Michael Fletcher 36's page

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PFRPG wrote:
Fighting Defensively as a Standard Action: You can choose to fight defensively when attacking. If you do so, you take a –4 penalty on all attacks in a round to gain a +2 to AC for the same round.
PFRPG wrote:
Fighting Defensively as a Full-Round Action: You can choose to fight defensively when taking a full-attack action. If you do so, you take a –4 penalty on all attacks in a round to gain a +2 dodge bonus to AC for the same round.
Quote:


Total Defense
You can defend yourself as a standard action. You get a +4 dodge bonus to your AC for 1 round. Your AC improves at the start of this action. You can’t combine total defense with fighting defensively or with the benefit of the Combat Expertise feat. You can’t make attacks of opportunity while
using total defense.
PFRPG wrote:


Combat Expertise (Combat)
You can increase your defense at the expense of your accuracy.
Prerequisite: Int 13.
Benefit: You can choose to take a –1 penalty on melee attack rolls and combat maneuver checks to gain a +1 dodge bonus to your Armor Class. When your base attack bonus reaches +4, and every +4 thereafter, the penalty increases by –1 and the dodge bonus increases by +1. You can only choose to use this feat when you declare that you are making an attack or a full-attack action with a melee weapon. The effects of this feat last until your next turn.

Am I reading this correctly to say that a normal character can take a standard action attack, defensively, and gain the bonus for combat expertise and fighting defensively the rest of the round (doing move actions etc).

But cannot use these same bonuses to move and then attack?

That seems nonsensical and arbitrary to me.


There are really two things that bother me about the miniatures store here:

1) No sense of scale - simply state that what size creature it is tiny-small-medium-large-huge, etc. There are plenty of non pathfinder/D&D minis that could make very good fits - except we have no idea how large an item it is.

2) Most pictures are very, very small, and can be trumped by a $20 cell phone... Or maybe I need to turn my resolution on my monitor down. Either way, it seems it could be improved.

Thanks!


A friend of mine noticed that the Greater Combat Maneuver feats, e.g. Greater Bull Rush, do not add +2 to the CMD, whether it be an alteration or continuous oversight on our part.

I believe the confusion comes in from the mentality of "if a weapon gets a bonus towards CMB, it gets the same bonus to CMD."

At any rate, I thought this inconsistency may be worth mentioning in the event someone else presumed this to be the case.


What position is the player in, assuming the effect goes off and the player is conscious?


We have a party with a mixture of living constructs and living creatures, and I came across this item in the APG, and it seems to leave us with additional questions.

1) Does the channel brick only work for channel energy, or does all healing magic work?
2) When the channeler uses the brick, does the resulting channel affect both living creatures and constructs?
3) Do negative effects work as per normal, or is it all converted to healing for constructs?

Thanks for your input.


Please be aware that "stationary" is synonymous with "not moving." "Stationery" is what you write upon.


A ghost can use a ghost touch weapon, but without a strength score, does the ghost of a storm giant hit as hard as the ghost of a gnome?

Disregarding damage for greater size, it just doesn't make complete sense to me.

Your input?


Also, what kind of light do fire elementals give off? How do they compare with darkness spells?

Do they even need darkvision in the first place?


Take a look at this tomfoolery.

Each spell affects a 40' radius circle.

Each spell takes 24 hours to cast.

Each spell takes 1,000 gp worth of Material Components to cast

Each spell counters but does not dispel the other.

I hope this is wrong, because the actual chances for the circumstance that two people are going to competitively cast these two spells is so ridiculously slim as to make me believe this is absolutely wrong.

Solutions:

Increase the area affected to make it to where you have a real chance of being secluded from each other in order to competitively cast without the other knowing.

Make them dispel one another instead of counter. (How often do you see people blessing unholy ground twice to ward off ill effects and bad spirits?)

Am I alone in thinking that this has to be an error?

Otherwise, the only scenario this is likely is where two clerics are in two cages inside a room, and, for whatever reason, they have plenty of material component in order to cast these spells, and any other spells that would allow escape would simply fail. So they simply have nothing better to do than to do a silly competition.


1) There is no cost involved with making ammunition for ballistas and catapults. Yes, you could size them up from crossbow bolts and from slings, I suppose. I would like to however see that hastily made make-shift items (crudely made logs, putrescent corpses, etc) suffer a -2 to attack, and masterwork ammunition is also available. Likewise, an inclusion of non-sacrificial ammunition, such as blurbs with harpoons with rope/chain is included. (Perhaps in another product, I suppose.)

