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Hi all.

I have a character who is using a Nightmare Rune on his weapon, and I realised I couldn't see a duration on one of the critical hit effects.

Nightmare Item 9

This Item may contain spoilers from the Seven Dooms for Sandpoint Adventure Path

Legacy Content
Uncommon Enchantment Magical
Source Pathfinder #200: Seven Dooms for Sandpoint pg. 185
Price 250 gp
Usage etched onto a weapon
Bulk —

A nightmare rune creates minor phantasmal alterations to a weapon's appearance so that those who look upon it see subtle reminders of their deepest fears. An arachnophobe might interpret the cross guard of a nightmare longsword to look like curving, twitching spider legs, for example, while someone who's afraid of sickness might see a nightmare club as a diseased length of bone crawling with flies. These images are all in the mind of the observer, but they also infuse the weapon with additional power. When you hit with a nightmare weapon, add 1d6 mental damage to the damage dealt. In addition, on a critical hit, the target becomes stupefied 1 by overwhelming visions in their mind of personal horrors that linger. If you critically hit a creature that's already stupefied, it becomes frightened 2 as well. These critical hit effects have the emotion, fear, and mental traits.

Activate 10 minutes (envision, Interact); Frequency once per day; Effect The nightmare weapon casts nightmare to your specifications.

In the section on conditions it says:

Conditions are persistent. Whenever you're affected by a condition, its effects last until the condition's stated duration ends, the condition is removed, or terms dictated in the condition itself cause it to end.

It's from an Adventure path so it probably just didn't get vetted as thoroughly as it should have been, but obviously a permanent Stupified coming from a 250gp weapon rune seems a bit overpowered. Does anyone have any thoughts on how long this should last?

I'm actually not Too worried about the Stupified condition itself but I've built my character around making use of the Frightened condition and this seemed like a good way to potentially keep a tough enemy Frightened if I can land a second crit (I'm a Rogue with the DREAD STRIKER feat and I have a DREAD RUNE on my armour). Stupified is of course a good condition to add as well, but for me I'm wondering how long the "if you crit they're Frightened 2" condition lasts.

If there isn't a rule, what would you think is reasonable? Number of rounds equal to the number of damage dice? Or weapon potency rune? 1 minute? Until combat ends? Forever until you find a healer? I dunno, just thought I'd see what people think (unless I'm missing something and there is a rule that I've missed).

Hiya gang. We're due to start a new high level campaign in a couple of weeks - PREY FOR DEATH (L14 - L17 Assassins campaign - NO SPOILERS) - and I'm helping one of the other guys build a Battle Harbinger.

The first part (which might be a rules question I guess, but I'm pretty sure the answer is "No" so we can move on) is whether there's an in-class way to cast your Battle Auras using less than 2 actions? I haven't played Cleric that much, but I couldn't see anything obvious for this.

Now assuming there isn't a way to do that, are there any other ways to 1-action cast your auras? There seem to be a bunch of feats and things that let the Harbinger sustain 2 Auras. While that's cool the idea of spending 4 actions to buff up before you really start fighting seems like it's probably not the best, and so not worth investing in those feats. But if there is a way (or I just missed something super obvious) then that would be a pretty amazing thing to aim for.

Any thoughts?

Hi everyone.

I was looking at poison for an upcoming game and I had a question. Here is the poison:

Alchemical, Consumable, Inhaled, Poison, Virulent

Source Prey for Death pg. 103
Price 200 gp
Usage held in 1 hand; Bulk L
Activate [one-action] (manipulate)
To prevent one of their victims from being brought back to life, Red Mantis assassins often poison targets with the breath of the mantis god. After a creature is poisoned by this concoction, internal hemorrhaging frequently results in blood issuing from the creature's mouth—a condition referred to by the assassins as having “the breath of the mantis god.” While a creature can attempt to recover normally from the persistent bleed damage caused by breath of the mantis god, the persistent bleed damage will return if the poison's duration is still ongoing. If a creature dies from the poison's effects, the toxin lingers tenaciously in the creature's flesh for 1 year. During this time, if an attempt is made to bring such a slain creature back to life that doesn't create a new body for the deceased (such as with a 7th-rank resurrect ritual), the lingering effects of breath of the mantis god attempts to counteract the resurrection (counteract modifier +17, counteract rank 5). A spell like extract poison can be used to decontaminate a corpse for easier resurrection, but simpler magic such as cleanse cuisine cannot. A 5th-rank or higher cleanse affliction can also attempt to counteract lingering breath of the mantis god.

Saving Throw DC 29 Fortitude; Maximum Duration 6 minutes; Stage 1 3d6 persistent bleed and drained 1 (1 minute); Stage 2 3d8 persistent bleed and drained 1 (1 minute); Stage 3 3d10 persistent bleed and drained 2 (1 minute)

So the part that I'm asking about is the bold sentence I highlighted: "While a creature can attempt to recover normally from the persistent bleed damage caused by breath of the mantis god, the persistent bleed damage will return if the poison's duration is still ongoing."

My initial reading was: If an enemy makes their flat check to end the bleed it would come back the following round since the poison is still ongoing. That would mean that there is no real point to rolling those flat-checks since they wouldn't really do anything until the Poison itself is cured.

However I can also see that it could mean the bleed returns the next time you progress to a new stage of the poison (either moving to a more severe stage or a less severe one). The duration of each stage is 1 minute, so if this interpretation is correct then an enemy who makes their save on round 1 of the poison has 9 rounds without bleed, but it will return again if they fail their next save against the poison at the 1 minute mark.

Is there a clarification for this somewhere? Or if not, a general consensus?

Hi everyone. We're playing Quest for the Frozen Flame (no spoilers please), we're a 5 person party at level 5, and in our last session the player of the party Rogue expressed some dissatisfacton with his class. We're playing with the Ancestral Paragon and Free Archetype rules if that makes a difference.

TLDR: What can we do to boost the Rogue in our party to help the player feel like he's contributing more?

The party consists of a Sorcerer with the Cavalier archetype (can't remember the bloodline, but arcane casting), a Flame Oracle (can't remember the archetype), a melee Precision Ranger (can't remember the archetype), a melee Fighter with the Druid archetype (Wild-Shape) and a Thief-Rogue with the Horizon Walker archetype.

Now generally we've been playing pretty well and I think everyone's been having fun, including the Rogue, until very recently. The problem seems to be that A) The Rogue is feeling out-classed in damage, and B) They feel fragile as well.

Part of this is because we've only found 1 Striking Rune so far and we gave it to the Ranger. The Rogue has Sneak Attack and my Fighter can Wild-Shape for damage, so the Ranger seemed like they'd need it most and get more benefit out of it.

Part of it is the damage numbers seen. At level 5 the Precision Ranger is hitting for ~22 damage and critting for ~50 on that first swing, and is fairly self sufficient (animal companion debuff plus 1 big hit looks amazing in those dice rolls). My Fighter is doing comparable damage to the Rogue when I'm Wild-Shaped damage on a hit, but I crit all the time, and I've taken debuff feats so my 2nd/3rd attacks are even more likely to hit. The Rogue is also the only martial PC without an AoO reaction, meaning the other 2 front-line PCs are making more attacks at our full bonuses. The casters are also able to dish out huge damage, and when we're Hexploring they can pretty much just blast all their biggest spells every combat and get them back before the next one. Meanwhile the Rogue is dealing ok damage once per round and putting herself in harm's way doing it ...

