Mad Gene Vane's page

Mulling a character idea around in my head.

An Elf Dhampir who was part of the Shining Crusade fighting against the Whispering Tyrant. Elves and Human Dhampirs live to be about 600 years old, on average.

How old could an Elf with Dhampir heritage live to be?

Shining Crusade ended in 3827 AR, and the current year is 4722, which is only 895 years ago, which I think should easily be in the age range Elf Dhampir can live to be.

Do you think a middle aged 1200 year old Elf Dhampir would be reasonable? Or could the character have a truly astounding lifespan and live up to three or four thousand years or longer?

The fearsome rune "When you critically hit with this weapon, the target becomes frightened 1."

If I put the fearsome rune on a weapon with the trip trait, and make a trip attempt against an opponents Reflex DC and the trip attack with the weapon crits against the Reflex DC, does the opponent become frightened 1, as per the rune's effect?

It makes sense to me that it should, but I couldn't find anything to clarify this. I don't want to wishfully read into something to get it to say what I want it to do, when it might not work the way I want it to.

Any thoughts and clarifications would be welcome.

How do you determine the DC for a Recall Knowledge to identify a creature?

For example, an Owl Bear is a Level 4 Creature. If a character rolls a Nature check to recall knowledge, what would the DC need to be to get information?

What would be the adjustment to the DC for Uncommon, Rare, etc. creatures?

Quick question, if I make a level 1 character with an intelligence of 8, will I lose one of the slots for trained skills?

If a class gives me one trained skill and the ability to choose four trained skills of my choice, does an Int 8 reduce this to three trained skills of my choice?

I am a martial character. I take a casting dedication, for example Wizard, at second level.

Table 11-3, on page 566 of the CRB, lists a scroll for a second level spell as a character level 3 item.

At third level would I be able to caste a level two arcane spell from a scroll, even though I can only cast cantrips from the multi-class dedication?

I GM'ed a game.

A 2nd level player has a critical success on an Earn Income check. He's trained in the skill. It's his level-2 for the check, so it is a level 0 task.

Normally he receives 5cp/day over 8 days for 40sp.

Per CRB for 2nd edition a critical success is the amount of money earned per day +1, so he would receive 6cp/day for 48sp.

I just want to make sure my math is correct.

I was mulling over making a Fighter, with Guard background, which gets Intimidation as a trained skill, which is charisma based.

I was playing around with a 10 charisma or 12 charisma, and I started to wonder how much difference is there actually between a 10 or 18 in a character stat.

On the bonus for a d20 roll, it’s just a 20% difference. When I think of the difference between a 10 and 14 charisma or 18 charisma (or another stat) in playing a character, it does not progress linearly like the bonus on the d20 roll does.

A 10 charisma stat I play as an introvert. A 14 as the life of a party, and an 18 like a superstar.

Outside of strength, which is quantifiable, with carrying capacity the other five stat categories are not really.

For example, at what dexterity stat number does character gain the agility of a gymnast? Or can barely touch their toes?

I’m just curious on what people’s thoughts are how much the value of a character stat affects how you play your character.

Protective Ward is the first level focus spell from the Wizard's Abjuration school of magic.

Focus spells, like cantrips, automatically heighten to half your level, unless otherwise noted.

Protective Ward gives a +1 status bonus to AC, and radiates as an emanation, increasing area by 5 ft. every round it is sustained up to a 30 foot emanation.

As focus spell, how does Protective Ward heighten? The spell description (CRB p. 408) isn't clear.

Does the AC status bonus automatically scale or does the maximum size of the emanation increase? And at what levels does it heighten?

Or is it what it is, and the focus spell does not heighten?

My character has a +1 striking Great Pick. I want to change weapons. I buy a mundane melee weapon. Can I transfer the runes to the mundane question or do new runes need to be etched?

Can I transfer the runes at 10% of the 35 gp for potency rune and 65 gp for striking rune for a total of 10 gp.

Or do I need to spend 35 gp for a +1 potency rune, and 65 gp for a striking rune, on my new mundane weapon?

The Additional Lore Skill Feat states:

Prerequisite(s) trained in Lore

Your knowledge has expanded to encompass a new field. Choose an additional Lore skill subcategory. You become trained in it. At 3rd, 7th, and 15th levels, you gain an additional skill increase you can apply only to the chosen Lore subcategory.

Special You can select this feat more than once. Each time you must select a new subcategory of Lore and you gain the additional skill increases to that subcategory for the listed levels.

Backgrounds generally give you training in one Lore subcategory.

For example, I took the Mining background and am trained in Mining Lore.

