Mauril's page

I know it's not an original name, but I'm working within some established fluff. Basically some of my group's established history refers to an ancient evil character known as the "Shadow King" who had minions known as the "Shadow Knights". They were worshipers of a powerful evil deity, knights of an unholy order, and (obviously) did vague shadow-related things. So here is my attempt at making a prestige class for them.

It's designed for an antipaladin. It feels a bit strong to me - as in there is little reason to play an antipaladin and not take this prestige class - but I wanted to get the concepts down and then scale as necessary.

For a better formatted version, check the Google document. It will be updated if/when critiques arrive. Otherwise, it is as below:

Shadow Knight
Hit Die: d10
BAB: Good
Saves: Good Fort/Poor Ref/Good Will
Casting Progression: 10/10

Requirements

Weapon Proficiency: Must be proficient in all Martial Weapons
Touch of Corruption class feature
Alignment: Any Evil
Base Attack Bonus: +5
A shadow knight must have pledged loyalty to an evil divine being.

Class Skills

The Shadow Knight’s class skills are Bluff (Cha), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Disguise (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Profession (Wis),
Ride (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), and Stealth (Dex).

Class Features

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Shadow Knights are proficient with all simple and martial weapons as well as the favored weapon of their deity, with all types of armor (heavy, medium, and light), and with
shields (except tower shields).

Smite Good (Su): The shadow knight’s class level stacks with levels in any other class that grants the smite good ability.

Spells per Day: At the indicated levels, a shadow knight gains new spells per day as if he had also gained a level in a divine spellcasting class he belonged to before adding the prestige class. He does not, however, gain other benefits of that class other than spells per day, spells known, and an increased effective level of spellcasting. If he had more than one divine spellcasting class before becoming a shadow knight, he must decide to which class he adds the new level for the purpose of determining spells per day.

Channel Negative Energy (Su): The shadow knight’s class level stacks with levels in any other class that grants the channel negative energy ability.

Spells: A shadow knight adds the following spells to his spell list at the corresponding levels: shadow weapon (UM) (lvl 1), shadow anchor (ARG) (lvl 2), shadow conjuration (lvl 3), shadow step (UM) (lvl 3), shadow evocation (lvl 4), symbol of striking (UC) (lvl 4).

Shadow Gear (Su): Once per day, a shadow knight may imbue his armor with the qualities of shadowstuff. For one minute per level, all of the shadow knights armor and carried gear become weightless, removing any armor check or encumbrance penalties. If his gear shed any light, the shadow knight may choose to suppress this light for the duration of the effect. The shadow knight gains an additional use of this ability at level 4 and at level 8.

At level 4, the shadow knight may choose to add ghost touch or light fortification to his armor. At level 8, he may instead choose moderate fortification.

Darkvision (Ex): At 2nd level, a shadow knight gains darkvision out to a range of 60 feet. If he already has darkvision, the range increases by 30 feet.

Dark Channeling (Sp): At level 2, whenever a shadow knight channels negative energy to harm living or heal undead, darkness envelops the area around him. A 30 foot radius area, centered on the shadow knight, is veiled in darkness as the spell for a number of rounds equal to the shadow knight’s level.

Summon Shadow (Su): At 3rd level, a shadow knight can summon a shadow, an undead shade. Unlike a normal shadow, this shadow's alignment matches that of the shadow knight, and the creature cannot create spawn. The summoned shadow receives a +4 bonus on Will saves made to halve the damage from positive channeled energy and the shadow cannot be turned or commanded. This shadow serves as a companion to the shadow knight and can communicate intelligibly with the shadow knight. This shadow has a number of hit points equal to one quarter of the shadow knight’s total. The shadow uses half the shadow knight’s base attack bonus and full base save bonuses.

If a shadow companion is destroyed, or the shadow knight chooses to dismiss it, the shadow knight must attempt a DC 15 Fortitude save. If the saving throw fails, the shadow knight gains one permanent negative level. A successful saving throw avoids this negative level. A destroyed or dismissed shadow companion cannot be replaced for 30 days.

Shadow Walk (Sp): At level 5, a shadow knight may use shadow walk as a spell-like ability once per day with a caster level equal to his character level. The save DC is equal to 10 + ½ character level + Cha
modifier.

Strike from Darkness (Ex): At level 6, whenever attacking from darkness, a shadow knight causes bleeding damage with his attacks. A successful attack with a melee or ranged weapon deals 1d6 bleed damage.

Shadowed Casting (Su): At level 7, when casting a spell from concealment caused by darkness, the save DC of a shadow knight’s spells and channel energy increase by +2.

Shadow Blade (Su): At level 9, the shadow knight gains the ability to turn his weapon into shadow. The effect is like brilliant energy except instead of shedding light, it emanates deeper darkness as the spell.

The shadow knight can activate this ability as a swift action and it lasts a number of rounds per day equal to his shadow knight level + his Charisma bonus. These rounds do not need to be consecutive.

Sapping Strike (Su): At level 10, whenever a shadow knight confirms a critical hit, he deals an additional 1d6 strength damage to his target. If the target dies as a result of the attack, the shadow knight gains a
+2 morale bonus to strength for one minute.

One thing I recommend, after having played a three year campaign with 7 PCs, is that you should treat the party as two groups for encounters. To get a CR that's right for a large party, you need more monsters and not more powerful monsters. I found that tossing in a fist full of APL -2 or -3 "minion" type creatures into each encounter let me keep the party busy, threatened and not overpowered.

In many cases, especially when the encounter is set up as a single baddie (which APs do pretty frequently), you are pretty safe just adding a second one of whatever is already there. The action economy advantage of 7v2 will likely still be more than enough. If you are worried, weaken them both slightly.

Well, as a rules question, there is no adjustment to range increment because the rules list no adjustment for range increment. The only difference is damage dice.

If a small shortbow has the same range increment as a medium shortbow, why should you inject realism onto things outside that range? By this logic, a medium and large bow should have the same range because they are the same size difference relatively as medium and small are. So therefore tiny and small are the same, and large and huge are the same, by the same logic. Et cetera, et cetera.