Part of it is the survivability. The Ranger and Fighter seem a bit tankier, and the casters tend to stand in the back, while the Rogue has to get into the frey. I don't know the exact stats of the other PCs, but my Fighter is the only party member with heavy armour so my AC is +1, and I have 16 CON and the Toughness feat, so I imagine my ability to stand and fight is noticeably higher than the Rogue's, and the Ranger probably at least has higher HP. Also, we had a faulty in-game armour so the Ranger was accidentally cheating with +2 AC for a while (genuine accident, the GM accidently put in a set of armour with a higher DEX-cap than it should have been), so he's probably been looking tankier than he should have until recently.

We've also had a couple of very difficult single-target encounters recently where the Rogue got smacked around a bit. There was one encounter with a high level optional challenge boss who happened to have multiple AoO Reactions per round to punish PCs for moving, which we found out when the Rogue moved in and triggered an AoO, then moved out and triggered another AoO on the same turn.

And part of it seems to be the player's tactics. I think the player feels that the PC is too squishy, so his go-to tactic is a sping-attack (move-attack-move), meaning that A) He only gets 1 attack per turn, and B) that the "Agile" property on his weapon is completely wasted.

Speaking of weapons, we started the game using pre-Remaster rules, but have since switched to the Remaster. The player only expressed feeling underpowered at the end of last session so I've only just started looking at this, but one big change to the Rogue is weapon proficiency, and I'm 100% sure the GM would allow the player to upgrade to a bigger weapon if he wants to (there are d8 damage martial Finesse weapons that wouldn't have been an option when we created these characters). I'm also fairly sure when we get another Striking Rune it won't feel as bad (I'll definitely give the next one to the Rogue, my Fighter can't benefit from Striking Runes while Wild-shaped).

So long story short I'm asking what we can do to help the Rogue feel like they're contributing to combats more? This could be tactical advice for the Rogue, tactical advice for my Fighter (or the other PCs, but my agency will be limited), potentially useful feats, spells or items to look for on the Rogue, weapons ... whatever you think might help would be appreciated.

Hi all.

I've just started planning a character for the Quest for the Frozen Flame adventure path (no spoilers please), and my first thought is either a Monk or a Fighter taking the Druid archetype to get Wild Shape. I'm leaning toward Monk but obviously I see the benefits of Fighter. I had a couple of questions, but I'm sure I'll have more questions about this character so I figured I'd just make this a general advice thread for this character if that's ok with everyone.

So my first question (which I think has been answered but i waited to check) is about Wild Shape and DEX builds. I can use either the listed number or "my unarmed attack bonus", would this allow me to make a DEX-build and use that bonus for claw/bite/whatever attacks?

The second question is about what attacks can be made in animal form. Is there any way to use Flurry with claws/etc? What about Attack of Opportunity if I went with Fighter?

Totally fine if they don't work, I just thought it'd be interesting if they did and it can't hurt to check.

Hiya gang.

I'm playing a high level Bloodrager (with some dips), but for story reasons I'd like to add VANISH or INVISIBILITY (or Greater Invisibility) to my spell list - preferably adding straight to my list so that I can cast as a free action using Greater Bloodrage.

If I can't add them to my spell list, Are there any classes that give Invisibility as a Swift Action within the first 4 levels?

I've found the NINJA with Vanishing Trick, which would give me Vanish for 2 rounds 5/day with a 2-level dip. Ninja doesn't exactly fit my giant aberrant berserker thematically, but if necessary I'm totally fine reflavouring it as more innate magic (it's really no different to my spell-list). Are there any others classes that get something similar?

For reference, we're playing Iron Gods and my character Remus is a Half-Orc from the GHOST WOLF Tribe, who notably use Invisibility to combat the Technic League, since Invisibility renders you immune to Lasers. I absolutely don't need this from a power perspective, but I think it'd be thematically fitting. Also I've already dipped 3 levels out of Bloodrager (Bloodrager-13 / Brawler-1 / Fighter-1 / Oracle-1), so I'm not going to get a capstone anyway, and I've already taken the Bloodline Feats and Powers I care about.

Hey, so I have a question about the Mirror Implement for the Thaumaturge that I don't think I've seen asked. First up, here's the Mirror:

So here are my questions:

1. Is there anything to stop you using your Mirror Implement 3 times in 1 round? (I couldn't see anything, but maybe I missed a detail)

2. Assuming you can spam it, what happens? Are you locked in at 2 Thaumaturges (1 original and 1 image) or can you end up with more than 2 Thaumaturges on the field (eg. If I use all 3 actions to create duplicates do I now occupy 4 separate spaces)?

Forgive me if this is obvious, I couodn't find a preexisting thread on this and I can't quite remember the rules.

Can you use Dimensional Agility/Assault/Dervish with the Phase Step spell instead of Dimension Door?

I ask because Phase Step is a lower level spell, but it has the text: "This otherwise functions as the spell dimension door, except ..."

PHASE STEP (below Dimension Door)

DIMENSIONAL AGILITY, DIMENSIONAL ASSAULT, DIMENSIONAL DERVISH

Hey all. I'm not really familar with the Polymorph rules, and last night the Wizard cast POLYMORPH ANY OBJECT on the BBEG (a Human caster of some kind) and turned him into a puppet. Because this spell references other spells, and some of those spells reference other spells we decided it would take too long to fully research and we ended the session so we can decide between sessions how it works (we were at the cut-off anyway).

The BBEG failed a single Fort-save, and we couldn't work out if a second save was required (as would be the case with Baleful Polymorph) and some of the spells referenced had the Harmless trait. We also weren't sure if the BBEG becomes an intelligent and/or animated puppet or just an object.

For those more familiar with this spell in particular or the polymorph rules in general, what should happen here?

TLDR: What happens when you offensively cast Polymorph Any Object on a Human enemy to turn them into a puppet?

Hi all.

So our party just hit level 5, and the GM decided to give us a free archetype. The party consists of an Investigator with the Rogue archetype (me), a Barbarian with the Beastmaster archetype (I think, he has a pet wolf), a Swashbuckler who's archetype I don't know (he seems happy with it though), a Warpriest Cleric who's been away since level 4 (so no archetype yet) and a Witch.

The player who plays the Witch missed the memo and hasn't found an archetype yet. We're only using the CRB and APG (we're using Fantasy Grounds and those are the ones we have), does anyone have any recommendations for an archetype for a Witch?

He found the Summoner archetype and liked it, but it's in a book we don't have and we don't really have $70 to drop of a new book for FG. If there's something similar (either mechanically or thematically) that'd be perfect, but any advice is welcome.

Heya.

I've been getting into Darkest Dungeon lately, and I thought it might be fun to see how people would make THE HEROES as Pathfinder characters.

There's no real rules or anything to this, if you want to mechanically match them as closely as possible or just try something aesthetically or thematically similar then whatever floats your boat.

Here are the heroes, and I'll try to think of a guess as to which class each hero might be easily compared to (although obviously I'm here to see what other people think, so my class-guess is just to give an impression for those who don't know them).

So my first character to convert is the Graverobber. I recently came across the GRAVEDIGGER archetype for the Investigator class (Investigator/Occultist hybrid archetype), and it made me think of the Graverobber in Darkest Dungeon. Honestly it's not a particularly close match mechanically, but thematically it would fit perfectly in a game like Darkest Dungeon and it made me think of the Graverobber ... probably because of the name, but using a pick and/or shovel as a weapon also helps the connection. This was kind-of the reason I started thinking of how people would make DD characters in PF, so even though it's not actually a great match it got me thinking.

