it raised a question no one in our group could figure out or agree on.

My sorcerer deals 1d4-2 damage with his dagger. He potentially will deal zero damage (for 1 point of nonlethal damage). What would have happened concerning the sleeping target and the coup de grace if he ultimately dealt only 1 point of nonlethal damage? Does the target still make a save or die? If the target doesn't die, does a point of nonlethal damage wake it up?

And in general, can you perform a coup de grace with a weapon that deals nonlethal damage? Nothing in the rules for coup de grace mentions lethal or nonlethal. If so, does the damage affect the DC of the save?

Can nonlethal damage wake up a sleeping target? The sleep spell says wounding a sleeping target wakes it, but has no mention of damage.

And, while I'm asking lots of questions... Can you deal a coup de grace with non-weapons that deal damage, such a spells or spell-like abilities (magic missile, etc.)?

Thanks in advance!

I have an opportunity to join a new game and I'm considering playing a druid. I've never played a druid before and the class has always intrigued me. My concept is a wizard like Merlin, from traditional legend. Merlin is very in-tuned with nature, can assume various animal shapes and call on the natural world to help him (causing earth quakes, summoning fire or wind, animating plants, etc.). This to me is very much a druid.

I'm looking for advice on a build for him. I'm not really familiar with the druid or how its class abilities really function during the game. I'm not even sure where to start.

Would you any suggest if I wanted to play a Merlin-like druid?

Mithral weapons cost 500gp/lb. Fighting fans have no weight. Mathematically, a mithral fighting fan cost the same as a normal fighting fan.

I'm certain this is wrong.

How much should mithral fighting fans cost? Is there a minimum cost of making a weapon mithral? I'm assuming it's a plain minimum of 500 gp (so it's that much more expensive than masterwork).

So, looking at the FAQ, some characters are allowed to use craft skills (most often Craft (alchemy)) to craft items using the rules for the Craft skill.

But I can't find any rules as to when you are allowed to craft. I've been speaking to the groups I play with, and have received widely different responses. One says I need to craft during the scenario itself (which will almost always mean never) and others who say crafting is done between scenarios.

If it's during a scenario, then the ability to craft is essentially a non-ability. End of discussion.

If I can craft between scenarios, how much can I craft? How many check may I make? If an item requires more than one check to complete (such as many poisons), so I make all the checks at once, or must I spread out those checks across several scenarios?

For example, if I have a +16 Craft(alchemy), I can take 10 to guarantee a result of 26. With this check, I can craft 676 sp worth of progress towards a dose of dragon bile (worth 15,000 sp). At this rate I'll need to make 23 separate checks to complete the dose (representing 23 weeks of work).

When may I make checks to make progress toward crafting a dose of dragon bile, and whether it is during or between scenarios, how many checks may I make?

I'm hoping to receive some kind of official response, or a direction to an already existing official answer I'm hoping I just missed.

The Field Guide says I can buy a ship for 10 pp.

What kind of ship is this? Any kind I want? Is there a gp value associated with it? What exactly do I get?

I'm playing an alchemist in PFS, and I'm interested in using poisons. I'm familiar with the rules for poisons but still confused in a few areas, and would like some help in decided what poisons to seek out and use.

Since this is for PFS, I can only choose from those poisons available to PFS characters. Assuming I have access to any of those poisons allowed, what should I start using?

My delivery method of choice is a crossbow, though I'm open to other methods when out of combat.

What have others done with poisons, either as a player or a GM? I've never really used poison other than as a creature's special ability so this is new territory for me.

Additional question for other PFS players: Can I buy any poison which costs less than what my Fame allows, like with magic items?

I'm considering a druid monk build for PFS and would like some advice. I've played monks before and love them, but I've never played a druid, but I love the idea of them. What I'm looking for here, concept wise, is to build the character around the idea of taking Shaping Focus, a feat which allows you to count up to 4 non-druid levels toward the druid's wild shape ability. Ultimately this will mean my druid monk will be wild-shaping into elementals to go kung-fu on the bad guys.

Other than that, I'm not sure what to do with the build. I want most of all for his "mountain style kung-fu" trick to be an effective combat tactic. He's to be a tank and a powerhouse. What else besides levels in monk and Shaping Focus would I need for such a build? What ability scores should I favor and which should I dump? Any specific feats or skills I should ensure I have? Any spells which would help the build out?

Thanks!

I have some GM credit stacked up in PFS and I'm thinking of playing either an Alchemist or a Wizard. I have a concept in mind for each, but don't really want to divide my attention between the two. Which one would you suggest?