2) Instead of the text:

Quote:


Emulate an Ability Score: To cast a spell from a scroll, you need
a high score in the appropriate ability (Intelligence for wizard
spells, Wisdom for divine spells, or Charisma for sorcerer or
bard spells). Your effective ability score (appropriate to the
class you’re emulating when you try to cast the spell from the
scroll) is your Use Magic Device check result minus 15. If you
already have a high enough score in the appropriate ability,
you don’t need to make this check.

It would save space and be clearer to simply state:

Quote:


Emulate an Ability Score: To cast a spell from a scroll, you need a high score in the appropriate ability. Add 15 to the Use Magic Device check if you do not meet the ability score prerequisite.


Another thought I have on the subject is that you take a -2 penalty to hit. My re-interpretation of this is that you take a -4 penalty to strength for purposes of using the weapon, and thus incur -2 to attack AND damage.

So, arbitrating out some strength requirements for weapon use in general.

STR 10 (mod +0) is required for two-handed weapons.
STR 7 (mod -2) is required for one-handed weapons.
STR 4 (mod -4) is required for light weapons.

Characters get a +2 effective STR bonus for wielding weapons pertaining to their race.

Weapons that aren't light but can be finessed count as light weapons for this purpose.

So, if you're a medium sized creature, and you want to wield a colossal sized two-handed weapon, you have to have at least a Strength of at least 26. If you're small, you have to have at least a Strength of at least 28.


p. 144 wrote:

Inappropriately Sized Weapons: A creature can’t make

optimum use of a weapon that isn’t properly sized for it. A
cumulative –2 penalty applies on attack rolls for each size
category of difference between the size of its intended wielder
and the size of its actual wielder. If the creature isn’t proficient
with the weapon, a –4 nonproficiency penalty also applies.

So can I use a siege ballista as a colossal repeating heavy crossbow? ;-)


So, we now have crafting rules, which are 5+CL of the item to be crafted.

And we've been having rules to calculate how much a given magic item is worth based on its abilities.

But we don't know about calculating CLs of custom items, at least from what I can tell in PFRPG.

Likewise, it's exceedingly unclear why the CL of one item that performs a similar function to another item can be drastically different. (Example, compare bracers of armor to ring of deflection. Scaling CL vs Flat CL.)

Of course, it's been said that CL and gold values of some items are an "art" rather than a "science."


I know I'm rehashing an old argument, but in light of the new crafting rules, I thought I would re-open them for discussion.

Now, virtually everyone has access to crafting any and all magic items. Granted, those who don't cast magic spells have somewhat of a disadvantage at making them, but they are still capable of doing so, provided they put as much due dilligence into crafting as a spellcaster does.

As things stand, players who specialize in item crafting that fail to receive a crafting discount have 3 choices:
1) Create a character that's light on equipment, but heavy in treasure, to take advantage of item crafting capabilities and crafting rules.
2) Create a character that's equally equipped as other characters, but suffer feat penalties. (Note that these players often mutter sweet obscenities when they receive crafting requests from other players, and face ire if they don't go out of their way to boost party value.)
3) Just drop the crafting feats altogether (and any crafting classes, while you're at it). If the party simply can't afford it, then it either goes without, or it goes dragon-hunting.

Going further along in this vein, should certain classes that rely almost exclusively on their ability to craft items get special consideration?

To me, a class that isn't so great at direct combat, relying exclusively on consumables, should have the following properties:

1) Be able to "break even" with other classes in terms of equipment and abilities.
2) Be able to outshine their counterparts if they are running through their personal expenditure.

In other words, I feel the classes should be able to equip themselves relatively equally while still being combat-worthy. If a character is forced to use consumables as their sole source of emulating class abilities, there is no way for them to be able to both equip themselves and pay for their attack/defense abilities.

Your thoughts?


I'm a bit underwhelmed with the strikeback feature, read as written. It seems as though a group of people will delay their turns, readying actions to hit an attacker with reach, not knowing whether or not that attack will come.

The way I would reword it is thus:

You can ready an action to make a melee attack against any foe who makes a melee attack through a square that you threaten, even if the foe is outside of your reach. If the foe takes a standard action to attack you, you get a standard attack. If the foe takes a full attack option to attack you, you get a full attack option to attack it.

As for Lunge, I would make it more in line with how the combat maneuver feats work: Anyone can perform a lunge attack, but they suffer -2 to attack and -4 to AC and incur Attacks of Opportunity.