If you want a houserule, this should be in a difference section.

Having played a character for many years whose main schtick was being the absolute best at knowledge skills, it did become somewhat of a problem for the GM. What ended up happened most of the time was the onus of how the player knew the facts that the GM relayed to me fell to me. He'd say that I knew that this spear was from the ancient empire of Eriad, which meant that the temple was over 600 years old. But that was just the metagame. My character would then have to explain that, while researching in the temple years ago, he saw similar markings in an ancient Eriad text. Further, my character knew that this temple must be more than 600 years old because the citadel that was stationed here was overrun in 430 PN. It largely came down to trust between player and GM. Since the players are supposed to be just as much a creative force in the story as the GM, it was up to us to establish some history and backstory for things. As long as it didn't conflict with the GM's plans, it became canon.

Things with a PF AP will be a little more strict, but let the player read up on the areas that the adventure will take place in. Let the player know things that normal characters might not yet. And then just trust the player not to metagame that knowledge in without passing the appropriate knowledge checks.

The other thing to remember is that, just because he has a high knowledge skill, it doesn't mean he's omniscient. There are certain things that a player character just wouldn't have access to know without specific circumstances having been fulfilled. It doesn't matter how high your knowledge check is, there is no way to know that King Thrandall has an illegitimate son if, thirty seconds prior, no one in the party had even heard of King Thrandall or the city he was from.

Use knowledge skills as an adventure aid, not as a crutch or a shortcut. Let it give the player an advantage, let the investment count for something, but don't let it ruin an adventure. You wouldn't let someone who heavily invested in Climb, Acrobatics and Swim somehow destroy an entire plot, so don't let Knowledge (Arcana), (History) and (Religion) do it either.

Finally, talk to the player. Find out what aspects of having the high knowledge skills really appeals to him. Does he want to know the weaknesses of monsters? Does he want to be the stuffy academic with lots of book knowledge? Is he a well-traveled character who has heard lots of tales, stories and rumors? Find out how the player sees the character knowing the things he might know and then stick to that formula whenever possible.

Presented in the section below are new rules for subdomains—more specific focuses for clerical worship and power that allow players greater flexibility in customizing their characters. Every domain has a number of subdomains associated with it (see Table: Subdomains for a complete list). Each subdomain replaces a granted power and a number of spells in the domain's granted spell list. Spells marked with an asterisk (*) are detailed in Chapter 5 of this book. A cleric who chooses a subdomain must have access to both the domain and its subdomain from her deity. If a cleric selects a subdomain, she cannot select its associated domain as her other domain choice (in effect, the subdomain replaces its associated domain). Subdomains are treated as equivalent to their associated domain for any effect or prerequisite based on domains. If a subdomain has two associated domains, the cleric can only select the subdomain for one of her domains. Subdomains can be selected by Druids (except the metal subdomain) and inquisitors (if their deity allows it).

Emphasis mine.

It's hazy, but my ruling is probably not. Since subdomains effectively replace the domain and count as that domain for pretty much all purposes, and you can't take a subdomain and its domain together, you can't take both.

Some GMs might rule differently, but that's how I see the rules.

I'm in the camp that says "for the purposes of DR" is a limiting factor meaning that it only works for DR, but I can see this being worth an FAQ.

It's pretty clear that the ability grants rage, not the ability to stack with every barbarian ability. It's like the Kensai Magus's ability to take fighter only feats. The ability stacks only four the purpose of qualifying for feats, not for increasing Bravery or Weapon Training or any other Fighter ability that scales. Ultimately, it's a case of the burden of proof lying on it stacking rather than on proving it doesn't stack.

Had another crack at these guys after one of my friends asked to see higher CR versions of these guys. It also got me to look at the original versions again, fix some formatting, edit some abilities and decide that they all needed to be bumped by +1 CR. So, without further adieu, here is Round 3.

Abomination sub-type

Eldritch Grub CR 3

Eldritch Stalker CR 5

Eldritch Spitter CR 7

Eldritch Flayer CR 10

Abject Spitter CR 14

Abject Stalker CR 17

Abject Flayer CR 20

So I recently commissioned some art for my homebrew world, and as part of the sketches, I was sent some images simply titled "eldritch children". They were just sort of a bonus set of art that the artist wanted to include. After seeing them, I knew I had to create some stats for them because the art was just too cool to not have something exist for them.

I am going to include the stats for the four creatures below in spoilers, but formatting is terrible, so I suggest you follow the link to the Google document.

.

Abomination subtype

Eldritch Grub

Eldritch Stalker

Eldritch Spitter

Eldritch Flayer

Areas of personal concern:
I really don't think my CRs are right. I sort of picked CRs and worked backwards, but I still think I ended up either too strong or too weak.

Aura of Insanity was something of a compromise with myself that I didn't like. I wanted to use the insanity rules but having onset times of several days just didn't work for me. The dungeon crawls I had intended these guys for when I started making them probably won't last in-game days. I had wanted to make their onsets immediate, but that seemed too powerful, especially for the Grub. I had tried having them impose other conditions (like fear or nausea) but that was also unsatisfying. So, I would welcome suggestions on that front.

Thank you very much for any assistance offered.

Fighters get weapon training, if we are comparing class features.

I've considered opening them up but also amending them. Non-fighters get the RAW versions but fighters apply them to weapon groups instead of single weapon types. Basically a barbarian can take Weapon Specialization (Glaive) but a fighter would take Weapon Specialization (Polearms).

Also, I think this is in the wrong forum.

First, lunge doesn't actually increase threat area since the positive effects of lunge end at the end of your turn, not at the beginning of your next turn (like power attack). So it just increases your reach when you can take normal attacks, not AoOs, sadly. However, getting enlarged is going to be a priority, so get a helpful wizard friend or invest in Giant Hide.

You are also rather MAD for a fighter. You need 13 INT for Combat Expertise (a normal dump stat), at least a DEX of 13 for Combat Reflexes, but you surely want more than just one additional AoO, so it'll likely be closer to 18 or 20 by the time this build comes to fruition. You also need a decent CON to survive being in the middle of the mobs it takes to make this build worthwhile. And you need a decent strength to make your attacks hit and deal any damage. In a point build, you are going to end up dumping WIS, which will give you a pretty abysmal Will save.