So what do people think? How would you build a character if you were asked to play someone based off one of them? (And again, it can be as mechanically and/or thematically different as you like, as long as you can argue why it's that character.)

TLDR: How would you build a Darkest Dungeon hero as a Pathfinder Character?

TLDR: What abilities can/cannot be used with the Mortal Usher's "Reaping Strike" ability?

So I've never looked that deeply into the nuances of Spell Like and Supernatural abilities. Whenever I need to answer a question I look it up and the answer is usually somewhere on the forums. For SLAs in particular the answer is almost always "Treat it like it's a spell".

But I had a character build for our Carrion Crown game (currently on hiatus) that had some specific abilities, and I'm not 100% sure what the ruling is.

So I'm playing an OCCULTIST, and planning on moving into the Mortal Usher prestige class. I'm wondering how some of these abilities interact, first of all ...

At 1st level, whenever a mortal usher deals hit point damage by using the attack action, casting a spell that targets only a single creature, or throwing an alchemical item as a standard action (including an alchemist’s bombs), he deals an additional 1d6 points of damage to the target, plus an additional 1d6 points of damage for every 2 additional class levels he has beyond 1st. This damage is positive energy damage if the target is undead, or negative energy damage if the target is living; creatures that are neither living nor dead, such as constructs, are unaffected by this ability.

So generally this abilitiy is designed to enhance Standard Action attacks that target a single enemy. However it only calls out Attack Actions, Spells and Alchemical Items, not Spell Like or Supernatural abilities.

Here are a couple of examples that I'll probably be using ...

The TELEKINETIC MASTERY (SP) ability grants me the Telekinesis spell, but as a Spell Like Ability.

Violent Thrust: Alternatively, the spell energy can be spent in a single round. You can hurl one object or creature per caster level (maximum 15) that are within range and all within 10 feet of each other toward any target within 10 feet per level of all the objects. You can hurl up to a total weight of 25 pounds per caster level (maximum 375 pounds at 15th level).

You must succeed on attack rolls (one per creature or object thrown) to hit the target with the items, using your base attack bonus + your Intelligence modifier (if a wizard) or Charisma modifier (if a sorcerer). Weapons cause standard damage (with no Strength bonus; note that arrows or bolts deal damage as daggers of their size when used in this manner). Other objects cause damage ranging from 1 point per 25 pounds (for less dangerous objects) to 1d6 points of damage per 25 pounds (for hard, dense objects). Objects and creatures that miss their target land in a square adjacent to the target.

So as a spell this would fire 9-15 objects at the enemy. This obviously would NOT trigger 9-15 instances of Reaping Strike, but it would trigger 1. Would it also work with a Spell Like Ability? I originally thought "No" since it doesn't say it does, but I've seen a lot of "SLAs are like spells" lately on the boards.

Next up, what about a Supernatural Ability? I'm playing a HAUNT COLLECTOR, who gets acces to the Medium's Haunt Channeler (Su) ability (called "Hauntist (Su)" for my archetype).

At 3rd level, a medium can use his familiarity with spirits to assist him when dealing with haunts. He can always act on the surprise round against a haunt, and his touch funnels a portion of the haunt into himself, dealing 1d6 points of damage to the haunt per 2 medium levels he possesses as if via positive energy and allowing the medium to ask the haunt a single question. The haunt can answer the question however it chooses. Additionally, the medium can forgo his saving throw against a haunt’s effects to funnel the haunt entirely into himself. If he does so, the medium suffers the haunt’s full effect, but the haunt doesn’t affect anyone else (even if it normally would). The haunt then gains control of the medium’s body for 24 hours. Once per minute, the medium can attempt to end this possession early by succeeding at a Will save (DC = 20 + 1/2 the medium’s class level).

Does this get the bonus from Reaping Strike?

This will help me directly with my character, but it will also probably help me understand the relationship between SLAs, SuAs and Spells generally.

(PS: I tend to spend a lot of my time editing my posts with bold, italics, LINKS, etc. Does this make things easier for everyone or am I wasting my time - or worse am I making life harder with all the info on the page? I just thought I'd check and see if anyone has any feedback after ~5 years of posting =P )

Hi all, this is my first thread (first post?) on the PF2 forum.

Does a throwing knife retain it's poison on a miss?

We're trying out PF2 and I'm playing a Toxicologist Alchemist who uses knives (he's a chef).

I know for melee weapons you retain the poison on a miss, but lose it on a critical miss. My understanding for ranged weapons with ammunition that if you miss your ammunition is destroyed, so whether the poison stays is irrelevant. How does this work for a thrown weapon?

I've had a bit of a look around and it seems like they use the same rules as melee weapons (poison stays on a miss, but is consumed on a critical miss), but my google-fu isn't that great for PF2.

Thanks.

So we had an argument in ANOTHER THREAD about how Bull Rush works - specifically the part where you move with your target as you Bull Rush them.

For this thread, let's assume our PC is a Human with 30 feet of movement. We'll also assume you beat the CMD of your target to by 100, allowing you to move as far as your movement would allow.

1. If you use a Standard Action to Bull Rush your Target how far can you move with them?
1.a) What Actions do you have left in your round?

2. What if you're staggered or in a Surprise Round?

3. What if you move before Bull Rushing the target?

4. What if you use a Move Action that isn't movement before Bull Rushing the target?

5. What if you 5-Foot-Step before Bull Rushing your opponent?

6. What if instead of using a Standard Action to Bull Rush you do it as part of a Charge?
6.a) Does this change any of the previous answers?

(Don't feel like you have to provide 6 answers, if you can answer it all in 1 sentence that's fine ... Impressive, but fine)

For reference:

Source PRPG Core Rulebook pg. 199

You can make a bull rush as a standard action or as part of a charge, in place of the melee attack. You can only bull rush an opponent who is no more than one size category larger than you. A bull rush attempts to push an opponent straight back without doing any harm. If you do not have the Improved Bull Rush feat, or a similar ability, initiating a bull rush provokes an attack of opportunity from the target of your maneuver.

If your attack is successful, your target is pushed back 5 feet. For every 5 by which your attack exceeds your opponent’s CMD you can push the target back an additional 5 feet. You can move with the target if you wish but you must have the available movement to do so. If your attack fails, your movement ends in front of the target.

An enemy being moved by a bull rush does not provoke an attack of opportunity because of the movement unless you possess the Greater Bull Rush feat. You cannot bull rush a creature into a square that is occupied by a solid object or obstacle. If there is another creature in the way of your bull rush, you must immediately make a combat maneuver check to bull rush that creature. You take a –4 penalty on this check for each creature being pushed beyond the first. If you are successful, you can continue to push the creatures a distance equal to the lesser result. For example, if a fighter bull rushes a goblin for a total of 15 feet, but there is another goblin 5 feet behind the first, he must make another combat maneuver check against the second goblin after having pushed the first 5 feet. If his check reveals that he can push the second goblin a total of 20 feet, he can continue to push both goblins another 10 feet (since the first goblin will have moved a total of 15 feet).

So here's the situation.

We walked into a room with some baddies. The Wizard cast Black Tentacles and caught 3 of them, then the Bard cast Wall of Sound (a 5 foot radius ring) catching all 3. Because they were grappled they couldn't move, which meant we guessed at some stuff ...

1st question: Do they take damage instantly? We assumed yes based on the text about evoking the wall on creatures, so each creature took 2d4+12 damage. I'm pretty sure we got this right.

