Markov Spiked Chain's page

Is there a strong way to build for and use the Ranger 1 Monster Hunter feat? I like the idea of getting more out of my Hunt Prey actions in combat. But I'm having trouble feeling like it's worth investing in.

Has anyone tried Monster Hunter and had good luck with it? Do you think it's worth investing in any Lore or other mainline skills to back it up? Are there some skill feats that might make it cooler?

Am I reading the Animal Companion rules correctly, and an Animal Companion can't use the attack bonus from Magic Fang because it's an item bonus? Was this intentional?

When you Hunt Prey, your animal companion gains the action’s benefits and your hunter’s edge benefit if you have one.

The first time you hit your hunted prey in a round, you also deal 1d8 additional precision damage.

Your Animal companion's first hit per round is tracked separately from your first hit, right? Meaning Precision can trigger twice if you and your companion both hit the Prey.

Is there any equivalent for PFS 2E of the "only one familiar, companion creature, etc" rule? I'm thinking I may try a Familiar+Animal Companion build if they're legal.

I've been playing PF1 for years, and retrained class levels and feats a bunch. But I've been avoiding adding archetypes, because I'm not even sure how to read the rule.

To gain an archetype that replaces standard class abilities you already have, you must spend 5 days for every alternate class feature you would add, subtract, or replace by taking that archetype.

I want to take the "Red Tongue" archetype on my Skald. It has 5 alternate class features: Great Orator, Seed of Discord, Rile, Rogue Talents, and Duplicitous Rhetoric. It replaces Bardic Knowledge, modifies Raging Song, and modifies the level 1 Versatile Performance, and replaces the other Versatile Performances.

How long does it take a level 14 Skald to retrain into this archetype?

I think it's just 5 days times 5 Alternate class features. All the modified/removes features are Standard Class features. But you'd never remove or replace an Alternate Feature, only add them. So I'm not sure what the actual intent is.

What do you think?

I normally love Bards and buff/support classes. But I'm really having trouble getting excited about the PF2 Bard. I thought they'd make some of the Inspire Courage class feats (Input Heroics and Lingering Performance) less clunky, but it doesn't look like the changed anything from the playtest.

Is there something awesome I'm missing that makes spending an action every round for a non scaling +1/+1 really compelling? Or worth spending feats on to make it into a random bonus that costs Focus? Is there some other gem in the Bard's abilities?

"Finally, you can make a Retributive Strike against anyone who hits your mount with a Strike, even if the attack was not a critical hit."

Does this part of the power make sense to anyone? Is this a weird leftover from an earlier draft?

What's the duration of Bat Shape in PFS?

The Bast Shape feat for Skinwalkers and the Fox Shape feat for Kitsune both have similar wording and similarly ambiguous durations. I'd been assuming the Bat Shape lasts until you shift back, but realized last session that that wasn't explicit.

Fox Shape has an explicit Campaign Clarification:
"5—A kitsune who takes the Fox Shape feat can remain in fox form indefinitely."

Bat Shape only has clarification that you use Flying Fox stats.

Since it's ambiguous, I'm going to continue assuming it works like Fox Shape and lasts as long as you want to stay in bat form. But I'd like more opinions (and ideally an updated CC ;).)

It's sometimes hard to tell what's intentionally left out of Additional Resources. Are all the Traits in Black Market intentionally banned?

I'd really like to use Gesture Expertise for a mute character I'm starting up.

Has there been any clarification on the costs of transfering Weapon Fusions in SFS?

Basically, I'm looking at getting a Item Level 4 Spellthrower Fusion on a weapon. Is buying an IL1 Fusion first (120cr) then transfering it to my level 4 weapon (340) the cheapest, legal way to do that, or has something dealt with this rules issue?

Thinking about my Envoy, which as this Improvisation:

As a standard action, you can taunt an enemy within 60 feet. Attempt an Intimidate check with the same DC as a check to demoralize that enemy (though this isn’t a check to demoralize, so you can’t use abilities that would apply to a demoralization attempt, like the rattling presence expertise talent). If you fail, that enemy is off-target (see page 276) until the end of your next turn. If you succeed, that enemy is instead shaken (see page 277) until the end of your next turn. This is an emotion and fear effect.