However, if you can convince your GM to do what we did and change the prerequisites for Whirlwind Attack, it might help. We changed the prereqs to "Power Attack, BAB +1, Cleave, Great Cleave, Str 13, Dex 13" because that makes more sense to us. If you can't get that houserule in place, you are just going to have to look at dealing minimal damage and having a useless feat or two.

Since Cleave is a standard action, you can't combine it with the full-round action of Whirlwind attack, so (without the houserule) it'd be a useless feat. However, since you've already qualified for Improved Trip and Greater Trip, you might as well take those and use all those AoOs when you make them fall down, and again when you make them stand up. I'd suggest grabbing Weapon Finesse and taking a finessable trip weapon (maybe the spiked chain, if you are a half-orc and can get it as Martial via Chain Fighter) and keeping STR to about 14 (plus magic) and pumping DEX for more AoOs.

Consider lighter armor (unless you retain armor training) so you can make better use of the dexterity to your AC.

Well, since all modify based on your original size, they all overlap. Lead blades would make you deal one size larger than normal (so large, instead of medium), impact also deals one size larger than normal (so again, large instead of medium) and I assume the belt has the same wording. So, each increases your damage from medium to large. Getting enlarged via a polymorph spell or somesuch, I would say they stack, since those magical items check your current size and then boost its effective level.

Because no-magic/wild-magic is a simple change that doesn't require re-writing too many rules. It's also something that's a very common desire among players but that doesn't really have a very good published setting.

Forced march rules are the only thing that I've found to simulate the fatigue of not resting.

By RAW, you only gain the heal bonus when channeling positive energy to heal living beings, and only gain the harm bonus when channeling negative energy to harm. Positive energy harming gains no modifier, and negative energy healing gains no modifier.

However, the original author's intent (expressed in a post I cannot find right now) was that all healing (positive or negative) would gain the heal bonus and all harming (positive or negative) would gain the harm bonus. If any of my players choose to take a variant channel, that is how we intend to play it.

EDIT: Found it.

Interzone wrote:

I was just going by this part of the book:

"A variant channeling either modifies positive energy when used to heal or modifies negative energy when used to harm." at the beginning of the third paragraph in the variant channeling section. It doesn't seem to contradict that later anywhere...
I think Undeath might be a special case, it mentions that undead get the 'enhanced' heal effect, which is described at the beginning of the section as well.

If I am wrong, hopefully a Paizo employee will point it out, but that seems to be the way it works.

I would certainly prefer having the option of doing either with only positive or only negative. :)

When I wrote that section, I worded it specifically as "heal" and "harm" in order to make it usable with both kinds of energy use (positive as heal (living) or harm (undead) or negative (reversed)).

That was *my* RAI as the writer.

HOWEVER, all Paizo stuff goes through editing and development, and their call is final on all rules elements. My read of the above-referenced sentence in the section is that they chose to make it positive/heal and negative/harm ONLY. That appears to be the RAW, and the RAI of the editing/dev team.

As to the OP's question about the phylactery, because the phylactery has a very specific effect - adding +2d6 to your pos/neg channels - that effect derives from the item and not from your own abilities. While its effect is similar to the 3.0/3.5 item that gave you "turn undead as 4 levels higher," that is not how the PF item works.

The +2d6 is applied AFTER any modifications to your own dice of healing or harming.

Could I argue that a Bottle of Air would fill the area with air? It states that the bottle emits and replenishes its stock of air in an airless area. Consequently, when opened, it would continuously emit air until non-airless, and when air depleted, repeat. I would need to give it some time to fill the room with air but still workable.

How would Dimensional Anchor keep people out? Surely it would just keep people in once they'd arrived...

Dimensional Anchor should, if I'm understanding it correctly, stop them just before they entered the warded area, which puts them solidly in the earth.

Unless the archetype specifically requires abilities from that race, it would be acceptable for members of another race to use them. I'm pretty sure there is some language in the beginning about how things are more racial predispositions and that, if a member of another race wanted to use them, they could if they had a good story on why.

I'm working on finally statting some of the homebrew races that are unique to my game group's world thanks to the ARG. I'm having a little trouble hammering out how to handle a racial feat that definitely needs to be available for one of them.

Mated Pair [Combat]

Prerequisites: Ansvar
Benefit: Designate an ally as your mate. While your mate is alive, you gain the benefits of Paired Opportunists, Coordinated Defense and Swap Places when you are adjacent to your mate. Your mate is considered to have these feats for the purposes of determining if you gain the bonuses from those feats. You may never designate another ally as your mate; however, if your mate dies, you may exchange this feat for one of the three feats it emulates.

Basically the Ansvar choose a life partner as a battle companion. This is functionally equivalent to a marriage in their society, but is more of a martial contract than a marital one. The two agree to fight by each others' side until death. Usually, if one of the two dies, the other chooses to fight to the death over the corpse of its mate. If the one survives, it never chooses another mate.

The two ansvar are supposed to basically learn to fight as one unit, perfectly aware of the others' movements and capable covering their weaknesses and exploiting openings they open from their foes. The ansvar are a large people, or I would have gone with the ratfolk's swarming ability.

Mechanically, I think it does what I want it to do, or at least feels like I want it to, but I think it might be a little powerful. I'm thinking the limitation on being only one other creature ever warrants getting three feats for the price of one.

What do you think? Is it balanced? Is it worded well enough?

Aha! Found it. On page 220 of the ARG, the third paragraph of the Step 3: Racial Traits section states:
"Unless stated otherwise, all racial traits are extraordinary abilities, and each racial trait can only be taken once."

Problem solved.

As long as those players aren't then taking a build that synergizes really well with those abilities, you might not even notice it at all. A wizard with a slam attack probably isn't that much better than a normal wizard. A rogue with claws is only slightly slightly better than one with two shortswords, and most would not bat an eye at that.