People who take the lunge feat become proficient at performing lune attacks, reduces the penalty to attack to 0, reduces the penalty to AC to -2, and do not incur Attacks of Opportunity. Strike Back can be used against lunging opponents.


Normal rules state that you can find 4 hours sporadically throughout the day on a normal adventuring day in order to get 2 hours of crafting time in.

However, that's assuming you're a critter that sleeps all night.

Assuming normal downtime is 9 hours (8 sleeping, 1 hour spell prep), having a ring of sustenance means you have an extra 6 hours or free time on your hands.

Since the maximum amount of time you are allowed to craft is 8 hours a day, I figure there are two possibilities:

4 hours (from before) count as 2, where a second 4 hours (from ring of sustenance) could either count as 2, or count as 4, but I'm a little torn on whether you should get 1/2 item crafting rate or 3/4 crafting rate.

Can I get your input, please?


Quote:


Combat Maneuver Defense: Each character and creature
has a Combat Maneuver Defense (or CMD) that represents
its ability to resist combat maneuvers. A creature’s CMD is
determined using the following formula:

CMD = 10 + Base attack bonus + Strength modifier
+ Dexterity modifier + special size modifier

The special size modifier for a creature’s Combat
Maneuver Defense is as follows: Fine –8, Diminutive
–4, Tiny –2, Small –1, Medium +0, Large +1, Huge +2,
Gargantuan +4, Colossal +8. Some feats and abilities
grant a bonus to your CMD when resisting specific
maneuvers. A creature can also add any circumstance,
deflection, dodge, insight, morale, profane, and sacred
bonuses to AC to its CMD. Any penalties to a creature’s
AC also apply to its CMD. A flat-footed creature does not
add its Dexterity bonus to its CMD.

So, if I have crappy dex, I get punished against combat maneuvers, but when I'm flat-footed, I get a better chance.

Am I reading this correctly?


Time was taken to rework animal companions into a final form, and that appears to be simply to provide access to a variety of animals, provided in Monster Manual Style.

But if there's been one part that's been weak, and has stayed consistently weak, that would be familiars. In fact, the only PFRPG Final stats available for any familiar is the Faerie Dragon familiar, which requires the Improved Familiar feat, but isn't even listed as normally available as an available improved familiar.

Now, I know there's likely a good reason for not providing stats, primarily that being the fact that these buggers have 1/2 wizard hp, and you didn't want to include stat blocks with lacking or conflicting information, and the other fact that I don't think anyone in their right mind is going to put their toad into a combat situation, unless it involves a swarm of somethings that won't kill it.

Paizo should create a self-contained file with the Paizo stamp of approval that lists the stats and abilities of the familiars and improved familiars listed in the PFRPG rulebook, as it should be the one-stop source for a player's character creation needs.

The notable exception I'll allow, of course, would be a comprehensive monster manual for purposes of Wild Shape and Polymorph spells for apparent reasons of content limitation. Even then, some animals are already provided for that purpose.

While the Draconomicon Faerie Dragon and PFRPG Faerie Dragon really only seem to have the same flavor, but no readily recognizable scaling from 3.5 to PFRPG (at least for this monster), I look forward to seeing how the other improved familiars receive treatment. Pseudodragons are currently at a CR 1, so I hope they get at least a slight boost, even though the camouflage ability is currently vastly superior to my familiar's needs, considering how horribly weak familiars still are.

Not that I'm saying they need to be an animal companion, but it would be nice if Smogpuff could handle my less-than-agile adventures with traps while he's hiding in my backpack.

EDIT to add: Of course, if the Beastiary includes plenty of improved familiar options as the Faerie Dragon appears in the Beastiary, this could mitigate the exclusion of this content in the rulebook.


1 person marked this as FAQ candidate.
Quote:


Choose one Craft or Profession skill in which
you possess at least 5 ranks. You receive a +2 bonus on your
chosen Craft or Profession skill. Ranks in your chosen skill
count as your caster level for the purposes of qualifying
for the Craft Magic Arms and Armor and Craft Wondrous
Item feats. You can create magic items using these feats,
substituting your ranks in the chosen skill for your total
caster level. You must use the chosen skill for the check to
create the item.

So, I take profession Mime... and now I can mime my way into making a sword+1, and I get a bonus +2 to mime.

I'm assuming the +2 bonus doesn't count towards the actual roll, because it specifies "ranks" as CL?