Would my Mining Lore automatically gain additional skill increase at 3rd, 7th, and 15th levels? Or does this only apply to the Lore subcategory taken, with the Additional Lore skill feat?

If I create a sword and shield character, and while I am exploring a dungeon, ruin, forest, etc., I normally keep my sword and shield sheathed, so my hands are free.

But suddenly a random encounter appears, and I need to be ready for battle.

Does it take one action to equip my shield and one more action to draw my sword?

Basically, does a sword and shied character build take 2 actions, out of the 3 available in a round, to equip the sword and shield and be ready for combat?

I have been away from PFS for a few years.

I have one question on XP.

I played my level 9 barbarian, with 26 xp recently. With the 1 xp gained from completing the scenario, my character now has 27 xp.

Is my barbarian still level 9 or did he advance to level 10?

Thank you in advance for your assistance

I have played four modules of the Emeraldspire Super Dungeon so far. When I first got the Land Rush Boon I did not have enough Prestige to buy land. I now have Prestige to buy two plots.

My question is can I retroactively buy land using an earlier character chronicle sheet or do I have buy one plot now and wait to run another module to buy more plots?

I am playing a Dragon Disciple, with levels in Draconic Bloodline Sorcerer. I am a me lee /tank build, As such I wear armor,

A 9th level DD gets the Sorcerer 15th level bloodline power Wings.

The Wings power states you grow leathery dragon wings from your back as a standard action, good maneuverability, 60 ft fly speed, and can dismiss the wings as a free action.

My rules question, can I grow the wings through my breast plate?

O.K. I have a level 1 Half-Elf Fighter for PFS play. In making him for the first scenario I had a brain fart. I some how got it into my head that an Elven Curve Blade is a double weapon.

My original idea was to have a double-bladed sword wielding Half Elf, who will multi-class as a Rogue and Barbarian (for imp. uncanny dodge), but OMG! The crit range on an ECB is 18-20 and is just calling me to take improved critical and critical focus feats at levels 9 and 10 and crit away, along with Power Attack at lower levels.

Though my original conception was a Darth Maul-ish character (human side being Shaonti, so he'll have face tattoos), with a double bladed sword and multiple attacks, who will eventually be tacking Sneak Attack damage to the attacks.

I can take Power Attack with a two bladed sword as well and attack two handed, but it would not be worth investing in the critical feats to try and be a crit-hitting machine at higher levels.

Current Feats: TWF, Double Slice
Alt Racial Trait: Ancestral Arms: Either ECB or Two bladed sword
Traits: Adopted (Auspicious Tattoo) +1 Will Save
Deft Dodger +1 Reflex Save

Stats:

Str: 17
Dex: 16
Con: 14
Int: 10
Wis: 12
Cha: 7

Thoughts on which way to go initially? At higher levels, I'd have the money to get both weapons, but at lower levels, not so much.

Lvl progression:

1. Fighter
2. Fighter
3. Rogue
4. Rogue
5. Rogue
6. Rogue
7. Barbarian
8. Barbarian
9. Fighter
10. Fighter
11. Fighter
12. Fighter

Some races - Halfling, Half-Orc, and Half-Elf - for example start off speaking Common and their racial language (Halfling, Elvish, Orc) but what, if you had a character that was not raised around members of that race?

Language IRL is acquired, so despite being from Germany or China, for example, if you are not raised in an environment where German or Chinese is spoken, you would not learn those languages as your native language.

If you had a Halfling, or Half-elf raised only around humans, do they just pick up the racial language as some innate trait or would that be lost and they have an extra slot for another language or would human language rules apply?

Saw the Impervious Weapon Quality in Ultimate Equipment. One part, I'm not sure how it applies:

"An impervious weapon is warded from damage and decay. A metallic weapon cannot rust and a wooden weapon cannot rot or warp, even by magical or supernatural means."

What if I had a battle axe, which is a metal blade with a wooden haft.

Does the quality apply to the entire weapon or just the metal part or just the wooden part?

I'm not clear from the wording.

In a home brew campaign set in the northern River Kingdoms and spilling over into Numeria.

Party is made up of an Artificer, Ranger, and two Magus (I think Blade Bound).

Went rogue-cleric to fill a gap, as I didn't have any character set in my mind to play.

Starting at level 1.

Stats assigned from a (generous) stat block/array 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12

Stats assigned after racial (halfling) adjustments:

Str: 13
Dex: 18
Con: 13
Int: 14
Wis: 17
Cha: 14

What I am in doubt about is my character progression, i.e. how many levels of Rogue versus Cleric to take.

My initial reaction was to go levels 1-2 rogue, level 3 cleric, levels 4-5 rogue and the rest as cleric.