Just be careful about making races that are obviously superior than every other race at a certain class. Be especially careful about giving lots of abilities that synergize together really well. You are building a race that exists in many niches, so it should have some diverse base traits.

Ultimately, remember that as a GM tool, this should be a worldbuilding thing first and a mechanical/optimization thing second. Build a creature that makes sense in the ecological niche you are setting it in then start tweaking it for points to make it playable.

P.S. I don't agree with the medium/heavy barding rule penalizing flying mounts while medium/heavy armor does not penalize other fliers. I believe it should be one way or the other and think it should fall on the side of the armor/barding not penalizing.

There is no way to make sense of barding and identical "non-barding" armor for the same creature. Barding comes in varieties (chainmail, breastplate, fullplate, etc.) as far as I understand. So why would anyone buy barding? It costs the same as non-barding armor for the same creature, provides the same protection, ACP, ASF, and speed reduction but also imposes an extra limitation.

The only way to make sense of these rules is to have barding = armor, where barding is just an alternate (historical) term for non-humanoid armor. As such, the rules are mean, but they are at least consistent.

I ignore those rules as written, making barding just reduce speed. I do the same with medium/heavy loads. But I do so realizing that it's a houserule.

Oh, we ignore that rule in our games too. Especially since a laden rider can easily outstrip the light carry capacity of a mount. We just deduct speed.

Mauril wrote:

stuart haffenden wrote:

some cheese maybe...

Methinks you do not understand what "cheese" is. When pretty much everyone is saying that the mechanical benefits are minor, at best, then "cheese" really isn't much of an option.

I'm quite aware of what cheese is.

"dipping" is cheese right off the bat. The fact that most replies point out the downside of taking a Druid level doesn't mean it isn't cheese, it just means the "cheese" is limited. Imo, the fact that the player is "dipping" into any class [for mechanical benefits, rather than for character development] is basically cheese.

Remember the line about losing a level of spell casting? Well, if you're not going to reach level 20 who cares? Spontaneous casters operate perfectly well being a casting level behind.

Kenderkin asked the right questions.

So cheese is doing something for mechanical reasons rather than roleplay reasons? Hrm. I was pretty sure that "cheese" was exploiting a mechanic in a way that it was not directly intended so as to creature a superior build in some specific area.

Doing something for mechanical reasons instead of roleplay reasons (as opposed to combining the two) is metagaming, which has nothing to do with power. I often have to metagame my character's actions because the game would grind to a halt otherwise. I metagame his trust for the other party members and for taking lots of quests. The OP might be metagaming ("Is there a mechanical benefit for doing this?") but not cheesing a build.

Since dipping can be done for roleplay reasons, dipping is not automatically cheese. If it makes you mechanically inferior, it isn't cheese. It might be an attempt at powergaming, but a misguided one.

As picking up only one or two levels of druids doesn't make the wizard more powerful than a normal wizard would be at that level, but either keeps the power level about the same or actually reduces it, it's not cheese. If most of the "good" reasons for dipping druid are roleplay reasons, then it's not cheese. If the mechanical benefits are small at best, it's not cheese.

In short, dipping, by its very nature is not inherently cheesy. Dipping can be cheesy, but cheese is independent of class combinations.

Bigtuna seems to have it right. More specifically, since the line in Divine Favor only states that the extra attack does not stack with effects similar to haste, it is only the attack that explicitly does not stack.

As noted, the attack bonus from Blessing of Fervor is an untyped bonus and thus stacks with the luck bonus from Divine Power. The dodge bonus to AC and reflex saves also stacks with the luck bonus from Divine Power. The temporary hit points from DP have no conflict with BoF. DF also grants a bonus to strength checks and strength-based skill checks (so... climb and swim), which does not conflict with any element of BoF.

The only two things from DF and BoF that would not stack are the extra attacks granted by each. So, if you were to have DF, BoF and Haste cast on you, you'd get:

+4 luck bonus on attacks, weapon damage, strength checks and strength-based skill checks (DF)
+1 attack on a full attack (DF/Haste)
+12 temporary hit points (DF)
+30 foot enhancement bonus to speed (Haste)
-AND-
+1 untyped bonus on attacks, +1 dodge bonus to AC and reflex (Haste)
-OR-
+2 bonus on attack rolls and a +2 dodge bonus to AC and Reflex saves (BoF) [Replaces above]
-OR-
Cast a single spell of 2nd level or lower as if it were an enlarged, extended, silent, or still spell (BoF)
-OR-
Stand up as a swift action without provoking an attack of opportunity (BoF)

Under the normal magic rules, the attack, AC and reflex bonuses should stack (since dodge bonuses and untyped bonuses from different sources normally always stack), but the text of both Haste and Blessing of Fervor explicitly say that similar effects do not stack and those are "similar effects".

Obviously you realize that you only select one of the options from BoF.

Regarding necro posts: It's not a problem. It just always amuses me to see it happen.

The problem isn't their "non-optimal" nature as determined by theorycrafters in a vacuum. The problem is most PRC's require such a great degree of system mastery to make them as cool as it implies on the can so to speak.

Yes, you can make a perfectly good Mystic Theurge, but it is hard and 75% of the time it is the definition of a trap option.

There are a few exceptions to this among the "generic" PrC's. Dragon Disciple and Holy Vindicator spring to mind.

Multiclassing anything is like this. If you do so without understanding how to make it work, then you are going to end up with an inferior build. This is just the way the game works. If you want simple and effective, you just play a straight class. If you want to multiclass and be effective, you need to know when and how to do it. You can't just toss around whatever classes you want at whatever levels you want and expect to have an optimized character.

PrCs are multiclassing, especially PrCs like rage prophet, eldritch knight and mystic theurge, which require multiclassing before selecting the PrC. Multiclassing is difficult to do right.

So, I'm making an NPC baddie for an upcoming battle and, to compliment the other denizens of Hell that will be taking part in the adventure, I decided to make an Asura with some class levels. I ended up with the Tripurasura and, seeing the poison attack, thought it would be fun to make him a poisoner. When I think poison, I think shuriken. When I think shuriken, I think monk or ninja. So, I decided to combine the two and make something really deadly. Here is my attempt.