Shouldn't we specify what professions or crafts are applicable? After all, wizards specifically have to use spellcraft, we shouldn't let non-spellcrafters have such an easy time of it.


Since there were some changes to how magicians now work in a lot of arenas, one question I have is how does one cast defensively? It used to be a spellcraft check, but now it's not listed there. In the combat section, it explains what the DC is of casting defensively (which actually has nothing to do with the ability for something to hit you, so if you're immobilized, spit in the caster's face - ranged touch attack), but I can't seem to find where it is explained what you roll.

Thanks.


Now, instead of being able to take a few people with you, you seem to be only able to transport yourself.

But what if you're physically capable of picking someone up as part of your carrying capacity, and still be unencumbered? Is there a real difference? I can carry a corpse, but not a living creature? What about an unconscious one?

Can he transport people in a dimensional pocket?

This just seems like a change that many people who made use of it previously are going to just work around it, or likely ignore.

Of course, I know we'll always be welcome to house-rule it out, but I never really thought this was a big issue before.


Quote:

Stand Still (Combat)

You can stop foes that try to move past you.
Prerequisites: Combat Reflexes.
Benefit: When a foe provokes an attack of opportunity
due to moving through your adjacent squares, you can make
a combat maneuver check as your attack of opportunity. If
successful, the enemy cannot move for the rest of his turn.
An enemy can still take the rest of his action, but cannot
move. This feat also applies to any creature that attempts to
move from a square that is adjacent to you if such movement
provokes an attack of opportunity.

Since lunge is about increasing your range of attack, it would appear that it does not work in conjunction with Stand Still.

What exactly happens when you're using Standstill? I thought you already could perform some Combat Maneuvers as an AoO already. Trip? Grapple? Bull Rush? What bonuses, if any, apply? Improved Grapple/Trip/Bull Rush?


Some desired clarrifications:

Clarifications:
1) I'm pretty sure this is allowed, but you should be able to cast this multiple times. It does not stack. Each cast affects a new "weapon." Option 2 of greater magic fang can be mixed with Option 1, but the effects don't stack.
2) Flurry of blows. If only once enchanted, the monk only applies the bonus to either the odd numbered attacks, or the even numbered attacks. This assumes you don't go with option 2 for greater magic fang.
3) Does this affect combat maneuvers? Grapple? Trip? Bull Rush? Disarm? Does a judo flip over the shoulder count as a trip? Would enchanting your fists really enable you to push someone?


Comments? Contradictions?


Here is my suggestion on a variant rule for Slow Fall:

Legendary Climber: Add your monk levels to the climb skill.

Climb: Whenever you are falling within arm's reach of a wall, you can slow down your fall by a number of feet equal to 10 feet per 5 rolled.

You may essentially arrest your fall completely, albeit briefly, with a combined score of 30.

Thus, a monk may make a series of jump and climb checks to actually make it up a wall, if features permit.

Furthermore, everyone can attempt to lessen their impact with the ground with something more than an acrobatics roll to lesson the damage. (pg 329)


Your opinions, please.

Can you use Weapon Focus (Weapon of choice that can be used for Combat Maneuvers) for purposes of increasing the CMB of the particular maneuver?

For example, you can do Weapon Focus (grapple), I assume you can also do Weapon Focus (trip). You can also do Weapon Focus (spiked chain). Can your bonus to spiked chain count towards CMB made with the weapon? Could they stack? Should they?

Consider a more extreme example, where you can do Weapon Focus (Unarmed Attack). Do you then get a +1 bonus to performing grapples, disarms, and trips, so long as it's with an unarmed attack?

Thanks.


Let me quote the rules:

From PFRPG Beta Page 50
"Hit Points: The familiar has one-half the master’s
total hit points (not including temporary hit points),
rounded down, regardless of its actual Hit Dice."

Page 388
"Constitution: Increases to your Constitution score give
you a bonus on your Fortitude saving throws. In a ddition,
multiply your total Hit Dice by this bonus and add that
amount to your current and total hit points. When the
bonus ends, remove this total from your current and total
hit points."

Page 389
"Constitution: Damage to your Constitution score causes
you to take penalties on your Fortitude saving throws. In ad-
dition, multiply your total Hit Dice by this penalty and sub-
tract that amount from your current and total hit points."

Since total hitpoints is defined as all the hitpoints you rolled using appropriate hit dice for your character plus your CON modifier x level plus any hitpoints gained for favored class, this would indicate that a familiar's own HPs are not contingent on its own CON score at all.