Off-target and Shaken stack with each other, so if I have a target Shaken, I'm better off Adding Off-target.

Can I choose to fail the Intimidate check, to get the Off-target effect?

The action economy required to use an Artificial Personality isn't really clear. I assume it's supposed to be able to Aid Other, as opposed to becoming the face of the group?

Can I have the AI feed m insults most appropriate to a target (Aid Other Intimidate) the same round as I try to Demoralize? Can it look up useful etiquette tips while I'm talking with some new friend on a weird planet, aiding my Diplomacy?

I *really* like Greater Mindlink, and am thinking about building a Mystic (Mystic 3 at least) around it. But the rest of the class is kind of falling flat for me.

What sort of cool Mystic character and build ideas do people have for SFS?
1st-11th level, and particularly 1-7 or so.

Reflecting Armor looks neat, and automatically scales fairly well without using an action.

I really like the way Mystic Cure has been re-done, with the excess healing the Mystic, letting you feed HP to heal more, and the extra scaling (and BoL!) for higher level versions. I wish they'd collapsed Restoration, Remove Affliction, and Remove Condition into a single scaling spell too.

I normally like buff/support, but I don't see a lot of buffs jumping out at me.

I asked in part of a rules thread, but this seems as good a place as any:

How does Telepathy work and how do Lashunta and Shirren Societies treat it?

Does it work through walls? To creatures outside line of sight? Can a Lashunta kid yell to his mom in the other room?

Can you broadcast to multiple people?
Can you speak only to a specific person?
Can you speak to a random subset of people (only lefties!)?
What happens if the person you're telepathying at doesn't know any of your languages?
What if you have a language in common, but you "telepathy at them" in a different language?
Can two Shirrens communicate telepathically in front of a third without the third knowing? How rude is this?
Can three Shirren all talk with each other, or do they have separate two-way conversations and have to repeat things?

Combining some of these questions:
Can a Lashunta shout to a building so that *only his sister* can hear (if she's inside, he's not sure,) but his parents can't?
Is there any way for his parents to overhear?
Can this Lashunta shout to "any females" or some other limited group? Or it is either "anyone" or "this specific person"?

How does telepathy work with non-telepaths?
Say I start a telepathic conversation with my 5 crew mates.
Can they all here me at once, or do I need to "transmit" to each one?
Can they hear each other once they're communicating with me, or do I need to repeat things to everyone?
Can they "shout" or "think at me" to start a conversation, or do I need to initiate before they can respond?
Does any of this change if they're on the other side of a wall?
If telepaths and non-telepaths work differently, how do two telepaths with different ranges work?
Can my 180' Lashunta talk to a bunch of 30' Shirren, but them not able to respond to each other?
What about 4 Shirren each 25' apart, all trying to talk to each other? Do they need to do a ton of mental telephone to talk?

Do Lashunta and Shirren work differently? I could imagine that Shirren always "broadcast" to everyone in range, but Lashunta have only 1-1 communications.

What's the etiquette like? Is sound-talking more "formal"?
How rude is it to communicate directly in front of others (as opposed to the "broadcast channel", if there's even a difference)?
Is it considered intrusive, formal, more personal, etc to talk directly instead of "on broadcast" even if there are only two Lashunta present?
etc.

Personally, I think you can't really do "secure" two-way communication: if there's another telepath, they can hear your conversation just like you were talking in fornt of them. There's basically one "channel" for telepathy. If someone thinks at you in a language you don't know, you can "hear" them but not understand them. You can shout to everyone in range (and range isn't limited by doors/LoS) but can't target people, and can't tell if there's someone there unless they respond telepathically.

The interactions with non-telepaths are harder to get a coherent idea for. I *want* to say you can just start a conversation with a single telepath and a bunch of non-telepaths, and still carry on a coherent discussion. But the way that makes the most sense is that they can only talk to/from the telepaths, and a telepathy has to repeat each statement. Which makes it super annoying in groups.

How do you think it works? And do you ever think we'll get enough clarification for most of us to agree it works the same way?

Is Inspiring Boost the only way to heal Stamina on someone else in combat? I see two other self-only heal, but just want to make sure I'm not missing something. I would have expected there to be some Stamina healing spells too.

