Michael Foster 989's page

Why is it worth arguing about rules at all?

It is because we all prefer a shared understanding about what is and is not legitimate, we all like to have benchmarks (for different reasons of course), and in the end we all like to have a sense of achievement when we have obtained something within the restrictions and confines of a ruleset.

Why should rebuilds be restricted when the rules change?

Mostly because that is the way in which the shared understanding was built those rules have been around for quite a long time explicitly defining what you can and cannot change in response to errata

The rules for rebuilding due to errata are well known, in what way are these rules any less RAW than the rules in the core rulebook?

I notice some of the people who are for rebuilding seem to be people who follow the rules as written religiously, however for some reason the rules as written with regards to changes to feats/classes due to errata is hard for you to follow, why is this the case?

But my character is completely built around rule X and now I want to be able to completely change him so he can be built around rule Y.

That is not how rebuilding works, the requirements to be eligible for a rebuild and the elements that can be rebuilt have been listed for years (they have not changed since I started playing this game back in season 2)

In summary, yes strictness is important because without it we would not be playing PFS, we would be playing semi interconnected homegames, I already feel bad enough when I have to tell people their character is not legal, I would feel even worse if I had to report a PC as dead for breaching the rebuilding rules. For the very same reasons Finlanderboy wanted to use those feats initially (because they were legal and part of the game system) is the reason why he has to follow the current rebuilding rules now (because they are legal and part of the organised play campaigns rule system), yes it is within Mike Brock's powers to allow people more extensive rebuilds, and yes he has done so in the past but that does not mean that the rules of the campaign are any less rules.

BTW Sorry Finlander for using you as an example but you are the only person I know of on the boards who is actually effected by the rulings.

Quick questions

1. Full speed in full plate or 30 foot move in fullplate? (These are two very different things, the 30foot movement options dont help with haste, flying, tumble checks are impossible still etc).

2. Fleet is limited to light or no armor and thus does not apply at all

For full speed (thus allowing haste to put you at 60feet, and allowing you to make acrobatics checks to tumble in full plate) you have only 2 options, Fighter 4 + Sash of the war champion, or Hellknight 2 plus hellknight plate

For 30 foot move speed in full plate you have a variety of options the easiest is the boots of springing and striding. (Unsanctioned knowledge wont help as Longstrider is not a bard, oracle, cleric or inquisitor spell)

You have to remember as well that a NPC cannot tell what spell you are casting on him as the DC is 15+spell level which means cantrips are DC15 and require you to be trained in spellcraft to even attempt.

Which means from the NPC's perspective, he walks in the room and suddenly the robed guy starts casting a spell, what could it be? sure it could be as harmless as detect magic, but it could also be dominate person, or any number of other harmful spells and as such it could be initiative time (especially in a case where the NPC has something to hide) as I could tell you I would not take it well if someone just started casting in front of me without even telling me what it was (so I could have a sense motive check to see if I think its safe).

So actually I dont think magic use in social situations is anywhere near as common as you believe.

Does not change much in my original statement though, the spell takes a sufficient time to cast that one is unlikely to be casting it in a time critical situation like a battle, so leaving empty slots is the best option for being able to cast these sorts of niche spells when needed.

It is far better to spend your Prestige on things that mean you dont die, than waiting till you die and then spending prestige to fix it.

My favorite purchases are scrolls, wands and vanities.

Things that prevent needing a raise dead

Potion CSW (for the time you get smashed in the surprise round and need to get out of the danger zone on HP)

Blind fighting feat (you are now not flatfooted in darkness or deeper darkness)

Darkvision Potion (you are now not blind in darkness)

Grease Potion (you are now +10 to CMD vs grapples)

Clear Spindle Ioun stones are pretty much a waste of 4k as everyone has them now the monsters have moved away from prepping mind control spells confusion is more common (as it can take out whole groups of PC's) (I have zero PC's with this item and only once has a PC been dominated and that was at level 4 before he could even have afforded this item).

25gp Buy a Silver holy symbol of the deity of your choice and wear it openly now everyone thinks you are a Paladin or Cleric and wont cast as many spells at you. (This also has the side effect of NPC's not immediately targeting the parties cleric as they arent sure which one of you he is until he starts casting spells or channeling).