Furthermore, because it's tied to its master's total hitpoints, this means that if you are swarmed by a series of poisonous scorpions, and you each walk out at 6 CON damage, your familiar effectively walks out with negative hitpoints.

Assuming it, itself, isn't immune to CON damage.

Also, can anyone confirm whether or not a familiar even gets its CON bonus to hps via an official build of a wizard and his familiar? I can't find an example NPC wizard with a familiar anywhere.

Can someone help me clear this up?

Thanks


What are the ramifications of casting a spell that has no components. E.G. a silent casting of Dimension Door.

Under normal circumstances, the caster (wizard) is doing something that obviously indicates he is casting a spell, and thus you get the attempt to counter or dispel the spell he is casting. Furthermore, you get your AoO if you're in melee.

What other indications are there that a mage is casting a spell, and if none, do others still get an AoO on the spell, or the opportunity to counter or dispel?

Thanks,
Taka


I am trying to pathfinderize a 20th level artificer, and I'm running into the stumbling block of what could his capstone ability could be?

Any ideas?

Also, if anyone has any input as to what other changes are necessary to bring him to par, I would appreciate the input.

Thanks,
Taka


I remember seeing at one point the ability to make use of crafting feats, and mitigate the time requirements by extending the time to craft by making 200 gp worth of equipment in one evening?

Is this gone now?


The Rod of Cancellation, market value of 11,000 gp diamond, states to recharge one, you must burn a wish spell, which requires a diamond worth 25,000 gp.

Isn't this a little egregious?

Or can wish be cast without burning the 25,000 gp diamond, like miracle?

Wouldn't a limited wish be better in line, with a 1,500 gp diamond?


Can we capture the blurb about using acrobatics to lessen the damage from a fall into the skill section, to call attention to this particular detail?

Also, can we verify that one can use jump checks for this purpose in lieu of an acrobatics check?


[Assisted Reflexes]

Prerequisite: Lightning Reflexes

You know how to push others out of the line of fire.

Before the reflex save(s) are rolled, as an immediate action, you subtract any number of points (maximum of your dex modifier) and add the same amount to the person whom you aid to avoid any attack that allows reflex saves. Target must be within reach. You must make a reflex save or be hit, regardless if you were threatened to begin with. You lose your next turn as a result.

Special: If you have the improved trip feat and are capable of making a trip attempt, you may do so as an attack of opportunity, so long as you are not flat-footed. You may assist as many people as you have attacks of opportunity, so long as they do not occur simultaneously.

[Unyielding Will]

Prerequisite: Iron Will

You know how to misdirect mental attacks from others to yourself.

Before the will save(s) are rolled, as an immediate action, you serve as a distraction and place the focus of the attack on yourself. The caster rolls a spellcraft check (or other appropriate check), or he focuses only on you. If he fails his check, instead, he attempts to affect the both of you, and his original target instead adds your wisdom modifier (if greater than his) to his will save. You must be detectable by the caster for this effect to work.

I couldn't think of a good rationalization for there to be an assisted fort save, and thus did not include one.


Metamagic feat 1

[Enhance Spell]

The damage cap of a spell is doubled.

When a spell caps out on the amount of damage it can do, a spell caster can cast the spell as one level higher to double the cap.

Example, fireball caps out at 10d6 damage. This feat allows you to double the cap to 20d6.

Cross reference delayed blast fireball and chain lightning. Also see below. (For reference, fireball/lightning is level 3. Delayed blast fireball is level 7 and chain lightning is level 6.)

[Delayed Spell]

A caster can delay the effects of a spell.

A caster can choose to delay when a spell comes into effect up to 5 rounds or less. The spell effect can be physically manipulated in a manner consistent with the current wording of delayed blast fireball. A spell cast in this manner takes a slot 3 spell levels higher than normal.

[Chain Spell]

A caster can attack multiple targets with a line attack.

A caster chooses a primary target. If the line or ray attack succeeds, the caster can deal half damage to any additional chosen target within 30' of the primary target. For ranged touch attacks, the caster must roll each target separately at a -5 to attack. Spells cast in such a manner takes a spell slot 2 levels higher than normal.


Lists Stunned Defense as a prerequisite, which should be "Stunning Defense." Likewise, please review the requirement of the "Greater Weapon Focus" as a prerequisite as this means that only fighters have access to this feat. If this is the case, then it should be spelled out under this feat that "Fighter 8th level" is a requirement for Deadly Stroke, as this prevent people from mistakenly taking up this feat chain.