Important bits for those who don't want to read the whole sheet.

Qinggong Zen Archer Monk 7/Ninja 8
Focus on Dex and Wis

Feats: Close-Quarters Thrower: Shuriken, Crane Style, Crane Wing, Dodge, Far Shot, Improved Precise Shot, Improved Unarmed Strike, Monk Weapon Proficiencies, Perfect Strike (2d20) (9/day), Point Blank Master: Shuriken, Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Quick Draw, Rapid Shot, Snap Shot, Weapon Focus: Shuriken, Weapon Specialization: Shuriken

Ninja Tricks: Flurry of Stars, Pressure Points, Vanishing Trick, Bleeding Attack

Poisons of Choice: Purple Worm Venom, Shiver, Opium

Attack Routine: +24/+24/+24/+24/+24/+24/+19/+14/+13 from flurry, BAB, ki pool, flurry of stars, rapid shot and boots of speed.

.

Basically, I'm looking for some functional optimization here. I want to basically use him as a poison delivery platform with some bonus damage on the side. I went Zen Archer for the bonus feats, qinggong because why not, ninja for the extra throwing stars and poison use. Anything glaring that I'm missing? Any better combination to get what I'm wanting here and still stick with 15 class levels?

Physical Description: A typical staff measures anywhere from 4 feet to 7 feet long and is 2 inches to 3 inches thick, weighing about 5 pounds. Most staves are wood, but an exotic few are bone, metal, or even glass. A staff often has a gem or some device at its tip or is shod in metal at one or both ends. Staves are often decorated with carvings or runes. A typical staff is like a walking stick, quarterstaff, or cudgel. It has AC 7, 10 hit points, hardness 5, and a break DC of 24

So, basically, a magic staff can either be a quarterstaff or a club if you want it to be. As such, I see no reason that it can't be enhanced as a magical weapon in addition to the spells you can cast from it. I would treat enhancing it as a weapon similar to how you can enhance a spiked shield as both a weapon and armor, with two separate prices that are added together with no multiplier.

Activation: Staves use the spell trigger activation method, so casting a spell from a staff is usually a standard action that doesn't provoke attacks of opportunity. (If the spell being cast has a longer casting time than 1 standard action, however, it takes that long to cast the spell from a staff.) To activate a staff, a character must hold it forth in at least one hand (or whatever passes for a hand, for nonhumanoid creatures).

So, even if you wanted to enhance it as a two-handed weapon, you can just hold it in one hand to use it as a spell-casting device.

These quotes are taken from the section on Staves in the magic item section of the core rulebook.

Saving throw -4 seems to make the most sense. Largely because reducing the saves otherwise seems kind of useless for the solo duelist. You get to apply your effects in the order most beneficial to you, I'd say.

I actually considered doing the same thing in my campaign. The problem was that it created too many holes to fill. Why wasn't this happening to all high level adventurers? If characters can get summoned and forced to do things against their will (as they often do with outsiders), why isn't the BBEG doing this with heroes? Why isn't he just summoning the PCs into a place that auto-kills them?

As a player, I realized I wouldn't like it much either. I really dislike being railroaded into a plot. Even if I choose to do something for meta-game reasons (e.g., I know this is why the GM prepped this week, so sure, I'll go into this dungeon) I want to be able to justify it with in-game, in-character reasons. Getting summoned and forced to make will saves until I fail, then be sent off to do a quest would probably make me want to get that character killed off and wait until a new campaign started before considering rolling up another.

Essentially, I found it to be a very bad idea for me and for my players. Your mileage may vary, but I would discourage it unless you have a really understanding group.

Also, high-level mystic theurge loves counterspell--they can still chuck a spell at you while they counter you from two huge spell lists.

Especially one packed to the gills with Dispel Magic.

In short, yes. It works just fine.

I see lots of complaints (well, not as many as I see on other subjects, but still a good number) about how impossibly quick Pathfinder archers are. Up until about ten minutes ago, I was in agreement that it was probably completely unrealistic. However, a few minutes ago I found this video on wins.failblog.org and it rather changed my mind.

Assuming that the real world doesn't get past level 5 and this girl seems relatively young, she can't be much more than 3rd level or so. Yet, on her first salvo, she fires off four arrows in six seconds. She maintains this speed through the whole video, even doing so while moving side to side. At first, I thought she was just firing blindly at a wall, then the camera angle moves behind her and, sure enough, she is putting them in a relatively small area (less than 5 feet wide, or one square on a battle mat) with consistency.

And, as this is the first instance of speed archery I've ever seen, I'm sure there are other, much better speed archers out there.

Just food for though.

There was a rule in 3.5, if I am remembering correctly, that stated exactly what you GM is ruling. If your normal attack did not penetrate the DR and deal at least one point of damage, precision damage was not applied. This rule was removed in the conversion to Pathfinder and thus, by RAW, no longer applicable.

First step is to know what you want to create. Don't look at the rules first, come up with a concept. You need to know where the thing lives, what it does (in a general sense) and how tough you want it to be.

Once you've done that, you can start looking at game specifics. I usually start with a creature type and a CR range. If I know that I want some sort of zombie-thing to challenge my 3rd level party, I'm probably going to make an undead around CR 2 or 3. If I know I want a winged, fire-breathing monster to terrorize 10th level PCs, I might look at choosing the dragon or outsider types.

Next I start with HD, since this affects so much of the rest of the critter. If you plan on it having lots of special abilities (special attacks, SLAs, defenses, immunities, etc.) you'll want to put it at slightly less HD than the table recommends. If you want it to be just a big punching back without anything special, you might have to give it a few more. Depending on how high the target CR is, determines how much leeway you have there. Along with HD, I go ahead and pick a size for my creature.

Next, I assign ability scores. I assume you know how these works. Most monsters that have abilities either have them dependent on CON or CHA, it seems, so keep that in mind when assigning stuff, but do whatever you feel is right.

After that, I just start working down the stat block from top to bottom. There are tables for BAB, saves, skills and all that. Just plug in your numbers and pick stuff you like. Remember to assign a feat for every 2 HD and the appropriate skill points. If your creature has natural attacks, make sure to check the Natural Attacks chart (in the Glossary) to determine damage and primary/secondary status.