How do multiple castings of Healing Token work?

Target one touched holy symbol per 3 caster levels.

...
As long as you wear or carry your divine focus, any creature carrying a token of healing can make a plea for healing in a language you understand as a standard action.
...
the ability or spell affects the creature that pleaded for healing as well as any other creatures within the healing spell’s normal range that are also holding a holy symbol imbued with this spell.

I'm 9th level, with a party of 6. I cast Healing Token twice, on 6 symbols, one for each party member.

Everyone is within 30'. Someone please for healing. I channel as an immediate. Does everyone get healed? Only people with tokens from the same casting as the person pleading? If so, can a symbol be targeted twice?

I'm still a little unclear on some phantom stuff, and can't find any threads clarifying.

A fully manifested phantom is treated as a summoned creature from the Ethereal Plane, except it is not sent back to the Ethereal Plane until it is reduced to a negative amount of hit points equal to or greater than its Constitution score.

...
Whenever her manifested phantom takes enough damage to send it back to the Ethereal Plane, as a reaction to the damage, the spiritualist can sacrifice any number of her hit points without using an action. Each hit point sacrificed in this way prevents 1 point of damage dealt to the phantom.

This reads to me like when the Phantom hits 0 HP, it goes unconscious, with no way to sacrifice HP to keep it up? You can only sacrifice when it's at -Con? I've certainly seen it played differently, sacrificing HP to keep the phantom acting.

The chart says they get 2 skill points per HD.

The Skill section says "Phantoms with Intelligence scores above the base value modify these totals as normal (a phantom gains a number of skill ranks equal to 2 + its Intelligence modifier per Hit Die)."

I assume the chart takes precedence? As written, it looks like improving the Phantom to 8 Int would decrease it to 1 SP/HD.

Unlike other incorporeal creatures, an incorporeal phantom can’t attack corporeal creatures, except to deliver touch-attack spells using the deliver touch spell ability.

Is there any limitation on other interactions with corporeal creatures? Can my phantom buff allies with wands, Aid Another, or cast spells on them from a ring of spell storing?

Unlike other incorporeal creatures, an incorporeal phantom can’t attack corporeal creatures, except to deliver touch-attack spells using the deliver touch spell ability.

A manifesting ghost can wield the weapon against corporeal foes. Essentially, a ghost touch weapon counts as both corporeal or incorporeal.

I actually found a thread on this, but no resolution. Has there been any clarification whether this feat allows an incorporeal phantom to attack corporeals or not? I've seen this played as allowing normal attacks from an Incorporeal phantom.

Involutionist Spiritualist gives your Phantom a Shaman hex.

When your Phantom is dismissed, the Spiritualist gains the hexes:

At 3rd level, when an Involutionist uses her bonded manifestation ability, she can instead manifest her spirit phantom’s spirit animal special ability and use her spirit phantom’s hexes as if they were her own. Hexes used during this manifestation count toward any limited number of uses per day.

Do the effects of these hexes go away if you manifest the Phantom again, or do they last their normal duration?

Specifically, let's say my Phantom has Life Link. Can I dismiss the Phantom, put up Life Link on a few people, and then re-summon the phantom while keeping the Life Link's active?

You may have one bond active per oracle level.

It's also not clear whether the total number of bonds falls under "hexes count towards limited uses per day" and so the total would be limited by level.

There's an SFS adventure that mentions uploading an NPC's personality (and presumably soul?) into a robot body.

Is this effectively an android, or something different? Is uploading into an android body something people do to extend their lives? Is uploading into some other robot body different, but also something people do to extend their lives?

I'm trying to get a sense of what sort of android backstories make sense.

This got mixed in with the "Treat deadly wounds sucks" thread, but never got answered, so I'm creating a separate thread (that hopefully gets FAQed!) It seems vital to how useful Medicine is at lower levels (Until advanced medkits and +10 skill bonuses are common.)

Can you Take 20 to Treat Deadly Wounds?

Taking 20 means you are making multiple attempts at the

task until you get it right. It also assumes that you are failing
many times before you succeed.

A creature can receive this treatment only once every 24-hour period, unless it is delivered in a medical lab.