Scroll of Heal (two DC31 UMD checks but worth it if you can get 25+ UMD easy for a cleric to pass the caster level check though its only DC12 which as a 7th level cleric means you need a 5)

Scroll of Breath of Life (I never buy these as if you are the only one who can use it buying one is pointless but I would use one on a player if they had provided it to me)

The boons provided are tiny, like +1 to diplomacy against a group of people you will likely never meet again which when you use it you cross off the boon.

Honestly if you know what your faction is and what it stands for it is fairly straightforward how to get your faction boon.

For example Qadiran this is the trade faction, meaning that anytime you are introduced to a merchant NPC you should consider it as an opportunity to expand trade relations (yes sometimes it wont be relevant but if you are part of a massive trade consortium you should be doing this at every available opportunity).

All of the faction missions are similar to that you have 1-2 goals for your faction for the whole season, if your PC is a good fit to the faction you will generally get your faction boon without doing anything special just by roleplaying as normal (I have stumbled into every one of my faction boons just by playing my PC's as they were designed) without any knowledge of the faction letters.

The character concept is not impossible though, it just requires a different amount of levels of wizard than before (3 rather than 1).

It was a risk in using a SLA granted by a divine class (which arguably is not even a level 2 SLA) and thinking it would stay arcane in the long term as this was virtually guaranteed to be altered in the future, now that SLA's granted by inherently divine/arcane classes match the classes type it is actually much safer to build a character like this.

I would avoid trickery entirely for Mystic Theurge builds as there is too much chance of not being legal at certain GM's tables due to different definitions of the phrase "Duplicates an existing spell" you could take that to mean exact duplication (which Trickery does not do making it a level 1 SLA) or to reference the spell in its description (that Trickery does do making it a level 2 SLA).

Building characters around grey areas are inherently the problem of the person building the character, there is a massive expanse of possible characters (including early entry prestige classes) such that there is no need to push so far into edge cases in which your whole build could be invalidated by a single disagreement over a definition.

Part 2 of the Gencon special which was only run once at Gen Con Last year

Sitri your problem appears to be a massive amount of entitlement in that you believe you can tell other people how things should happen and that is simply not how organised play works, you will find that people are a lot more easy going if you do not antagonise them every time you type or one would assume say anything.

I have never had an issue with GM's applying circumstance penalties for things my PC is doing that would grate on the NPC's do you know why? because I realise that in the end the guy GMing the scenario is trying to make sure everyone has a good time.

If you are having troubles with the social contract which is that you trust your GM to try and ensure you all have a good time and as such you only call him up on critical mistakes (to improve his GMing), you will find your play experiences will improve significantly as the majority of the friction generated between players and GM's is caused by the players themselves.

Sometimes you will come across a truely adversarial and terrible GM who actually generates issues, but if you just walk when you find them (preferably before the briefing as honestly if they are that bad its not worth sitting through the whole session) and then just never attend tables which that person is running (informing your local VO as to why as if enough people are boycotting his tables he wont be offered the chance to run anymore).

You should not have any problems about people being bullied to play up/down, simply because people do not have a choice, your parties APL and number of players determines your tier in almost every case now.

Which is a good thing, as a simple rule for what tier people should play it makes it fair and even, if you want more difficulty you can always ask the DM for more without needing to make any changes I find taking off the gloves sorts out balance a lot better than playing up ever did.

Its actually only 14d6 assuming the players have done the right things to that point

Meaning 84 maximised + 14d6 * 50% (49/2 = 24.5) = 108.5 which rounds to 108

Core Fighters get armor training 1 at level 3 upping their max dex to +2 and allowing them to benefit from 14 Dex.

In general I would buy the hellknight plate, oil of magic weapon is plenty good enough at lower levels for incorporeal. Also your AC is not insane it is fairly standard for a Tanky sword and board character (you should be eyeing off AC30 by level 5 with no issues).

Also the Amulet of natural armor was not a good choice at your current level, you should get Magical armor first then a ring of deflection (natural armor can be provided by barkskin potions for 30mins a potion).

It limits you to a single attack which reduces the effectiveness of Sneak attack significantly however it should hit every time, SA is 1d6/2 levels (average 3.5) per attack.