2nd question: Does each creature also trigger a blast of sound that deals damage (another 2d4) to anyone nearby? We assumed no and that this was already taken into account by the +12. I think this was wrong but it was more important to move along so I said I'd check later (which I'm doing now).

3rd question: What happens to a creature that begins it's turn in the wall and leaves? Do they take damage again for passing through or was that already dealt when the wall was cast on them? We assumed no, they already took damage that round and wouldn't take it again until the caster's turn unless they go to pass through again.

4th question: What happens to a creature who stays in the wall and doesn't leave? Do they take damage again on their turn? On the caster's? We assumed they took damage again on the caster's turn if they stay put. I think that's correct.

Hi.

THIS THREAD exploded into an argument about whether FCB is a class feature or not. Since it's completely irrelevant to the OP's question (and since I inadvertantly started the argument) I decided I should try to remedy the situation by creating a new thread for the argument to continue here.

So, is FCB a class feature? Why/why not?

TLDR: Does a magic cloak have more HP than a mundane one?

OK people, I need your help.

In tonights session I did something reeaally stupid.

We're toward the end of book 4 of Iron Gods, and we just breezed through some pretty "tough" combats. We had about 3 encounters without taking any damage whatsoever. I mean I was smack-talking the GM about how we were going to kill his boss-monster in 1 round, and then I did ~230 damage in round 1 (which didn't quite kill it but oh well).

So we're exploring the last room in the dungeon and we're attacked by some swarms. No biggie, we have a wizard and I'm wearing a Swarmbame Clasp. I start goading the Gunslinger/Cleric into using his fire spells (Fire Domain) since I've never made use of Blood Sanctuary and I'm wearing a Ring of Fire Resistance (I need a 2+ to save vs his Burning Hands). He gives in and hits the swarms and me with 20 points of fire damage.

Natural 1 on my Reflex save.

Thanks to my Ring of Fire Resistance I take only 10 points of damage - again no biggie, I have a lot of HP.

But then after the session I remember that Nat-1's on saves have special effects, so I message the GM and ask him to roll a d4 ...

Automatic Failures and Successes: A natural 1 (the d20 comes up 1) on a saving throw is always a failure, and the spell may cause damage to exposed items (see Items Surviving after a Saving Throw, below). A natural 20 (the d20 comes up 20) is always a success.

...
Items Surviving after a Saving Throw: Unless the descriptive text for the spell specifies otherwise, all items carried or worn by a creature are assumed to survive a magical attack. If a creature rolls a natural 1 on its saving throw against the effect, however, an exposed item is harmed (if the attack can harm objects). Refer to Table 9–2: Items Affected by Magical Attacks. Determine which four objects carried or worn by the creature are most likely to be affected and roll randomly among them. The randomly determined item must make a saving throw against the attack form and take whatever damage the attack dealt. If the selected item is not carried or worn and is not magical, it does not get a saving throw. It simply is dealt the appropriate damage.

So I asked my GM to roll a d4 and gave him a list: 1-Armour, 2-Weapon, 3-Headband, 4-Cloak.

He rolls a 4.

That's my 24,000gp CLOAK OF DISPLACEMENT. The problem is that Cloth has 0 Hardness and 2HP per inch of thickness. And as far as I can tell being a hugely expensive magic item doesn't help this at all unless it's a weapon or armour.

So the attack did 20 fire damage. The Ring of Fire Resistance reduced it to 10 damage. Objects take half damage, so that reduces it to 5 damage, and saving against the spell would halve it again to 2 damage ... which is still just enough to completely destroy the most expensive thing I own -_-

Have I got anything wrong here? Do magic items increase in Hardness and HP? Is there a way for this save to avoid the damage entirely?

To be clear, my allies didn't want to shoot me, I completely goaded them into it. The GM isn't forcing this rule on me (we've never really use it before, I just remembered it and thought it'd be a fun detail to see my armour get singed), I asked for it and got what I deserved =P

Hi, my Bloodrager is probably going to end our campaign with the ability to get to ~38 STR while Large and he has Ant Haul. Just for fun I was looking at what he could lift/drag (~65 tonnes I think), but then I couldn't find how fast he can drag things.

How fast can you drag things that are too heavy to lift?

I just did a bit of searching and couldn't find this info on the web resources or on the forums. Am I missing something or is this something not in the rules?

CARRYING CAPACITY

Hey all, my GM just dropped a ROBE OF ARCANE HERITAGE on the party, and has ruled that it does work with a Bloodrager (which is sometimes contentious). The problem is, I'm a PRIMALIST Bloodrager.

The Question: Does this robe have any effect on the Rage powers chosen, and if so how much does it affect them?

Hi all, our Iron Gods game is coming off hiatus. I thought I'd try to help the Bard gear up, but I don't know Bards that well - especially their gear.

I think he had to leave at level 8, so he's getting 2 levels and ~20,000gp as we begin book 4. She's a Geisha bard with high CHA amd some DEX. She hasn't put much into combat feats, but has been getting a bit bored of pure support so she recently got some form of Laser Pistol (and picked up proficiency). I think the plan is to pick up some ranged combat feats from here.

The only gear I know she has is a +2 Cloak of Resistance, the afore mentioned Laser Pistol and a bunch of grenades. I know she has some consumables (wands/scrolls/potions/etc) to help buff the party, but I don't think she has much in the way of permanent magic items.

It's also worth noting the Wizard has Scribe Scroll and Craft Wondrous Items, so we can get some things on the cheap-cheap (although we might have to begin play before the crafting is finished).

Does anyone have any good suggestions for magic items and gear?

In case it matters the rest of the party is currently: A battlefield-control focused Ratfolk Wizard, a damage-focused Android Techslinger and my inefficient-tank Half-Orc Bloodrager (I might make another thread asking for help with my Bloodrager's gear later).

Hi all.

First things first: MORTAL USHER

I decided I want to try this prestige class with my Occultist in our Carrion Crown game. I showed it to my GM and he thought it looked great and that there should even be a chance to meet a psychopomp coming up.

I was looking at it and I wondered if there are any interesting feats/abilities/etc that go with the Mortal Usher that I wouldn't be immediately aware of?

For reference:

I see that I get whip proficiency for free, and at level 7 in Mortal Usher I get a free +7 dancing (kinda) whip. Of course without Whip Mastery enemies have a pretty easy counter to this hugely powerful weapon option.

I also get Improved Vital Strike, which ... really doesn't do anything for a whip user (yay 2d3 bonus damage), although it does stack nicely with the 5d6 bonus damage from Reaping Strike, and could combo nicely with thr Lucern Hammer that Winifred is currently wielding.

Just thought I'd put some feelers out there and see if anyone's played or planned a Mortal Usher and has any cool ideas they want to share?

Hi all.

I just got back to playing my Occultist, and realised I don't know if I need some extra spell components. I apologize if this is written somewhere, but I couldn't find a rule, FAQ or thread about it.

TLDR: Do psychic casters use Divine Focus components?

GENERAL PSYCHIC CASTING RULES:
Psychic casters use Thought components in place of Verbal components and use Emotion components in place of Somatic componnents.
They ignore inexpensive material components. For expensive Material components can use any item with "significant meaning" and equal/greater value, eg. use an expensive wedding ring as a Material component for Raise Dead.
Psychic casters use Focus components the same way everyone else does.

QUESTIONS:

DIVINE FOCUS: Psychic casters don't use Divine spells, but some of their spells have Divine Focus components (Note that a Divine Focus is NOT the same as a Focus component according to the rules). Do Psychic casters use Divine Focus components? I can't find anything that says they don't, so I assume they do.