Upon reflection, I might go levels 1-2 as rogue and the rest as cleric.

A more rogue heavy build was appealing because of the added skill points. Cleric heavy build is more appealing because of getting more powerful spells faster.

Cleric deity: Desna. Domains - Travel and Liberation.

Race: Halfling. ARG alt trait taken to move 30 ft/round at level 1.

In short, I'd be filling the role of skill monkey, trap defuser and healer.

The trade-off is coming between skill monkey (esp. for all the cleric knowledge skills others don't get as class skills) and healer. I can always go Skill Focus: Disable Device to make-up for losing 1/2 Rogue levels on my DD checks.

Any thoughts/comments on what you guys think is better would be welcome.

Hellknight orders have favored weapons. If I decide to play a Hellknight, will my character have to use the favored weapon? Or is it optional?

They're broken.

No one stops to think about it, but they are ludicrously broken.

Per the rules a typical male adult Halfling is between 2'10" tall and 3'4" tall and between 32-38 lbs.

That's the size of a typical pre-schooler. Most preschoolers have trouble carrying a gallon of milk, because it's too heavy for them.

You can have a Halfling with a starting strength of 16, which means a light load is up to 76 lbs or less and they can carry a heavy load of up to 230 lbs.

Even a lower starting strength of 8 allows a light load to be 26 lbs and a heavy load to be 80 lbs on a 35 lb. frame.

A gnome's a bit bigger, about the size of a first grader, with a male gnome's starting height being between 3'2" to 3'8" and weights between 37-43 lbs.

You basically have two races, which are supposed to have the same body mass density as humans of their size - unlike Dwarves - yet can have a body weight-to-load ratio rivaling ants or spiders.

Whatever reality D&D/Pathfinder game creators try to put into character creations/rules - like daytime/night time, gravity being the same as on Earth, water being H2O and in liquid form at typical atmospheric temperatures, etc. - so we can wrap our heads around the other fantastic stuff just has never translated to the strength-to-size proportion of Halflings and Gnomes.

I don't know why, but this just irks me.

Playing a character the size of a 4 year old, that could lift me off the ground like Bam-Bam and toss me around is just a bit off. They basically have superhuman strength for their size, like Bam-Bam.

Do you think Paizo will allow Eidolon stats to be treated as a block of stats, rather than fixed.

For example, a biped has the following stats:

Biped
Str 16, Dex 12, Con 13, Int 7, Wis 10, Cha 11; Free Evolutions claws, limbs (arms), limbs (legs).

If you have the ability as a Summoner to give your Eidolon wings, extra arms, etc., why not have the ability to pick Eidolons with different stats?

You could treat the stats as they are: 16, 12, 13, 7, 10, 11 and assign them to the ability scores you think would fit your Eidolon best.

I know this sort of thing can be house-ruled, but I don't get why this wasn't part of the game design.

Seems like they basically designed the Eidolon to be a fighter, though they have the abilities to do other things, especially with an evolution that allows them to get a +8 bonus to one skill.

I don't know why, but the whole Eidolon concept just seems a bit broken to me, because you are limited by the type of creature you can summon based on the stats being fixed.

Some classes like Monk, for example have their capstone ability as being a character is treated as an Outsider for spells and such: "At 20th level, a monk becomes a magical creature. He is forevermore treated as an outsider rather than as a humanoid (or whatever the monk's creature type was) for the purpose of spells and magical effects."

I hadn't found out what the benefit of this is, when digging through books and the internets.

Does anybody know how magical effects and spells apply to an outsider versus a humanoid? What's the benefit?

Looking to build an Alchemist/Grenadier-Archetype, which uses Alchemical Weapon ability in conjunction with being an Archer.

Other than this, I've not really thought much about the character.

I'm leaning towards an Elf, because of the bonus to Int. and Dex. and the ability to use Focused and Sniper Shot down the road to get the most out of my Int bonus.

I'm probably starting with a dip into Fighter for the bonus feats.

Figure the character would be something like this:

Level 1 = Fighter, Feats = Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot
Level 2 = Grenadier or Fighter (not sure)
Level 3 onwards = Grenadier

I figure combining Alchemical Weapon with archery and with bomb throwing, as a fall back should lead to a nice amount of damage and a bit of a twist for an archer.

Thoughts? Comments?

Playing a 1st level Urban Ranger/Guide, soon to be second level.

My goal in creating my character was to be the party face/lock picker, who took up with Rangers because they helped drive off some criminal elements, while the character was growing up. The roll is to basically fill a bit of what's done by a Rogue.