A single attack level 11 rogue gets (SA 6d6 average 21) adding in the standard (ST 22, PA +9, +2 weapon, Vital Strike)

you are hitting for 4d6 + 20 + 6d6 average is 55 damage a round

If you get 2 hits without sneak attack you would do 4d6+40 average 54 damage which is identical to your vital striking sneak attack damage.

Improved Feint + Vital strike is worth it if your not in a position to SA (and you can reliably bluff them) as the damage add from SA will generally replace your second attack at mid levels. You could certainly optimize around doing single improved feint hits when you can pull it off.

You should not be expecting another PC to waste X/day resources on your PC when you can use effectively free wands (2PP is very very cheap for a wand).

Just because a cleric can channel to heal you after a trap does not mean it is the best use of the channels that the cleric has (depending on the clerics CHA he might only have a couple of channels a day and thus restricts them to combats where he cannot reach the PCs taking damage)

With regards to spell slots, at low levels there are far more useful spells for a cleric to be casting in level 1 slots than CLW (Protection from evil, bless, shield of faith, remove fear to name but a few).

It is frequently far more efficient to use healing wands (either CLW or IH) because they use what is effectively a near infinite resource specifically designed for consumables (Prestige of which you gain 1-2 per mission).

And yes I would expect the fighter to have ways to become invisible, fly, bulls strength and enlarge if that is what he wants to do, maybe you can cast them on him but maybe your actions that round are better spent on a control spell thus meaning he will have to have a backup plan.

The point being you are pathfinders, and you should have a plan of your own to handle anything that comes up, sometimes another PC will be able to use a resource like spell slots to save you the consumables but that is not a reason not to have the consumable in the first place.

It is a DC 15-20 knowledge planes check, they would get the check automatically on entry or they could deliberately make the check to identify the planar traits of XXX plane prior to entering

From Knowledge skills page in CRB (part of the DC table)

"Recognize current plane Planes 15"

From Gamemastery Guide or (http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/mastery/planarAdventures.html)

"Hell (Lawful Evil)

The nine layers of Hell form a structured labyrinth of calculated evil where torment goes hand in hand with purification. A plane of iron cities, burning wastelands, frozen glaciers, and endless volcanic peaks, Hell is divided into nine nesting layers, each under the malevolent rule of an archdevil. Torture, anguish, and agony are inevitable in Hell, but they are methodical, not spiteful or capricious, and serve a deliberate master plan under the watchful eyes of the disciplined ranks of Hells' lesser devils. The nine layers of Hell, from first to last, are Avernus, Dis, Erebus, Phlegethon, Stygia, Malebolge, Cocytus, Caina, and Nessus.

Hell has the following traits:

Divinely Morphic: Deities with domains in Hell can alter the plane at will.
Strongly Law-Aligned and Strongly Evil-Aligned
Enhanced Magic: Spells and spell-like abilities with the lawful or evil descriptor are enhanced.
Impeded Magic: Spells and spell-like abilities with the chaotic or good descriptor are impeded.

Alignment Traits

Some planes have a predisposition to a certain alignment. Most of the inhabitants of these planes also have the plane's particular alignment, even powerful creatures such as deities. The alignment trait of a plane affects social interactions there. Characters who follow other alignments than most of the inhabitants do may have a tougher time dealing with the plane's natives and situations.

Alignment traits have multiple components. First are the moral (good or evil) and ethical (lawful or chaotic) components; a plane can have a moral component, an ethical component, or one of each. Second, the specific alignment trait indicates whether each moral or ethical component is mildly or strongly evident. Many planes have no alignment traits; these traits are noted in a plane's description only when they are present.

Good-Aligned/Evil-Aligned: These planes have chosen a side in the battle of good versus evil. No plane can be both good-aligned and evil-aligned.

Law-Aligned/Chaos-Aligned: Law versus chaos is the key struggle for these planes and their residents. No plane can be both law-aligned and chaos-aligned.

Neutral-Aligned: These planes stand outside the conflicts between good and evil and law and chaos.

Mildly Aligned: Creatures who have an alignment opposite that of a mildly aligned plane take a –2 circumstance penalty on all Charisma-based checks. A mildly neutral-aligned plane does not apply a circumstance penalty to anyone.