MATERIAL//DIVINE FOCUS ("M/DF"): Some spells are written with the components "M/DF". This means the Arcane version uses a Material Component, while the Divine version uses a Divine Focus component. Which do Psychic casters use (if any)?

FOCUS//DIVINE FOCUS ("F/DF"): Some spells are written with the components "F/DF". This means the Arcane version uses a Focus Component, while the Divine version uses a Divine Focus component. Which do Psychic casters use (if any)?

Heya. My group are going to try using online tools to continue to play while we can't meet face-to-face. We're going to try out Roll20 tonight, but we're open to other ideas if there's something better.

Does anyone have any tips for using online gaming tools?

IF YOU HAVEN'T PLAYED THE IRON GODS ADVENTURE PATH, BE WARNED I'M AT THE END OF BOOK TWO AND THERE WILL BE SPOILERS AHEAD.

For everyone still here, please try not to spoil anything else for me.

TLDR: What archetype/mystery/spells would you recommend for a one-level dip into Oracle? It represents Hellion possessing my Bloodrager (Posessed curse).

My character: (Just leveled to level 7)

So the story is that at the end of last session we fought Hellion. We won, but two of our characters died in Hellion's final explosion: my Bloodrager and the front-line Archaeologist Bard. Luckily we have a scroll of Resurrection left over from book 1, and I get to be the lucky one brought back.

I thought it might he fun for Remus to take a level in Oracle to represent the mental scarring that occurred due to dying (he's already a little unstable). (Initially this was total metagaming when I realised that the game apparently finishes at level 17. The only worthwhile thing I get at level 17 is Tireless Rage, but with the Lame curse I can get fatigue immunity at level 9 for only a 1 level dip.)

But then I found the Possessed Curse. Mechanically it's not bad (roll twice on some saves I don't want to fail), but thematically it's amazing. I could have the "soul" of Hellion inside my head.

So I think I'm going to talk to the GM about taking the possessed curse and having Hellion's soul residing in my body. Hellion was using "divine" magic (it said it was divine) so it fits really well. The problem is I'm not that familiar with the Oracle, and I've only really fought Hellion once. What Archetype/Mystery/spells would suit Hellion (bearing in mind this will only be a single level dip)?

So sometime in the last month or two I saw reference to a feat that's exactly like Power Attack, but isn't Power Attack (and I think it has Power Attack as a prerequisite).

It would allow you to take double the penalty from Power Attack for double the bonus, eg. a level 12 Fighter using both this feat and Power Attack could take a -8 penalty to hit for a +16 bonus to damage (or +24 damage with a two-handed weapon).

I've looked through every thread on here that I've read in the last few months and I couldn't find it, so either I have terrible search-fu, I saw it on a different forum, or I dreamed the whole thing up =P

Anyone got any ideas?

(PS I know it's not Risky Striker, it might be a Rage power or something though.)

(PPS I have weirdly mundane dreams, so it absolutely could have been a dream about reading something on a forum.)

So we had a discussion in another thread about which spell is better to focus on, but we got sidetracked by an argument about calculating the DPR of a spell.

(EDIT: This thread is about how to calculate spell damage into your DPR calculations, not about which spell is better. It's also a general equation, and will not include every nuance of spells - saves/resistances/etc.)

Let's assume we have a Hasted level 10 Magus casting Intensified Shocking Grasp:
We'll assume said Magus hits on a 7+ (70% chance) with their highest attack(s) in their routine and threatens a critical on a 15+ (30% chace).
So 3 attacks at 7+ - 70% chance to hit (Spell-Combat/Strike, 1st Iterative, Haste)
And 1 attack at 12+ - 45% chance to hit (2nd iterative).

The most obvious, and straightforward way is to calculate the chance to miss/hit/crit with the first attack, then calculate the chance to miss/hit/crit with the second attack (taking into account the chance that you'd already landed the spell and no longer have a spell to deliver with your attack), then continue this method until you run out of attacks. This is also easily the most time-consuming and difficult way to calculate your spell's DPR.

You'd end up with an equation like this:

Using this method we end up with 44.824325 DPR

Now that's not bad, we got there, and there's enough working out there that you should be able to check that I did everything right (and please do, I'm only human).

But who wants to do that much work? Who has the time to change the variables every time you level up, or change your buffs?

But there's an easier method:

First, Let's talk about confirming crits.

So now that we know there's (almost) always a 30% chance that your spell becomes a critical hit, and a 70% chance that it does normal damage, we can put those numbers into the spell damage.

Essentially any spell we cast and deliver with Spellstrike will deal (on average) 130% of the average damage of the spell.

Now we know the average damage for the spell, we need to know the average chance to hit. The average chance for the spell to hit is the same as the chance that AT LEAST ONE weapon attack hits, to find that we go:

So now we have a chance to hit and a average damage of the spell, we can put that equation into action.
(Chance to hit) X (average damage) = DPR
(0.98515) X (45.5) = 44.824325

Using this method we end up with 44.824325 DPR

The perceptive among you will notice that this is the exactly the same number as using the other method.

This is a much easier method of calculating your DPR with Spell-Combat/Spellstrike. All you need is your chance to hit on all attacks (which you should have if you're doing DPR calculations) and your average damage for your spell (which you should have if you're doing DPR calculations).

You should be easily able to plug these into any DPR calculations, with any touch spell you care to use.

Final equation: (1-A) X (1.3 X B) = C
A = chance that all attacks miss
B = average spell damage
C = Spell-DPR

If you want to work out your total DPR it's just:
Weapon-DPR + Spell-DPR = Total-DPR.

Here are some examples:

Obviously this doesn't take everything into account.
Shocking Grasp gives a +3 to hit vs metal armed/armoured opponents.
Corrosive Touch deals less damage vs enemies with Resistance to Acid.
Disintegrate deals significantly less damage if the target makes their fort save.
These are things you'd have to take into account for individual spells, but are beyond the scope of this equation.

So there was an argument about the feat Shield Brace in THIS THREAD that got out of hand ...

(Combat, Shield Mastery)

Source Armor Master's Handbook pg. 19
You’ve mastered the art of balancing a polearm’s weight against a shield’s stability.

Prerequisites: Shield Focus; base attack bonus +3 or fighter level 1st; proficiency with light shields, heavy shields, or tower shields.

Benefit: You can use a two-handed weapon sized appropriately for you from the polearm or spears weapon group while also using a light, heavy, or tower shield with which you are proficient. The shield’s armor check penalty (if any) applies to attacks made with the weapon.

THE ARGUMENT: When using Shield Brace, do you apply 1.5 x your Strength modifier to damage or only 1 x your Strength modifier?

I'll make the two opposing arguments the first two posts, so you can just "+1" the post you agree with. Feel free to discuss this here, so that we can move on with the other thread.

EDIT: Or you can "+1" Lelomenia's post - with the option: "it's ambiguous"

So I'm thinking of making a Warpriest of Pharasma who uses a Fauchard. Without taking the feat Weapon Focus: Dagger, would I get the Weapon Training with a dagger (Pharasma's favoured weapon) or not?

Here are the relevant texts:

Sacred Weapon (Su): At 1st level, weapons wielded by a warpriest are charged with the power of his faith. In addition to the favored weapon of his deity, the warpriest can designate a weapon as a sacred weapon by selecting that weapon with the Weapon Focus feat; if he has multiple Weapon Focus feats, this ability applies to all of them.