1) Gnome Alchemist (grenadier/saboteur) with pyromaniac, making heavy use of bombs and eventually taking the Wings discovery to become an aerial bomber.

2) Human Conjurer (teleporter, opposed by divination and enchantment) an Osirion tomb raider who alternates between team/aoe buffs and summoned creatures to dominate combat.

And there was much rejoicing! Yay!

However...

I'm a human bard. I don't want to cross class, but I'm open to any other suggestions.

What are my options? I figure the obvious is a wand or scrolls of beast shape I, but what else is there?

O, be some other name! What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.

So I have this character. I kinda like him. He's fun. I rolled him up at a convention and picked a name out of a hat to use, which no one remembered so I ended up using what he was called. Now I hate it. Not just the name he ended up being called, but the original name just isn't him.

Can I rename him? I know I can remake any aspect of a character prior to achieving 2nd level, but he's 5th. Is the name important? If not, is it unimportant enough I can change it?

Okay, so I see a bad guy, and I run up to him to attack. However, there is another bad guy, invisible, between me and my target. What happens when I enter the square occupied by the invisible bad guy?

Where, how, who?

I have a friend I play with every other weekend with our local PFS group who says he plays mostly online. I'm familiar with a few VTT sites, but I have no idea how to find a PFS game on them, let alone how one is managed in regards to looking over chronicle sheets and receiving one at the end of a session. Is there an existing online resource for playing PFS online?

I'm guessing, yes, but I'd hate to show up to a table with a brand new imp at level 7 and be told no.

Also, if I'm allowed to have one, what alignment is the imp? Is it still evil?

I'm checked the rules, and can't seem to find any that allow you to shove someone up against the wall with the intent to hurt them. I see this in movies, described in books, and I naturally remember my days in high school.

Is this really just a grapple (which allows for damage) and the presence of a wall can just be used for flavor? Any other way to beat someone into a wall until they fall down?

How about using one character as a bludgeon to damage some him and someone you slam him into?

I'm not looking for class abilities, but something anyone can do (or try). How do you do it?

I was recently made aware of this post by Sean K Reynolds.

Given an number of threads concerning how many hands you hold your weapon with and when and how often you can change how many hands you hold your weapon with, I'd like to make a suggestion.

Treat the terms of wielding and held in hand as synonymous. As long as it's not put away, it counts as being wielded regardless of how many hands you have on it. As long as a weapon is in hand, it counts for use as an arcane bond, and you threaten squares within its reach. Naturally, unless you have the ability to put 2 hands on a 2 handed weapon, then you can't actually attack with it.

If you combine Spellstrike with Spell Combat, do you get to make an additional melee attack? Example, I'm casting shocking grasp, and choose to cast it through my scimitar with a melee attack. May I also, using Spell Combat, make an additional melee attack (no spell attached) if both of these attacks take the -2 penalty?

Sounds simple enough. From what I understand, a spell-like ability functions pretty much like a spell with no components, and as stated in the description of being paralyzed, you may perform purely mental actions such as casting a spell with no components. So far so good.

However, casting a spell with no components, or using a spell-like ability provokes an attack of opportunity. If I adhere to the RAW, then if a paralyzed, threatened character uses a spell-like ability, it will draw an attack of opportunity. Only this doesn't make any sense; he's just standing there whether he acts mentally or not.

Is this an oversight in the rules? Did I miss something? Or does this make sense to someone who can explain it to me? Why would a creature who performs a purely mental action provoke an attack of opportunity?

One of my regular players just asked me a question I'm not sure about an answer to. Basically, if you are replaying a scenario (as in, you are not going to receive credit for it, so First Steps don't count), and your character dies, does he really die or can you just ignore death or other conditions?

My gut feeling is to say, yes he dies, pay your PP or gold. However, if you are replaying and not going to receive credit for participating, what difference does it make? The player could have played a pregen for no credit just as easily as he could his own character, and if the pregen dies no one cares.

So what would you do?

I'm prepping this scenario to run this Saturday, and I have a question with Act 2.

So I'm looking for suggestions on how to describe the encounter to add more suspense/fear/fun without actually changing the difficulty.

Any ideas?

Two questions:

1) In order to receive a boon granted from completing all parts of a series of scenarios (such as The Quest for Perfection), must a player actually play the series in order to receive the boon at the end, or can they be played in any order? (and in the case of GMs, must a GM run the scenarios in order?).

2) When receiving full credit for running a scenario, do GMs receive the boons only for season 4 scenarios, or does a GM receive any boon provided the scenario is run after Aug 16, 2012?