Now put in your special abilities (if you have any). Go thematic first and then work on numbers and rules-language. Steal abilities from creatures you like or make up your own.

Finally, compare your final stat block to the suggestions for AC, Attack, Damage, Save DCs, etc. and see if things sit around the target CR. If so, congratulations! If not, go back and tweak some numbers until it looks about right.

As an added bonus, post it in the Homebrew/Suggestions forum and get some second opinions on it. There are lots of very skilled people here on the forums who are more than willing to help out with your homebrew efforts.

That said, was there something in particular that you were wanting to create?

Well, as beings of pure balance, you can pretty much use them whenever. Someone being too evil? Aeons. Too good? Aeons. Too lawful? Aeons. Too chaotic? Aeons. Seriously, they are the perfect critters to toss out whenever your PCs become rather well known.

I just ran my players through a mini-plane hoping adventure and I used the CR 20 aeon to both help them get to their goal as well as murder them in their sleep. Basically, I put them in miniature recursive planes where they could see themselves about 60 feet away in every direction. However, when they ended up on our true neutral plane, the plane and the PCs recursed as normal but there was only one outsider. After interacting with it for a while, they concluded that it wanted to help them so they felt safe to rest. While on watch, one of the PCs saw the aeon float over to one of the recursed groups and violently murder them in their sleep. It then floated back and offered to aid the party in their quest.

The players' reactions were awesome.

Someone said it above and I think it's my biggest problem so far with this system (which I absolutely love the concept for). All RP are not created equal, which seems silly to me. If 1 RP doesn't equal 1 RP elsewhere, something should change, and I think it should be the RP values.

The tiers, as they stand, aren't real limitations. The only real limitations are RP values and the APL adjustment table. If the new race doesn't breach 15 RP, then it will likely have zero effect on the APL of the group, meaning that it should be treated as balanced to the normal races. If that APL adjustment table had said "standard", "advanced" and "monstrous" instead of listing RP values, then the tiers would have had a mechanical effect on the game.

If the attempt with the tiers is to keep things out of the range of races that are supposed to be balanced with the core races, then price them that way. Things that "standard" level races should have should be priced so that standard level races can get them. Things that standard level races shouldn't have should be priced so that standard level races can't afford them and still be a reasonable race. Since this is a GM tool, "reasonable" is a term that can apply. If I spend only 10 RP but only have a single ability and four drawbacks to make afford it, that's not a reasonable race. If I have one ability that's currently advanced tier and two abilities that are currently standard tier instead of five standard tier abilities, I see that as probably reasonable.

If certain abilities are just too powerful for "standard" races to have, give them pre-requisites of lower level powers. If Paizo thinks flight is too good for a standard race, then make flight be an upgrade from a gliding ability. Energy immunity too much? Require that you take a few levels of energy resistance first. Things quickly price themselves out of the range of standard races.

You then say, "Anything that uses more than X RP points is considered an advanced race and causes an APL adjustment according to the following table". You then give the table that's at the beginning of the playtest document indicating how RP totals affect APL.

This opens all abilities to all races from the beginning, with consequences for spending more than X RP. You just can't not get several advanced or monstrous abilities without spending more than X points.

I thought RP were supposed to determine overall power. Why have two systems trying to do the same thing? Especially when one doesn't really work.

Ninja'd, but you can follow this link and scroll down to the Encumbrance section.

It is my opinion that the Druid is severely "imbalanced" in the mid levels (5-10) because of Wild Shape and Animal Companion being just that good.

Being able to out damage the Barbarian or the Bow Fighter AND have a bunch of useful spells and a lot of utility is just too much for my tastes as a GM.

So I replace wildshape with putting the various xyz shape spells on the duid spell list and be done with it.

Works like a charm.

I think you are thinking about the 3.5 version of the druid. If a wildshaping druid wants to outdamage a barbarian (which is probably not possible, I've not crunched the numbers), he has to build himself like a barbarian, that is, all strength and constitution. This is because wildshape emulates the Beast Shape spells, which just modify base statistics, rather than replacing them (as 3.5 wildshape did).

So, a druid who focuses on melee damage sacrifices his spells. He'll have some utility spells and buff spells, but he will suck at anything that offers a save.

The Pathfinder Druid is good, but it's not that good.

All of the Knowledge skills are impossibly broad. Take a look at Knowledge (Nature), since that has some pretty solid real-world comparisons.

Knowledge (Nature) covers every field within zoology and botany. You can know as much about whales as monkeys as elm trees as mushrooms as bacteria. Ask any biologist and they will tell you that one person being competent in all those fields (let along a master) is ludicrous in the real world. Oh, and toss in that you also know about fey, monstrous humanoids and meteorology. Because the almanac and minotaurs are always taught together in school.

Now lets look at Knowledge (Religion). You know things about gods, myths, religious practices, symbols and undead. Yep. Because you studied well at Seminary, you know the weaknesses of Vampires too. That makes perfect sense.

Knowledge (Arcana)? Ancient mysteries, magic traditions, arcane symbols, constructs, dragons and magical beasts. Because golems and dragons are so incredibly similar.

I won't go on because I think the point is made. Knowledge (Local) is really better named Knowledge (Humanoids). It's the Knowledge (Nature) for humanoids. It tells you where humanoids live, things about their nature, what kinds of stuff they like/dislike, and some about their past.

If you are going to make Knowledge (Local) be specialized based on location, then you might as well do so for all the other knowledges.

Improved and Greater Two Weapon Fighting (they should be rolled into Two Weapon Fighting)

Same with Improved and Greater Vital Strike. (I like Vital Strike being a feat, just one that scales.)

I've built this new critter, but I'm not sure if it's balanced much yet. Any help/suggestions would be great.