Weapon Training (Ex): At 5th level, a Molthuni arsenal chaplain gains weapon training as per the fighter class feature, but the benefits of this weapon training apply only to the his sacred weapons (weapons with which the warpriest has taken Weapon Focus). This ability replaces channel energy.

So normally a Warpriest gets their sacred weapon damage with their deity's favoured weapon as well as any weapon for which they take Weapon Focus.

Essentially I'm asking if the bolded sentence in the Arsenal Chaplain's Weapon Training (specifically the part in brackets) limits it to only weapons with which I've taken Weapon Focus? Or if I still get all the benefits for my deity's favoured weapon as well?

So this doesn't necessarily have much to do with the actual myth of Romulus and Remus.

We're going to be running Iron Gods, but we're down to 3 people in our group - the GM and 2 players - with each player controlling 2 characters.

I thought it might be fun to make my characters brothers - a Bloodrager and Sorcerer with the same bloodline. My thoughts are either Destined, Martyred or Vestige based on the flavour, but really any bloodline could work and the flavour can be in their backstory.

1. What's a good bloodline that will work for both a Sorcerer and a Bloodrager (potentially with some party synergy, but anything fun is fine).

2. What other classes can get some nice bloodline powers (the only one I can think of is the Eldritch Scion Magus, but I know there are others)?

3. What are some good feats/items/etc for someone who's really not that used to these classes (preferably something to enhance the bloodline aspect of the character)?

PS: The other player is probably playing a Blight Druid and a Techslinger Gunslinger, and we'll probably have an Archivist Bard who'll play sometimes.

So I watched the new Aladin movie recently, and it was a lot more fun than I was expecting. The real star of the movie for me turned out to be the city itself - Agrabah!

I couldn't help but imagine the adventures we could have in the streets, the markets, below the streets in the dungeons, or out across the desert in mysterious caverns.

With our regular game on hold for 6 months while the GM is overseas I thought this might make a great place for some vaguely-connected 1-shot adventures. I'm thinking ~level 4-7 for the party, but could have my mind changed by something exciting enough.

Help me think of some plot-hooks, encounters, or even short adventures in and around the Jewel of the Desert!

I'll start!

The Saltan's children gather round their mother, Queen Aliya.

"How did you and Papa meet?" Asks Faruq (the first born).
"Well children, when I was just a little older than you, I was kidnapped! Fear not though, my kidnappers were not the villains of the story, in fact they were the heroes ..."

I'm playing a level 5 Occultist in Carrion Crown, and I want to make sure I didn't just cheat =P

Here is the ability in question:

As a swift action, you can expend 1 point of mental focus to surround yourself with a shield that protects you from energy damage. Whenever you take acid, cold, electricity, or fire damage, the shield absorbs the damage (as PROTECTION FROM ENERGY). The energy shield can absorb up to 5 points of energy damage per occultist level you possess. This shield lasts for 1 minute or until its power is exhausted. Its effect doesn’t stack with itself, with protection from energy, or with resist energy. You can activate the energy shield as an immediate action by expending 2 points of mental focus instead of 1. You must be at least 3rd level to select this focus power.

(Link added for Protection from Energy)

So I used this ability to gain a temporary shield vs fire damage, then 2 rounds later I used it again to gain a temporary shield vs acid damage. I wanted to double check that you can have 2 instances of the same ability going at the same time (as long as they specify different energy types). I can't see anything that says it doesn't work the way I used it, but I thought I should double check (I'm the rules-guy in my group so if I'm cheating it's bad)

So I finally got to reading the OCCULTIST and I'm basically in love with the class. This may finally be a class to rival the Paladin as my favourite (we'll see in time).

I was looking at the CONJURATION Implement focus powers, and "Side Step" seems a really good one (it gets a lot of love on here as well).

Side Step (Sp): You can create a temporary fissure in space by expending 1 point of mental focus. You can use this ability as part of a move action taken to move. The fissure begins in any square you designate and allows you to teleport to any other square you can see within 10 feet per occultist level. Stepping between these locations requires you to expend 5 feet of movement, and the movement through the rift does not provoke attacks of opportunity. This otherwise functions as teleport. You must be at least 7th level to select this focus power.

The bolded section there is what interests me. Here are some questions ...

1. Can I bring others with me as I could with Teleport? Looking at the language I'm assuming "No", the language seems to indicate that it's a Personal ability.

2. Am I required to roll on the mishap table every time I use Side Step? As far as I can see I should have to, but I assumed there would be more people talking about that if it were the case (maybe my search-fu is weak).

3. I thought there was something about ending your turn, but I see now that's from Dimension Door, not Teleport, so never mind this question =P

Hi, we're between books in Kingmaker at the moment, so we thought we'd swap the GM duties around. I asked what people wanted me to run and the collective call was for a "combat heavy, pirate themed, planar adventure".

I'm just looking for a module or 1-shot style adventure, maybe 2 sessions. Level 7 is preferred (Some of the group don't have much time to make characters so being able to just grab an iconic and play is a real boon), but if there's something fitting I can make a couple of spare characters.

I have some ideas, something like: a pirate ship gets caught in a whirlpool and ends up in another plane - just grabbing some encounters from a few different books - but if there's something already published that would be amazing.

Anyone have any ideas?

SCHOOL enchantment (compulsion) [mind-affecting]; LEVEL bard 2, druid 3, mesmerist 2, occultist 2, psychic 2, sorcerer/wizard 3, witch 3

CASTING
CASTING TIME 1 standard action
COMPONENTS V, S
EFFECT
RANGE close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
TARGET one creature
DURATION 1 day/level
SAVING THROW Will partial; Spell Resistance yes
DESCRIPTION
You plant a revulsion in the mind of the subject, causing her to avoid an object or location. You must choose a specific object or place. A location chosen in this way can be no larger than a cube measuring 50 feet on a side. The aversion is entirely in the target’s mind, so the chosen object or location itself isn’t subject to any magical effect. If the target fails her saving throw, she can’t come within 60 feet of the chosen object or place.
She makes every reasonable effort to avoid the object of the aversion, but will not put herself in danger in order to maintain the aversion. For example, if the object of the aversion is a bridge but a forest fire is closing in and will likely kill the target, she ignores the aversion and crosses the bridge to save herself.
If the target must ignore the conditions of the aversion, she is nauseated until she is no longer violating the aversion.
If the target succeeds at her saving throw, she is instead sickened while within 60 feet of the object or place, but isn’t compelled to stay away from it.

So story time:

I played a game the other day where we were trying out some PVP stuff. I didn't really get involved, but the Mesmerist cast Aversion on the Monk (forcing her to avoid the mesmerist's cane), the Monk failed her save, and that was basically that. We were in close-quarters, so the monk had to leave the room, and couldn't even finish the quest with us because she literally couldn't be in the same building as the mesmerist.

With a duration of 1 day/level this seems like a pretty game-breaking for a 2nd level spell.
I know the game isn't really designed for PVP, but this spell seems pretty crazy.

I guess what I'm asking here is: Am I missing something?

So I recently started playing a campaign as an OATHBOUND PALADIN with the OATH OF THE PEOPLE'S COUNCIL - Essentially I lose Smite (and smite related stuff) and replace it with BARDIC PERFORMANCE.

This is a pretty big change, and essentially makes me a bard with full BAB, amazing saves and full martial weapon/armour proficiencies, but with significantly worse spell-casting and skills.

I've looked around a bit and haven't seen it discussed in guides - or even mentioned much in conversation around here - so I thought I'd start the conversation.