Not directly relevant, but here's the version from Pathfinder Heal skill, which seems to make taking 20 an option (Treat Deadly can only *benefit* once per day, and you can retry as long as you know they weren't healed) :

A creature can only benefit from its deadly wounds being treated within 24 hours of being injured and never more than once per day.

...
Try Again: Varies. Generally speaking, you can't try a Heal check again without witnessing proof of the original check's failure.

Instead of combat tracking, your exocortex can access another computer system within 20 feet, allowing it to attempt a Computers check against that computer each round, using your skill bonus. This counts as a standard action for the purpose of the Computers skill.

Can this be used during ship combat to make a Computers check to balance Shields or Scan?

Can it access the Science Officer console while you're on a nearby ship role (like Engineering)?

this takes 1 minute, and the DC is based on the medical equipment used.

Benefit: You can use the Medicine skill in conjunction with

a medpatch or sprayflesh to treat deadly wounds as a full
action.

What's the DC to use this feat to treat deadly wounds?

you can shift Shield Points (SP) from the shield in one quadrant to the shield in another quadrant, including to depleted shields (after rebalancing, every shield must have at least 10% of the total current SP).

Does anyone have real examples of how Balance is supposed to work?

Specifically, let's say my ship has 60 shields, 15/15/15/15.

It's clear I could balance to 21/15/15/9.

Let's say we get shot up and got to 15/15/0/0.

As written, it doesn't sound like it's legal to go to 3/15/0/12 (transfer 12 from front to rear.) Or really any shifting of shield points directly between quadrants, since there's no way to get both 0s to a legal point?

Are you forced to use the next option to distribute evenly?

Or can you transfer to/from any number of quadrants?

Or should that really read "the source and destination shields must each have at least 10%..."?

Is there an official thread/place for typos?
Just reading through and noticed the example for adding ability points as you level still references abilities increasing at level 4.

What count as "class abilities"?
Familiar, AC, and Phantom abilities are all granted by your class, so it seems like they'd count. But arguably aren't from the companion's "class" but from yours. It seems fairly cut and dry, but I want to check before I built a character around it.

I'm specifically asking about:

In addition, when you heal creatures other than yourself using class abilities, feats, spells, and spell-completion or spell-trigger magic items, you restore 1 additional hit point.

Which seems intended to be pretty inclusive.

Would a Life Shaman's Spirit Animal ability effectively give Fast Healing 2?

Would an Involutionist Spiritualist with Life Spirit and Life Link heal 6 with Life Link if the Spiritualist had the trait?

What if the Phantom had the trait (from Extra Traits feat)? I'm guessing the Phantom is the one who needs it.

Would an Eidolon with the Shared Sacrifice Evolution heal an extra point if the Summoner had this trait?

What if the Eidolon had it?

Am I missing the part in the SFS guide that allows you to upgrade gear by paying the difference in price? Or is that a departure from PFS?

Style feats say "you cannot use a style feat before combat begins" but some of them have uses out of combat. Can they be started out of combat, but just immediately kick you out when combat starts? Can you just start up a combat with nothing if you want to use them out of combat?

Specifically:
Perfect Style (Flame) gives you Fire Resistance 5, and you want to walk across some Magma. Can you just turn it on without a combat and waltz across?

Sisterhood style lets you share a teamwork feat while it's active. I want to share Stealth Syngery so we can sneak around together. Can we?

This place seems to have been completely gutted by the site re-organization. But in case anyone still looks here, I'm running a game Sunday morning.

Here's the Warhorn.

I can search for "forged" in GM Sessions and see the session of Forged in Flame I I ran.
But the same search (or *any* search, really) under Player Sessions doesn't show anything. I posted this in the PFS forums, but I think this might be a better place to get it fixed?

Looking ahead for my Chirurgeon/ Wasteland Blightbreaker/ Sacramental Alchemist.

Does a Combine Extract of Cure Light Wounds and Enlarge Person still count as an "Extract of the healing subschool"? Do Combined Extracts keep the qualifiers/schools of both formulas?

I noticed the re-organization of the session PFS sessions into GM and Player tabs, with a Search box and a bunch of categorization check boxes. This looks promising.

But the "Search" under player Sessions doesn't seem to work. I can search for "stone" or "blood" under GM sessions and that seems to work. But the same searches under Player sessions spin and then come up empty, even though I've played these scenarios as well as GMed them.

