MinimumMax's page

I will certainly look into the NWPFS site, and reach out to Mr. Smith. I do not know if my nephew would give it a try, but if there are other veterans involved, it might be less intimidating for him. I would love for him to get out of his house and socialize with other vets in a place other than a bar. PFS has done right by me every time I have moved to a new region, so I know how welcoming it can be.
Thanks for the responses and suggestions, Gleaming Terrier, Dorothy Lindman, and Hitokiriweasel. I appreciate it.
I will post an update if anything comes of this effort.

My nephew is a civilian again after ten years in the Army, and lives just south of Seattle. I suspect he is not adjusting as easily as his family had hoped: he is withdrawn, depressed, isolated, and hundreds of miles from any family. He is an avid console gamer with no experience with traditional RPGs. I am posting this with the hopes that there might be some PFS people who are also combat veterans, who could help him out of his shell and become social once more. He might not want to have anything to do with this, but I want to try something. Anyone have suggestions? Thanks.

I love this guide. Your Guide to the Builds is always the first place I send people who want ideas for characters. Thanks for the alchemist guides, and for all your work.

I would hope, HangarFlying, that the wizard would receive less damage than that to wake.

As for where Pathfinder Society Frequently Asked Questions are, Deusvult pasted a link ealier. Here it is, once more:

Pathfinder Society FAQ

Whoa. Good vigorous discussion in progress. Thanks for the opinions, folks.

RedDogMT — I like the training idea for story element, especially the comedy potential of accidental waking.
Deusvult — Your alternate scenario is a great counter, and something to put into play.
Zhangar — Your argument cinches it for me. I will allow the familiar to wake it’s master if this scenario comes up again. Same for the animal companion’s reaction.
Tarantula — Since you agree with Zhangar, I agree with you.

I feel certain this has been addressed somewhere, but I simply cannot find it on the message boards, so please accept my apology if it is.
If a PC is taken out of action by a sleep spell can they be woken by a familiar or animal companion? For example, a wizard is taken out with a sleep spell, and the bad guy then turns her attention to another PC. While the bad guy has her attention focused elsewhere, could the wizard's cat wake him? How about the same scenario for a ranger and her wolf companion?

variant channel wrote:

A character who has the channel energy ability from a class other than cleric may use these variant channeling rules if the class's abilities are tied to serving a deity. For example, paladins can select alternative channeling abilities if they serve a deity, as can oracles with the Life mystery (as they serve many deities), but necromancer wizards cannot.

If you worship a deity, then yes.

Yep. There it is. Thanks for the quote. I read and re-read page 28 of the Ultimate Magic, and somehow just kept missing this one passage. Thank you, dragonhunterq. Thanks everyone for chiming in.

My guess is 'yes,' but it does not appear in the current version of Hero Lab, and they require a clear quote before they make it available in their program. So... anyone?

I could not find a post-test-play discussion, nor could I find a straight yes or no, so I will ask: Can the Warpriest have variant channeling?

To all of you, thanks! Thank you for all these goodies. Thank you for all your creative energies and all your archiving efforts. Thank you for elevating all our games!

Thanks to Vince and congrats to Andy!

What about the speak with animals spell? Should work on those celestial animals just fine right?

Too bad speak with animals isn't on the wizard list.

Or on the summoner's list.

EvilMinion,
I should have clarified that I do intend to take some languages in the future when I gain access to more powerful critters (beyond my current 1st level choices) so that I might give them commands that are more complex. I just did not want to expend my precious skill points on languages I did not have to. Thanks for the idea of the air elemental zapping a swarm! I’m new, so great exploitations like that are still revelations to me.
Mojorat,
Thanks for the spiritual support.
Without a hard and fast ruling, I guess what I should do going forward is have a sidebar with my GMs prior to the start of the session and clarify it with them.
Thanks!

Ah, my first post. I’ve been scouring these boards and others (En World, Giant in the Playground, etc.) for the answer to a particular question, and this thread comes the closest, but there was no final call made from up on high. I hope this is the correct place and thread.
A little background first. I am a newbie. My limited exposure to PF comes only—so far—from PFS, and I have played two characters over six sessions. My character is a Halfling Summoner with an intelligence of 8. This means that I receive just a single skill point per level, and I do not want to use those skill points where I do not have to. My dilemma is that my last session had a GM who said my summoned (celestial template) eagle would not use Smite Evil because I did not speak celestial and could not instruct it to do so. I did not want to bog down the action at the table with a rules discussion, so I went the rest of the scenario with none of my summoned creatures using their smites.
Here is what I do understand:
1. The eagle has an intelligence less than 3, so it cannot communicate, even if my character speaks celestial
2. Summon Monster I states that “it attacks your opponents to the best of its ability.”
As this is PFS, I do not know how the next GM will handle summoned critters and smites, and do not want to waste my precious few skill points learning celestial, abyssal, infernal, aquan, auran, ignan, terran, and so on just to ensure that my critters fight to their best ability. I understand the requirement of language if I am giving them tasks, having them guard a door, and telling them to do more than “kill that!” If there is no official ruling, what else would you good people suggest to plead my case to the next GM?
Thanks!