Strongly Aligned: On planes that are strongly aligned, a –2 circumstance penalty applies on all Intelligence-, Wisdom-, and Charisma-based checks made by all creatures not of the plane's alignment. The penalties for the moral and ethical components of the alignment trait stack.

A strongly neutral-aligned plane stands in opposition to all other moral and ethical principles: good, evil, law, and chaos. Such a plane may be more concerned with the balance of the alignments than with accommodating and accepting alternate points of view. In the same fashion as for other strongly aligned planes, strongly neutral-aligned planes apply a –2 circumstance penalty on Intelligence-, Wisdom-, or Charisma-based checks made by any creature that isn't neutral. The penalty is applied twice (once for law/chaos, and once for good/evil), so neutral good, neutral evil, lawful neutral, and chaotic neutral creatures take a –2 penalty and lawful good, chaotic good, chaotic evil, and lawful evil creatures take a –4 penalty."

Also Thistledown your players are also ineligible for the Debt of the Kirin boon as when you filled out the chronicle sheets they did not possess the qualifying boon, you are required to cross it off the sheet, if they later obtain the boon its not retroactive as each chronicle sheet should be completely filled out by the GM on the day it is issued.

Also the Debt of the Kirin boon in FS2 is actually extremely hard to get as written (the boss almost always escapes).

The only boon the new players are eligible for is the standard all factions but lantern lodge boon.

Also they might not be eligible for an EXP point for the scenario as from what I can tell they only completed 2 encounters (wave 1 and Shimazi), you skipped Wave 2 and the optional, so unless there is another encounter listed the players do not actually meet the 3 encounter minimum for EXP.

More accurately, the additional resources, pathfinder guide to organised play, the pathfinder society FAQ's and the compilation of message board clarifications on this board comprise the complete list of the GM's "house rules" for PFS.

Thus if any rules item says it is up to GM discretion check each of those sources and if there is no listing explaining the ruling for PFS we go with strictly what is listed in the book.

Arguably components are consumed at the end of casting a spell as per the following from the magic chapter

"You make all pertinent decisions about a spell (range, target, area, effect, version, and so forth) when the spell comes into effect."

Because spells like Restoration have a variable cost depending on the type of effect (100 gold worth of diamond dust for ability damage but 1000 gold worth for a negative level), the component could only be consumed at the completion of the spells casting time, thus making Restoration and by extension Raise Dead ineligible for Blood Money.

I personally disagree with the general solution proposed by MJM as honestly its not inclusive which is the primary point of PFS, that anyone can just sit down and play without having to worry too much about what the effect is going to be on their character as in the end it should all even out.

With the new system anytime you play below your tier you would be reducing your own ability to play at your own tier and actually end up behind the expected WBL curve for a player of your level (you lose 1k gold in 1-5's by playing down as a level 3-5).

Personally its not going to have as much effect on me as on others, because I GM about twice as much as I play and if I cant find a game for the PC I want to play that week I will just give the gamesday a miss and call up some mates for boardgames and beer.

However it will effect the community as there will be the negative impact when the table is evenly split (ie 5 players evenly spaced from levels 1-5, the lower tiers with both want to play down, the higher tiers will both want to play up, the level 3 would have the final vote, and generally 1 or both of the players who lose the vote will walk due to excessive risk-reward or a yawnfest as a level 4-5 in tier 1-2). The problem just gets bigger at the higher tiers where signups are usually more spread out (due to different leveling speeds), coming to its worst in tier 7-11 in which I have experienced playing up as the only level 7 AND the frontliner in multiple sessions trust me this doesnt work out well without lots of money to pay for the raise dead well unless I want to make a PC capable of soloing tier 7-8 and then have yawnfests unless I play up.

The Ranks arent usually included because PC's only attain the bottom three ranks (private, NCOs effectively), Pathfinders never become commissioned officers in the hellknights (because the split loyalties would become an issue).

I did include the ranks anyway some quick notes on the numbers there is 1 Lictor/Vicarius per order, 2-5 Master of Blades/Paravicar and maybe 10-20 of the lesser commissioned officers per order, Hellknight orders are small groups and their officers would be very noticable

The Hellknight orders possess a complex rank structure;
the most pertinent ranks—from highest in authority to
lowest—are the following.