Gytrash, Phase Devil CR 16
This huge caniform devil seems to peer with flame red eyes from the void. As suddenly as it appears, so it disappears; often leaving little but death in its wake.
LE Huge Outsider (devil, evil, extraplanar, lawful)
Init +4; Senses Darkvision (60 feet), Low-Light Vision, Scent, See in Darkness; Perception +17
--------------------
DEFENSE
--------------------
AC 20, touch 12, flat-footed 16. . (+4 Dex, -2 size, +8 natural)
hp 155 (3d10+99)
Fort +16, Ref +11, Will +8
DR 10/chaotic and good Immune fire, poison; Resist acid 15, cold 15, electricity 10; SR 26
--------------------
OFFENSE
--------------------
Spd 40 ft., Flight (80 feet, Good)
Melee Bite +19 (4d6+10/20/x2) and
Claw x2 +19 (3d6+10/20/x2)
Space 15 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Special Attacks Ethereal Penetration, Punish Chaos (1/day), Punish Good (1/day), Undermining Touch
Spell-Like Abilities
Constant - Blink
At-Will - Dimension Door (quickened; self only)
3/day - Darkness, Poison (DC 20)
1/day - Blasphemy (DC 23), Contagion (DC 20), Desecrate, Unholy Blight (DC 20)
--------------------
STATISTICS
--------------------
Str 30, Dex 18, Con 28, Int 14, Wis 16, Cha 22
Base Atk +11; CMB +23; CMD 37 (41 vs. Trip)
Feats Combat Reflexes (5 AoO/round), Improved Iron Will, Flyby Attack, Hover, Iron Will, Skill Focus: Diplomacy
Skills Acrobatics +18, Appraise +13, Diplomacy +13, Fly +15, Intimidate +17, Perception +17, Sense Motive +12, Stealth +10, Survival +4, Use Magic Device +17 Modifiers +4 to Survival when tracking by Scent
Languages Celestial, Draconic, Infernal; telepathy 100 ft

--------------------
SPECIAL ABILITIES
--------------------
Ethereal Penetration (Sp) A phase demon can make attacks with its natural attacks and supernatural abilities from the ethereal plane without any miss chance. Attacks from manufactured weapons do not benefit from this ability.
Punish Good (Su) As a swift action, a phase demon may choose to add its Charisma modifier to damage on a successful attack against a good target.
Punish Chaos(Su) As a swift action, a phase demon may choose to add its Charisma modifier to damage on a successful attack against a chaotic target.
Undermining Touch (Su) A phase demon may make a melee touch attack which causes a creature to become shaken for a number of rounds equal to the phase demon's Charisma modifier. This attack may be used in place of a claw attack. As long as the creature is shaken from this ability, it radiates an aura of either good or chaos (chosen by the phase demon at the time of the attack). A successful Will save (DC 23) reduces this effect to one round. Whether or not the save is successful, a creature cannot be the target of this ability again for 1 day. A phase demon may use this ability a number of times per day equal to its Charisma modifier. The DC of the save is Charisma-based.

These massive infernal hounds serve as guard dogs in the halls of the archdevils of Hell. Standing nearly 15 feet at the shoulder and weighing over 20,000 pounds, these massive canines command fear even from among the greater devils that seek audience with the archdevils. The phase demon exists partially in the ethereal plane at all times, giving its massive form a haunting translucency. From this veil, the phase demon can strike mercilessly at its foes while they flail hopelessly at its ethereal form.

After looking over the rules (direct and implied) for the last couple of days now, this is my conclusion.

The general rule for multiple weapon attacks seems to be that you get one per arm. For most creatures, they only have two arms, so they only have two attacks (assuming low BAB). Gaining points of BAB gives additional iterative main-hand attacks. Taking the TWF feats gives you additional off-hand attacks.

Now, since the vast majority of creatures (including all those in the CRB) only have two arms, the rules are written to reflect that. There are instances, however, that seem to speak to the underlying basic assumption that each limb gets an attack. Things like the marilith or xill show creatures with multiple arms making multiple manufactured weapon attacks. One attack per limb, plus additional main-hand attacks from high BAB.

Indicative of this is also the text in the vestigial limb discovery for alchemists. It specifically calls out that the additional limb does not grant an additional attack. This may be just clarifying text, but it seems also that it is an exception to the standard rule.

Regarding armor spikes being off-hand attacks, go back to what I have deduced to be the general rule: one attack per arm. This rule is not "one attack per available weapon". So, your standard character with two limbs, gets one main-hand and one off-hand attack. If you choose to make this off-hand attack with armor spikes, it takes up the available off-hand attack. If a marilith is wearing spiked armor and, for some reason wants to attack with it, she must sacrifice one of her normal weapon attacks to do so. Essentially, she can attack with 5 longswords and armor spikes or 6 longswords. Strapping on spiked armor doesn't give her an extra limb to attack with, just an extra option for her available attacks.

Regarding eidolons, they can gain all the additional arms their evolution pool can earn them. This is because taking the "limbs" evolution explicitly does not come with a natural attack. If they did (even a puny secondary attack), then they would be limited by the Max Attacks column, even if those limbs are used to hold weapons. (I'm fairly certain that all "limbs(arms)" evolutions taken by eidolons in my game will come with a secondary 1d3 natural attack.)

That said, they still only gain a single additional attack per limb. There is no option to gain multiple, iterative off-hand attacks. Where Improved Two Weapon Fighting and Greater Two Weapon Fighting provide further iterative attacks for the off-hand weapon, there are no equivalents for the Multiweapon Fighting feat. The TWF feat and the Multiweapon Fighting feat each only reduce the penalties associated with the normal attack routine.

Note that, if it were not the general rule that you gain one attack per arm, then the Multiweapon Fighting feat would be entirely worthless. If you can only ever gain a single additional off-hand attack (without specific feats/abilities that create an exception), then the reference in Multiweapon Fighting to Two Weapon Fighting would mean that, despite having four dagger-wielding arms, you still only get two attacks. Since this seems to not be the intent of the feat (otherwise it wouldn't exist), the implication seems that Multiweapon Fighting reduces the penalty for each additional off-hand attack, regardless of the number of them.