I don't know if this is the right place to report that sort of thing, but this page has gotten less useful to me, since the pagination means I can't readily search for scenario names to check if I've played them already.

I love Shield Other, and I like its little sister Watchful Eye as well. And I just re-discovered Invigorating Repose, which has a lot of life saving potential.

These are both PFS legal spells, but caught behind the weird spell rules in Dwarves of Golarion:

In order to prepare any of these spells, the caster must spend an hour performing a ritual in which he beseeches Torag (or a member of his family) for the aid of one of his divine family members. For 24 hours after the ritual, the caster may prepare spells of the requested deity. The caster may only attune himself to one additional deity at a time.

Other racial specialty spell have all has similar restrictions removed in Inner Sea Gods. These rules leave a ton of ambiguity:

1. Can an Oracle take one of these as a Spell Known?

1a. Can Oracles take two known from different gods?

1b. Do they need to worship Torag, or do the ritual each morning?

2. Can other Cleric/Oracles purchase or use these spells from a scroll or wand?

I would think scrolls of Invigorating Repose would be fairly common if their legality were clear.

I just hit level 5 with my PFS Wayang Puppetmaster Magus.
I went for a Dex based Scimitar build.

So far, it's been fun. I do a lot with a semi-permanent minor image of a Wayang rogue. An ideal round goes something like "rogue illusion attacks, enemy fails save, cast Deja Vu as a swift, then Color Spray, 5' step, and stab." Melee damage isn't great, but I don't see a good way to really improve that.

I'm not really excited about Magus 5, even though it gets a Combat or metamagic feat. So I'm looking at taking a 1 level dip into a an Int based class.

I'm thinking:
Foresight Wizard for Spell Focus, some pre-rolls, init bonus and surprise rounds.

Occultist. I'm not sure what I want with a 1 level dip other than Transmutation. Conjuration for 1 minute summons seems good, a ton of Augaries would be amusing, or possibly the puppet temporary familiar from Necormancy.

Anyone have experience or advice for a 1 level int based dipped to help out a caster?

Is there any way to get regional support credit for running online play sessions?

I'm thinking of running a bunch of rounds of Gallows of Madness, it'd be nice to get a shot at a boon. :)

It sounds like they're created separate from your limbs. But that might mean you could wield a separate weapon/shield with your normal hands while lashing away?

Specifically. I'm curious if they can be used by a Kitsune in Fox Form.

Let's say I'm a level 5 cleric of Irori with Ki Channel and Variant Channeling (Self Perfection.)

Does Variant Channeling reduce the number of Ki gained from Ki Channel?

I would assume no, but the example given under Variant channel (4d6->2d6) seems poorly written. Particularly since the enhanced version would presumably not increase the dice, and the example does match what I'd expect there (4d6+50%, *NOT* 6d6.)

I see some old (short) threads in this vein, but not enough to be confident. I'll probably just drop the variant channel, but it looks neat.

Does a Living Grimoire Inquisitor have a limited number of pages in their "holy book", like a wizard or magus? Do they make spellcraft checks to scribe? Pay scribe costs?

The archetype is a little light on rules, it seems like they intended it to mimic a spellbook, but as written it looks pretty unlimited and inexpensive.

Is there a legal/always available sign language in PFS?
Assume we can't just make up languages?

I want a sign language to talk to my Silent Image with.

How does Extend Spell work with:

Command
Duration 1 round
... On its turn,...

Murderous Command
Duration 1 round
...The target attacks its nearest ally on its next turn with a melee weapon or natural weapon...

Deja Vu
Duration 2 rounds
...Whatever full-round, standard, or move actions the creature takes on its first turn after you cast this spell, it must repeat on the turn after that....

I think most people assume they would add another round of effect. But I'm not totally sure how the "next turn/turn after that" wording interacts with extending the duration.

For the season 9 Faction Cards, could we please include the Faction Pin rules in the main writeup, and the Associated Skills on each Faction card?

I've ended up scribbling the skills on the side of (some of) my faction cards anyway, but it seems like an easy tweak and the natural place to look.

I'm playing a Puppetmaster Magus, which adds Bard spells to the Magus list. This is pretty much the only way some Bard only spells (say Timely Inspiration) end up in a Spellbook.