Lictor: The general of a Hellknight order.

Vicarius: A spell-casting leader of a Hellknight order
(rarely used).

Master/Mistress of Blades: A colonel of a Hellknight
order, equal in rank to a paravicar.

Paravicar: A leader of a Hellknight order’s signifers, equal
in rank to a master of blades.

Paralictor: A high-ranking Hellknight officer, similar in
rank to a major.

Maralictor: A mid-level Hellknight officer, similar in rank
to a lieutenant. Maralictors with titular concerns or
duties—such as arms-maralictor, field-maralictor, or
gate-maralictor—are of lesser rank.

Signifer: A Hellknight spellcaster.
Hellknight: A rank-and-file soldier in a Hellknight order.
Armiger: A Hellknight in training or a Hellknight squire.

Potion of Lesser Restoration 300gp, (removes fatigue) all barbarians should have at least one for emergencies.

Take 1 Oracle level with the lame curse gives you fatigue immunity at level 9, buy scrolls of Lesser restoration (150gp) once you have the oracle level as its now on your spell list you just need to make caster level checks to cast it (your CL1 the spell is CL3 so its not too hard).

Generally the lower level stuff is alot softer than the higher level ones, so you will start to find yourself a little more challenged after about level 5-7 (when starting ability scores make far less difference)

Which basically means you cannot do it, as its referencing the magic item creation rules and pricings (that are explicitly removed for PFS by the guide to organised play). So Advanced Ioun Stones would not be legal

Can people please quit recommending potions of see invisibility, they dont exist see invisibility is a personal only spell and is not eligible to be a potion barring GM fiat.

Pit spells are pretty low DC climb checks, remember its a -5 for climbing in a corner (DC25) or -10 (DC20) for being able to touch two opposite walls (requires a large creature or enlarge potion) for a decent ST monster this check is then pretty easy. Thats for Acid pit (which is a higher level pit spell) for the basic create pit its DC20 if your a medium creature or DC15 if your large.

You will have to track round per level spells (or have someone amongst the PCs who you can trust to do it), You will also need to more roughly keep track of min/level buffs.

Well if you ignore the line at the end of piranha strike that says

"This feat cannot be used in conjunction with the Power Attack feat."

The answer is no it will not squish the monster, the pit is a 10ft x 10ft area and the boat is only 24feet x 8 feet (leaving 2 feet of space and preventing the boat from being wedged into the hole) the weight of the ship would also only be around 300lbs (for a 24foot long wooden rowboat), so the creature would displace the ship to one side to have enough space to exit as they come up out of the ground (my paladin weighs more than 300lbs with his gear on).

Its a good idea but functionally doesnt work as the boats weight is insufficient, plus its not wedged in the hole, if it was wedged it would come down to a ST check to move it and then if that failed to who could take the most damage the person or the boat as both would take equal damage until the obstacle breaks note not get destroyed as even the broken condition (half hp for the boat) would fracture it enough to render it useless as an obstacle.

I am fine with dump stats as long as people understand that I am not going to pay to help them come back from the dead if their decision gets them killed

So if your 5 con, 5 St, 5 cha, 5 wis etc gets you killed for whatever reason (shadows, ghosts, wisdom damage poisons, con poisons, low hp etc), then your on your own with regards to raise dead or in some cases resurrection costs (shadow ST drain means you die and rise as a shadow making your body unsuitable for raise dead).

It would technically not work, because they both edit the same class feature, similar to the reason crossblooded doesnt work with alot of other archtypes.

An obvious way to see the flaw in the two archtypes presented is below

Oath of Vengeance paladin adds spells and then warrior of holy light removes them (seems fine from this way)

Warrior of Holy light removes spellcasting and Oath of Vengeance Paladin tries to add spells (obviously doesnt work).

If the archtypes must be taken in a specific order to be legal, then obviously they arent legal as they must be modifing the same class feature.

I remember my PFS wizard spends whole combats sometimes readying to acid arrow other casters when they cast spells.