If anyone has any specific rules quotes or insight that contradicts this, please mention them. The rules do seem overly obscure here and (as I'd like to build some monsters with multiple limbs), I'd like to be as clear as possible on how multiple limbs are intended to be ruled. Because of that, I'm going to FAQ the OP in hopes that someone with some authority at Paizo might chime in.

Keep in mind that the Garotte also doesn't deal damage, but simply applies a condition. If something does not deal damage, it cannot deal sneak attack damage. The mention in the weapon entry is just reiterating a general rule.

There is actually a whole Paizo Blog post on this. You can read it here.

Basically, it can understand commands in a language (though Handle Animal checks are still needed to get it to do stuff). It can take any feat desired, and not just those on the short list in the druid entry. If it has the anatomy for it, it can learn to wield weapons.

*Warning: Wall of Text* So while working on building a new campaign setting with a friend we decided that we really wanted to revamp magic while we were at it. I know, big goal, right? Anyway our original thinking was that we would use the "generic classes" from the 3.5 SRD. We realized both the "warrior" and "expert" classes were differentiated by class options and specialized with feats, but that "casters" were only differentiated by which spells they chose, but they had no restriction on which spells they wanted (being able to choose from every single spell in the book).

So here is our thought. We fashion a "generic" spell list that all casters have access to. From this list any caster can select spells for their "spells known". It would be basic, staple spells that are just too iconic or necessary to put into a specialist list. Then, in order to pick spells that aren't on this list, you have to spend feats. Taking these feats would add a "specialist list" to your options for "spells known". It doesn't directly add anything to your list, but just opens up your options.

Each specialization has three layers that equate into a feat chain. The base level feat opens up level 0-3 spells, the improved feat opens up 4-6 and the greater feat would open up 7-9. You'd have to take the previous feat to take the next one.

The specializations include most spell schools and keywords. Some of the larger and more diverse schools (like Conjuration) are split into sub-schools. All of the elemental keywords share the same list of elemental spells, but the type of damage is based on the elemental specialty chosen (basically giving free Energy Substitution).

The spell feats are tentatively as follows:
Abjuration
Summoning/Calling
Healing
Creation
Divination
Enchantment
Fire
Cold
Electricity
Acid
Force
Sonic
Illusion
Phantasm
Shadow*
Necromancy
Transmutation
Polymorph

*Emulates the elemental spells and summoning/calling spells at X% reality a la Shadow Evocation/Shadow Conjuration.

Each of the previous feats are Base, Improved and Greater. Example: Fire, Improved Fire and Greater Fire. To take Improved Fire, you have to take Fire.

When taking more than one Elemental list (which share identical spells) you get to choose which elemental type to use. For example, if a caster has both the Cold and Fire feat, they may cast "fireball" with either fire or cold damage. Taking an "admixture" feat would allow you to apply both damage types.

Metamagic works like normal. You simply have to have access to the appropriate level spell slot, but you do not need the higher level spell list. For example, if you want to Empower a Fireball, you would need to be able to cast 6th level spells and have the feat Fire, but you would not need Improved Fire.

Areas where we need suggestions help:
Generic Spell List - Is the Adept list good enough? Do we need to add 6th-9th level spells, or should we require casters to specialize by level 11?
Specialized Lists - Are the lists adequate? Are there gaping wholes? Are any of the lists too large or too small?
Domain/School Powers - What to do with them? Is gaining access to them worth a feat? Should they be given for free to casters? Should they be discarded altogether?
Blind Spots - With everything, I know that I'm not seeing the whole picture. Is there something (a consequence, an interaction, etc.) that is obvious to you that could make this system brokenly over- or underpowered?

Thanks in advance to any and all comments and suggestions.

There are loopholes. The biggest of which is the Combat Patrol feat and the Step Up chain. The specifics of the Stalwart Defender ability specifies beginning and ending in the same square over your turn. When it's not your turn, you can move all you want and still retain your bonuses.

Cheesy? Maybe. Legal? Yes. Your GM might houserule that it doesn't work since it sort of breaks the intent of the "guy that holds his ground" motif of the PrC.

It's basically a Monk's Robe for Sorcerers. So, yes, it can bring your effective level above your actual level.

In our current campaign (which has been running for the better part of a year and will likely continue for the better part of another) we enforce a strict WBL. Since we rotate GMs between adventures and level at the end of each adventure rather than using XP, this makes things a lot easier for each GM. At the beginning of the level 6 adventure, you are allowed to have 10,500 gold worth of gear and not a copper more. If it's in the book, you can have it. (Note: we don't allow crafting feats to reduce costs, but we allow you to use them to creature unique items.) Whatever gear you find during the adventure is yours to keep for that adventure. When it's over and you level, whatever gear is in excess of your current level's suggested wealth, you have to discard. Since there are often in-game months between adventures, we basically say that the excess gear you hawked was to pay for living expenses, rent, wenches, access to libraries, bribes, servants or whatever it is that your character does with his off time.

What this has done is allowed the next GM to not have to adjust his adventure because the previous GM handed out too much or too little, or gave one character something particularly nice and gave another character the shaft. Also, this way, players are assured of getting the items that their character needs to be effective at his/her job. We didn't fight any wizards in the last adventure? That's okay, the party's wizard can still pick up the scrolls she wants for the next level. We only fought magical beasts and dire animals this time? It's okay, the fighter can still go pick out a shiny new sword.

We are just about to wrap up level 10 and, by this time, our characters are becoming relatively well known and powerful (high fantasy, medium magic setting), so we needn't worry about the problems of having Ye Olde Magick Shoppe in every town, since they requisitioned the stuff special from the various places that specialize in whatever they need.

It's been a great system for us that has left everyone satisfied. No one has to say, "Aww, man! I wanted the +2 greatsword! I don't need another amulet of natural armor +2." Now, anyone who wants a +2 greatsword, can get their +2 greatsword. No one feels slighted and no one feels left out.

If using all natural attacks, you could attack claw/claw/bite. Something here has to be the secondary attack. If the bite, it would be: 2 claws +12 and bite +7.

Where are you getting that something needs to be a secondary attack? Attacks are either primary or secondary, regardless of how many of either you have. When using the claw/claw/bite routine, all attacks are at your full BAB.