Is there any reason I can't find and pay [(Spell Level^2*10)*50% gp] an NPC Puppetmaster to copy one of these spells from them instead of buying a scroll?

Has there ever been official clarification on how archetypes that get features from other classes should replace references with the class the feature is coming from with the new class?

Specifically, Exploiter Wizard gets Arcane Reservoir from Arcanist.

In addition, the arcanist can expend 1 point from her arcane reservoir as a free action whenever she casts an arcanist spell. If she does, she can choose to increase the caster level by 1 or increase the spell’s DC by 1.

It seems pretty clear that an Exploiter can bump the save of their Wizard spells with Arcane Reservoir. I'm wondering if there's anything official? Does anyone think it should work differently?

It's been another month without additional resources.
Who's speculating on when they might drop?
Is it too early to compulsively refresh?

Any bets on Psychic Anthology and Heroes of the High Court being included?

I'm really hoping at least one of the Mesmerist Trick feats makes it through, and the Genial Gnome trait from HotHC.

Simple question:

Is a small Aether Elemental a legal Improved Familiar for an Aether Kineticist with Greater Elemental Whispers? Is it supposed to be legal?

I've asked this before in this thread but didn't really get any clarity and it started out mixed up with whether you can take an Aether Elemental as a regular Improved Familiar. They're definitely powerful, and it sounded like John didn't think it was balanced, so if it's not supposed to be PFS legal, I'd like to know.

My Kineticist just hit 6 and I'm trying to decide between Greater Elemental Whispers and At-will Invisibility!

I want to get some concensus on how the Puppetmaster Magus' "The Show Must Go On" ability works:

When a puppetmaster has a creature under the effects of an enchantment spell and that creature has line of sight to an illusion spell the puppetmaster has cast with a duration of concentration, the puppetmaster can link the illusion spell to the enchanted target. As long as the target has line of sight to the illusion and is enchanted, and the puppetmaster has line of sight to both the target and the illusion, the puppetmaster can maintain the illusion as a free action each round. The puppetmaster can maintain only one illusion spell in this way

But it's not totally clear how much of the normal Concentration Duration rules the Illusion spell still follows. Do you need to make a Concentration check if you take damage while the spell is up? More importantly, can you cast other spells? I sure hope so.

I'm pretty sure the intent is to keep one illusion spell up as long as your enchantment lasts, and still be able to cast other stuff. Puppetmaster and regular Magus are both built around being able to cast spells on most of your turns.

Concentration

The spell lasts as long as you concentrate on it. Concentrating to maintain a spell is a standard action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity. Anything that could break your concentration when casting a spell can also break your concentration while you're maintaining one, causing the spell to end. See concentration.

You can't cast a spell while concentrating on another one. Some spells last for a short time after you cease concentrating.

You can apply credit to a newly created, 1st-level

Roleplaying Guild character from a higher-level
sanctioned module or Adventure Path. When doing so,
reduce the gp reward to 500 gp if the adventure grants
1 XP or 1,398 gp if it grants 3 XP. You do not benefit
from any boons until your Roleplaying Guild character
reaches the minimum level listed on the Chronicle
sheet, unless otherwise noted.

If the player is playing a non-1st-level pregenerated
character, he may choose instead to apply this Chronicle
sheet to a 1st-level character by reducing this value to
500 gp (or 250 gp for the slow advancement track) for
completing a scenario or 1,398 gp (or 699 gp for the
slow advancement track) for completing a module.

Does this mean you can still buy items off the higher level chronicle sheet?

Channel Luck (Su): A serendipity shaman gains the ability to channel luck, as the cleric variant channeling ability of the same name (Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Magic 30), using her shaman level to determine her effective cleric level for the purpose of her channel energy ability. She does not count as having the channel energy ability for the purpose of meeting feat prerequisites or prestige class

requirements with the exception of Selective Channeling, which the shaman can take as normal. A shaman must be at least 8th level before selecting this hex.

This hex feels weird, like it's missing some info. I assume:

This looks like a potentially very powerful Hex when combined with Life Spirit, possibly Witch Doctor, and channel feats (Selective, Quick, and Fateful/Ki.)