Both of those are listed as very difficult mods and they live up to thier reputation (My PC returned from Rats 2 in a bucket which was amusing as hell and is still a favorite story among players in my region), the scale of difficulty however is extremely difficult to judge as whats hard for 1 party is a walkover for a completely different one.

Getting 0 PA is not the end of the world, some days the PC's win and some they lose, the fun is in how you get there

The other choice is rather than considering "cutting" any part of the story perhaps you should consider timing combat better?

4 combats per scenario

6 players + 1 GM per combat round

6 rounds of combat per battle

1 minute each to act

Total time taken for 4 combats 168 mins this leaves 1hr and 12 minutes of a 4hr slot or more than 2hrs in a 5hr slot (my preference is for 5hr slots) for roleplaying assuming your fights all average 6 rounds in length which is on the high side for the early combats and possibly a shade on the low side for the boss fights.

Note that if you allow the average length of a persons round to go up by even such a small amount as 15 seconds the increase to time taken is huge (an extra 42 minutes over the length of the mod).

The biggest issue I see with people complaining there is not enough time is that they allow combats to drag out too long, combat is and will always be the most time consuming section of a scenario but if you can save even 20% of the time you spend right now on combat you can directly apply all that time to roleplaying, thus filling the needs of all your players without making any compromises.

As a GM I only care about one thing with regards to this and thats simply can I figure out what this does from a legitimate looking source right here and right now at this table, if I dont already know what it does.

This means to me

1. A hard copy book possessed by anyone at the table (or easily accessible if its not here right now as in under 2 minutes to get it here and on the right page for the rule)

2. A PDF on someones Ipad, phone, or other electronic device (please make sure you charge it before coming to the event).

3. A print out from the PDF, or a photocopy of the relevant textbook pages.

If I have any one of these things im happy to let the player use their ability because I know what it does and thats all that really matters at the table, if you cant satisfy any of the 3 criterion above then if I dont know what it does personally (an example is clear spindle ioun stones, pretty much everyone in my area knows what they do and as they are no longer core assumption I wont suddenly be requiring people to bring in their copies of seeker of secrets all the time as I know what it does), I wont allow you to use it right now, later on if you have the source with you im more than willing to allow you to use it.

Maybe im not as harsh as I could be but remember everyone plays for fun, and diminishing peoples fun for no purpose other than to be "right" isnt the point of playing a game.

oh and btw he CAN hit incorporeals even as a standard tarrasque because he has DR/epic his weapons count as +6.

"A few very powerful monsters are vulnerable only to epic weapons—that is, magic weapons with at least a +6 enhancement bonus. Such creatures' natural weapons are also treated as epic weapons for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction."

Enlarge person negates the reach advantage of flyby attack, and allows the enlarged PC 2 attacks vs the air elemental each round (1 ready and 1 AOO) compared to the air elementals 1 slam (flyby attack is not spring attack you are not protected from AOOs while moving).

If a 50gp potion can make the battle pretty even, its technically a fair fight for PC's of that level.

Preparation makes a big difference in a parties ability to combat certain creatures, yes spending money on consumables does slow the rate you can get that next +1 but dying slows it even further.

If your a damage dealer you need to be able to reliably deal damage to a variety of creatures (including ones with DR 10/- and immunity to crits/sneak attacks).

oh a thread I can finally post this in

"I do not think that word means what you think it means"

1. During the session yes with just paying the scribing cost and it would go on the chronicle and be signed off by the GM this can only be done once and the scroll is then rendered useless for the scenario, after the session you would have to buy the scroll and then scribe it.

2. No, Scribing a scroll discharges the magic and thus would render the scroll useless for later purposes. You would still need to pay the scribing costs to scribe in addition to the scroll cost

3. Yes, PCs can copy from each others spellbooks, you must still pay the normal scribing cost (as thats the cost for Ink etc), You should have this recorded on your chronicle and signed off by your GM.

Important things

Scribing cost is essential for any form of scribing as it represents the costs of ink required to successfully put the spell in your book.

There is a book access fee (usually half scribing cost) that PC's cant charge you, NPCs wont charge you as they charge scroll cost instead (substantially more), and you dont pay for captured spellbooks or scrolls during a scenario (as long as you get the GM to record the scribing during the scenario).