One draw back to the Ranger is though it has plenty of class skills, it doesn't have as much as a Bard or Rogue, especially with regards to the fact both Bards and Rogues get all knowledge skills as class skills.

I was looking at the detective archetype and think it'd fit with my character background.

I was thinking of a one or maybe two level dip into it.

So far the Pro's are:

(1) Access to spells at 1st level. Bard spells aren't the best, but the Arcane cantrips - light, detect magic, etc. - can be very handy.
(2) By my estimation, everything but Fly and Handle Animals will be become class skills (extra skills from traits included).
(3) Boost Will Saves
(4) Careful Teamwork seems like it would come in handy and hopefully DM will allow it to stack with the Guide's Terrain Bond, which should be in effect with the Urban Ranger's favored communities.

Con's

(1) Lose +1 from BAB
(2) Delay getting Ranger class abilities by one or two levels. Rangers get some good abilities early on and I'd only get them at higher levels that usually take longer to gain the XP to get.

Just wondering, if anyone has any other thoughts or critiques of this idea.

I'd probably take the dip at 3rd level, because I'm going with a ranged build and want Precise Strike at 2nd level.

Character progression would most likely be:

Lvl 1 = Ranger
Lvl 2 = Ranger
Lvl 3 = Detective
Lvl 4 = Ranger or Detective (still trying to decide, if the +4 to illusions is worth another Detective level).
Lvl 5 to 20 = Ranger

I've often wondered why racial mixing only involves an orc and human to beget a half-orc or an elf and human to beget a half-elf or a devil/demon and human to beget a teifling.

I've seen some monsters in D&D 3.5, such as a half-minotaur, half-dragon in Shackled City (if I remember correctly).

But I've never seen any option for creating mix and matches for core races, such as a half-halfling/half-gnome or half-human/half-dwarf or half-elf/half-gnome or whatever else you can think of in a Pathfinder/D&D type setting.

I'm curious if anyone's ever houseruled on this or if its come up before.

If the characters are different races, i.e. not different species, than some degree of intermingling in any of the core races should be possible and not just limited to humans being able to spawn with any race out there.

Thoughts? Comments?

From the SRD:

"Careful Teamwork (Su): A detective uses performance to keep allies coordinated, alert, and ready for action. All allies within 30 feet gain a +1 bonus on Initiative checks, Perception, and Disable Device checks for 1 hour. They also gain a +1 insight bonus on Reflex saves and to AC against traps and when they are flat-footed. These bonuses increase by +1 at 5th level and every six levels thereafter. Using this ability requires 3 rounds of continuous performance, and the targets must be able to see and hear the bard throughout the performance. This ability is language-dependent and requires visual and audible components.

This performance replaces inspire courage."

What I want to know is how long does a detective have to perform to juice up his party's initiative, perception and disable device checks for 1 hour?

Inspire courage, which this replaces, requires a bard to be constantly performing for the effects of the performance to work.

I can't picture a detective doing a song and dance for one hour continuously. Also, this performance doesn't make much sense to have active during a combat or crisis situation. It seems like something you'd do before doing a dungeon crawl.

I skimmed the FAQs but didn't find anything on this.

Any clarification would be welcome.

In a Runelords campaign. Just started. We finished clearing out Goblins from Sandpoint.

We really don't have a healer. One character took a bit of a dip into a flames Oracle to get cure light, but won't be focusing on it.

I'm playing an Urban Ranger & Guide archetypes Ranger, with an eye to filling in some of the functions, such as trapfinding, of a rogue, since Urban Rangers get the trapfinding ability by 3rd level.

In general we could probably use some more healing. I had a thought, prior to character creation, of taking a dip into a cleric of Desna anwyay, but opted against it because Pathfinder seems to reward not-multiclassing with some nice abilities, as a character progresses in a class.

Right now, my decision making process is going down a few paths:

(1) Take a 1 level dip into cleric, which will have minimal impact as a Ranger and fill a need for a healer for a ocuple of levels. As we level up, the usefulness of a 1st level cleric will diminish.

(2) Split levels between cleric and ranger.

(3) Treat the ranger as a 1 level dip and go cleric the rest of the way.

I'm not sure, if it's worth taking the dip into cleric or just say to heck with it and blow money on cure wounds potions.

The description states: "The empyreal knight dedicates her life to serving the celestial beings that guide mortals in their struggle toward the light."

Does the Empyreal Knight Paladin archetype require a patron deity?

My idea is to have a character be a (holy) do-gooder, who is committed to the ideals of the celestial planes and "goodness" (for lack of a better word), without worshiping any particular deity.

Curious if that'd fly, with the rules of a Paladin representing a particular faith.