What do you think of the Oath of the People's Council Paladin?
1. Is it good/bad?
2. What do you think works well?
3. What do you think doesn't work well?
4. What unique things can they do that a normal Paladin can't? (beyond the obvious)
5. What unique things can they do that a Bard can't?

Just to get the ball rolling I'll start (and I'm new to this so feel free to refute anything I say here)
1. It's good. Probably not as good as a bard, but I just started so we'll see.
2. Full BAB Full weapons/armour & Divine Grace mean you can tank. If you go down, so do your buffs, with the Paladin defenses you'll never go down, so that stops being a problem. Also, Paladin Auras plus Bardic Performance is a powerful combo.
3. Skill points and spells. For a "support" character you're fairly limited in your support. It's seems important to pick your skills/spells/mercies very carefully. This character wouldn't fill the usual support role.
4. IOMEDAE, god of Paladins. Scroll down to "Divine Fighting Technique". A Paladin can replace her 3rd/9th level mercies with significant boosts to her buffing ability. The 3rd level one takes your full round action, but at this point in the game it's twice as powerful as your Bardic Performance. The 9th level benefit is basically the same but now it doesn't cost you an action and lasts 1 minute (EDIT: I didn't make this clear, these bonuses DO stack with bardic performance, thanks avr for pointing this out).
5. I guess this is where I'm stuck. Aside from Iomedae's Divine Fighting Technique, I'm not sure when you'd take this over a bard (except in my case where we're playing a 5-man all-divine party). If you want a bard with a reach weapon and combat reflexes this will be better at that, and the auras seem to have synergy, but the lack of versatility makes it seem like a downgrade to me.

What are people's thoughts?

Is there a guide that I somehow missed?

So we're about to start a campaign where the entire party will be divine classes who worship Iomedae. I'm going OATH OF THE PEOPLE'S COUNCIL Paladin.

The main thing I'm asking about is to do with this:

Stirring Monologue (Su): At 1st level, the paladin can deliver a stirring monologue on the ideals of justice and fairness, motivating allies and persuading others. This functions as bardic performance as per a bard of her paladin level using Perform (oratory). All the effects are language-dependent even if they would not normally be. The paladin gains the following performances at the indicated levels: inspire courage (1st), fascinate (4th), inspire competence (5th), suggestion (7th), dirge of dread (10th), inspire greatness (13th), frightening tune (16th), and mass suggestion (19th).

This ability replaces smite evil.

So I thought it could be fun to bring some role-play fluff to the table, and instead of just rolling - or even spouting something about fairness to the rest of the players - I could recite some stories about our goddess...

DOES ANYONE KNOW WHERE I COULD FIND PRE-WRITTEN STORIES OF IOMEDAE'S ADVENTURES?

The main places I know to look are:
ARCHIVESOFNETHYS.COM, PATHFINDER.WIKIA.COM and PATHFINDERWIKI.COM.

ALTERNATIVELY, DOES ANYONE WANT TO WRITE SOME STORIES ABOUT IOMEDAE'S ADVENTURES?

I'd be happy to recite some of your stories to the group and let you know how they're received.

When the wearer makes an attack using Arcane Strike and hits, enemies adjacent to the target take damage equal to the wearer’s Arcane Strike damage bonus. This damage is of the same type as the weapon’s damage (bludgeoning, piercing, and so on).

So I was wondering whether enemies hit by this extra damage could be valid targets of a touch spell? (I was thinking Magus, but I guess any caster with a making a natural attack or unarmed strike would use the same mechanics I'm thinking of)

What if the touch spell had multiple charges?
FROSTBITE and CHILL TOUCH both contain the following text:

You can use this melee touch attack up to one time per level.

There are 5 orcs, A, B, C, D, and E.

So I'm building a Strength Based HALF-ORC INVESTIGATOR (EMPIRICIST).

TL/DR What class would you suggest for a 1-level dip for a STR-based Investigator?

Approx stats (20 pt buy):
STR: 16
DEX: 12
CON: 14
INT: 16
WIS: 12
CHA: 07

The first few levels (before they get Studied Combat) are kinda tough for investigators, so I thought I'd take a Martial dip at level 1.

Requirements for dip:
+1BAB (allows me to take POWER ATTACK at level 1)
Martial Weapon Proficiency (I'm trading out Weapon Familiarity for the Overlooked Mastermind Alternate Racial Trait).
Medium Armour Proficiency (that light armour just won't cut it with my massive 12 DEX).

My original idea was to go BARBARIAN. This gets me my "requirements" as well as Fast Movement (I'll buy an Adamantine Breastplate & get DR: 2/- while still keeping a move speed of 30) and 6 rounds/day of rage. At low level the rage will keep me more competetive and at high levels it's basically 6 rounds of backup Mutagen in a fight where I didn't have time to buff.

I saw some people posting (on some forum, I forget where) about dipping FREEBOOTER RANGER for that party buff, so I thought I'd look around and see what I could find.

FIGHTER is obviously a solid choice. Since my level 1 feat is going to be Power Attack I can feasibly use the fighter feat for that and instead take any feat I like at level 1, so this has potential if I can think of something good.

FREESTYLE FIGHTER could be really useful, MARTIAL FLEXIBILITY is really good, and even with a 1 level dip I get 4 uses per day (1 minute each).

My currant thought is to start out as a Barbarian & retrain to Freestyle Fighter somewhere around level 6 (to represent my character losing his ferocious side & instead really investing in his mind-over-matter mentality).

Anyone have any other thoughts? What other classes would work well as a 1-level dip?
If I were to go Fighter what Feat would people recommend at level 1?
If I were to go Freestyle Figher what Feats would people suggest (Thinking things like COMBAT EXPERTISE or DIRTY FIGHTING which are a prerequisite for a lot of feats)?

Even if it's something I don't really like for this character, I'd be interested to see what people think here. Your theory-crafting could lead to another interesting character later down the track!

So an argument about 10 point buy started on THIS THREAD and totally derailed it. I thought I'd start a new thread so people can continue their discussion and we can get back to helping out a newer player over there.

So what are your thoughts on characters with a 10 point buy?

So I just re-read the rules for VARIANT MULTICLASS Magus (press "Page Down" twice, I dunno how to link exactly here =P ).

Magus

A character who chooses magus as his secondary class gains the following secondary class features.
- Arcane Pool: At 3rd level, he gains the arcane pool class feature as a magus of his character level – 2.
- Magus Arcana: At 7th level, he gains one magus arcana. He treats his character level as his effective magus level when determining whether or not he can select an arcana.
- Spellstrike: At 11th level, he gains the spellstrike class feature, but he can use it only with spells that are on the magus spell list, even though he can cast them using another class's spell slots.
- Improved Arcana: At 15th level, he gains one additional magus arcana.
- Greater Arcana: At 19th level, he gains one additional magus arcana.

This means that at 7th level I can take BROAD STUDY and basically be a Magus with a Full BAB & The Paladin spell-list.

Hell I could even take UNSANCTIONED KNOWLEDGE at 5th level and be a shocking-grasp scimitar crit-fisher like every other Magus out there! (And I can even get SPELL RECALL ... kinda)

Imagining a Smiting Magus?

IS THIS COMBO AS GOOD AS I THINK IT IS? I know I'm giving up a lot of feats (and Paladins are pretty feat-starved), but it seems pretty great. I'm not looking for the MOST powerful build, but this is viable right? I feel like I'm missing something, so anyone who wants to weigh in is most welcome.