Yes, the only differences between rend and a normal attack is that rend is an autohit if you hit with X number of claws, otherwise its an auto miss, it cannot critical (as you never roll to hit).

DR, penalties to damage apply just as power attack would apply to its bonus

The archtype restricts you to the animal companion "bird" not any flying bird like animal companion that would normally be legal for a 1st level druid.

Relevant rules section

"This ability functions like the druid animal companion ability (which is part of the nature bond class feature), but the falconer must take the bird animal companion,"

note the bird animal companion has specific rules not associated with the Roc in anyway so the Roc is not a legal companion for a Falconer ranger (and the player should know this).

Technically optimisation-wise you give up nothing as a wildcaller as the strongest Eidolon builds dont actually use any of the evolutions blocked by the archtype. Thus its stronger than a Vanilla summoner, the SNA SLA doesnt actually come into it much as raw summoners and wild callers will rarely use their summoning SLA's, the biggest thing was people could frontload their eidolons alot earlier with wildcaller and halfelf (especially combined) giving them a large amount of levels in which they could trivialise encounters till they reach the 7-11 tiers when eidolons and ACs have a harder time due to the NPCs having access to options that can actually be effective against such creatures.

I have lots of feats and items that arent used on my current high level character (rogue 8/ranger 2) I have Martial Weapon Prof (longsword) (invalidated by ranger), weapon focus (longsword) (but I use greatswords now), and a +1 mithril heavy shield and +1 longsword. Also has Major Magic (Enlarge) which after some consideration isnt worth it for him and I would definately not pick in retrospect.

Would I rebuild him if I had a chance? probably not, as he earned each of those abilities and items for a reason and then moved away from them because at higher levels he needed different options to continue to provide an adequate amount to the team.

You do not need every feat and ability to be in a 100% optimal place to be effective, yes you can be more effective if you place your feats/gold in very specific areas but then you also become very 1 dimensional

At my game yesterday we had a Tengu Arcane Duelist, A Tiefling Paladin on an Axebeak, an Elven Ranger (who excelled at hunting humans) on an Axebeak and a Human druid with a Tiger pet.

Was it 'disappointing'?
Hell no, it was awesome.

So, for me, the decision to restrict race boons does not stem from game mechanics worries, but from the human focus on Golarion. The world setting believability doesn't support PFS parties consisting primarily of strange and exotic creatures. Even the books don't! I still don't know the weight tables of a Tengu. Can someone point me in the right direction?

Dragon Empires Gazetter Page 8 contains the ages/weights of all the humaniod tien races

65lbs with a variance of 2d6 for male tengu (assuming I can read the table correctly that variance might just apply to height but I assume its for both) Weight multiplier is x3 if you know what that means (I honestly only make humans so I never looked at those charts before)

I hardly think a Paladin would go on a quest with an imp that doesnt meet the "but only to defeat what she believes to be a greater evil" because honestly if you as a Paladin dont believe the quest is important why are you even going on it?

Yes atonement would be required for consistant association (such as multiple scenarios in a row) although the ambiguity on time spent between missions could mean you can consider each scenario seperated by sufficient time that the association is merely casual rather than a home games enforced consistancy.

Pretty much CL4 is attainable using 2 feats and 1 trait

Gifted Adept (shocking grasp) CL+1 with shocking grasp
Spell focus (evocation)
Spell Specialisation (shacking grasp) CL+2 with shocking grasp

which is exactly CL4 with shocking grasp

The reason CL5 requires wizard and PFS is because scribe scroll is switched to spell focus for free in PFS

meaning a wizard can get

Gifted Adept (shocking grasp) CL+1 with shocking grasp
Spell focus (evocation)
Spell Specialisation (shacking grasp) CL+2 with shocking grasp
Varisian Tatoo (Evocation) +1 CL to all evocation spells

Which is CL5 shocking grasp, CL2 evocation, and CL1 everything else.

note none of these feats say they dont stack, none of these feats are capped at CL=HD meaning you cant complain about the order in which they stack, Like I said optimising blasting is all about selecting the level in which you want to shine, and then selecting your feats and traits to take advantage of this.

Using similar methods one could have CL10 fireball at level 5 as a wizard or CL10 fireballs at level 6 as a sorcerer