I had this idea ages ago for a Paladin VMC-Magus using improvised weapons (CATCH OFF GUARD & IMPROVISED WEAPON MASTERY). With an Arcane Bond and a Divine Bond you'd be able to get a +10 equivalent Improvised weapon at level 19. It seems like a fun way of playing with improvised weapons. With all the above options as well it now seems like it might even be viable.

Just to be thorough, here's some links:

PALADIN

MAGUS (Linked to Arcane Pool, scroll down for Spell Combat and Spellstrike)

MAGUS ARCANA LIST

EDIT: I think I just found what I missed - I don't actually get Spell-Combat with this combo do I? (And I don't get Spellstrike till level 11 either?) WELL DANG! =P With that aside, do people think this is viable?

So I'm not a huge fan of Gunslingers, the mechanics just don't mesh with my idea of an early-firearms gunslinger ... but for some reason, I really do like those same mechanics when I think of a gish character with a gun (go figure).
And since the only "alchemist" character I've made was an investigator, I thought using bombs might be fun.

This is really just theory-crafting to see if I can make a class I'm not super keen on into something fun to play while not being a total burden on any party I end up with. I don't have a game for this character yet so there's no time limit here. I would like to keep it PFS legal though, since that's the most likely place I'll try this character out.

To that end I'm trying to work out the best way to build a GUNSLINGER/ALCHEMIST.
At the moment I'm thinking 5 levels of gunslinger & then mostly alchemist (That could change, but there'd have to be a pretty good reason). With a 20 point buy I should be able to start with 16 DEX, INT & WIS (by dumping CHA) which seems pretty solid.
Since I've never looked seriously at making a gunslinger, and I don't have much experience with alchemists I thought I'd ask the you lovely people for some advice.

QUESTION 1: MONK?
Is it worth adding 1 or 2 levels of monk?
One level of monk gets me +2 to all saves (my Will Save progression is going to be appalling without some help), WIS to AC, Unarmed Strike (which is a nice thing to have "just in case"), a bonus feat (likely Deflect Arrows) & Stunning Fist (which is a VERY nice thing to have "just in case" & scales off character level - not monk level - which is nice).
What I lose: +1BAB & it will delay all alchemist abilities by 1 level & potentially (probably) DEX-to-damage with firearms as well.
A second level of monk will get me +1 to all saves, another bonus feat & Evasion (Which will make good use of my ridiculously good reflex save), but will push all that good alchemist stuff back another level (I'll likely leave the second Monk level till after DEX-to-damage, so it shouldn't affect that).
This means it seems like a really strong defensive option, but it pushes back a lot of the things I really want on this character (the Alchemist levels).

QUESTION 2: RACE?
Any suggestions? At the moment I like Dwarf, but I haven't really looked at the mechanics of race yet. Obviously Half-Elf would have some advantages with this much multi-classing, but what are some other options?

QUESTION 3: ARCHETYPES?
What are some good archetypes? Gunslinger archetypes? Alchemist archetypes? (Monk archetypes?)
The obvious ones to me are the PISTOLERO Gunslinger & the GRENADIER Alchemist (I got nothing for Monk) but I'm open to suggestions (I will be using one-handed-firearms).

QUESTION 4: BUILD ORDER?
My original thought was something along the lines of Alchemist 1, Gunslinger 5, Alchemist X (or G1, A1, G4, AX). That pushes back DEX-to-damage to level 6, but gives me some fun toys to play with to make the early levels more fun.
Grenadier seems like it adds some really nice toys at level 2 which would be great to get early, but that pushes back that DEX-to-damage to level 7, which is getting pretty late.
What about Monk? If I'm adding Monk levels where do they come in? G1, M1, G4, (M1?,) AX seems pretty solid but I don't get any alchemist levels till level 7 or 8, & adding them any earlier means I'm pushing back that Dex-to-damage till level 7 or 8 instead (Obviously this becomes less complicated if your advice is "skip the monk").

QUESTION 5: GENERAL ADVICE?
I'll be taking some fairly standard ranged-combat feats. Are there any feats/options/pitfalls/anythings I should be aware of for either Gunslinger or Alchemist (or Monk)? This is all fairly new territory for me (actually I don't think I've ever played a Monk either) so any advice really is appreciated.

Once again this is mostly theory-crafting to make a character I'll enjoy without having to be carried through the game by my party.
Thanks all.

I just noticed that the price for Benevolent Armour on the d20pfsrd site now reads as a +1 enhancement bonus: LINK

It used to be a flat 2000gp, and still is on the archives of nethys site: LINK

Since both of these have likely been updated more recently than my copies of everything, have I missed something or is there a typo there?

How would a Barbarian's RAGE interact with an Investigator's STUDIED COMBAT?

I'm thinking an investigator with a barbarian dip, would these abilities work together?

So, Bracers of the Merciful Knight:

When worn by a paladin, he is considered four levels higher for the purposes of determining the uses per day and healing provided by his lay on hands class feature.

Just wondering how this interacts with a Warrior of the Holy Light?

At 4th level, the warrior of the holy light gains one additional use of her lay on hands ability per day. She gains one additional use of lay on hands per day for every four levels she attains beyond 4th.

A normal paladin would get 2 additional uses of LoH (Lay on Hands) per day from the bracers (1 per 2 levels). But every 4 levels a WotHL (Warrior of the Holy Light) gets 1 additional use of LoH, which would mean that they get 3 additional uses of LoH from the bracers ...?

It's hardly game-breaking either way (one use of LoH), just curious what people think?

Sorry if these have been answered before, but a quick search of the forums came up with a whole lot of threads about Knowledge Pool/Scribe Spell threads, and I didn't want to sift through them to find what I want.

At 7th level, a Magus gets the Knowledge Pool ability:

Knowledge Pool (Su)

At 7th level, when a magus prepares his magus spells, he can decide to expend 1 or more points from his arcane pool, up to his Intelligence bonus. For each point he expends, he can treat any one spell from the magus spell list as if it were in his spellbook and can prepare that spell as normal that day. If he does not cast spells prepared in this way before the next time he prepares spells, he loses those spells. He can also cast spells added in this way using his spell recall ability, but only until he prepares spells again.

QUESTION ONE:

QUESTION TWO:
If a Magus loses their spellbook, can they use this ability to prepare at least some spells that day anyway:
Eg. a 7th Level Magus with 16 Intelligence can prepare 3 spells using Knowledge pool without having their spellbook on them.
There are 2 ways I thought of interpreting this:
1. The spells are added to the spellbook, but since (s)he doesn't have the spellbook, it doesn't help at all, or...
2. The Magus designates a random book/scrap-of-parchment/wall/their own hand/etc as their (empty) spellbook for the day. Then with Knowledge Pool they add 3 spells and prepare them in some(all?) of their spell slots for the day.
Which seems right?

QUESTION THREE:
(Edit: This question assumes Option 2 from Question Two. If that's incorrect you can pretty much ignore this question.)
Let's say our 7th level Magus has Shocking Grasp as their Preferred Spell. Their spellbook has been stolen, and they've used Knowledge pool to prepare Colour Spray, Blur & Fly (random 1st, 2nd & 3rd level spell examples). Can they still use Preferred Spell to spontaneously switch out to Shocking Grasp? Or do they lose that ability since it's not in their current spellbook? (I'm expecting this one to be a "No you can't do that", but I thought I'd ask anyway).

(PS. I used Shocking Grasp in my examples because let's face it, that's what it's going to be used for 99% of the time)

So I'm still designing my Holy Tactician, and I've com across something that's kind of annoying, and I wanted to check everyone else's ruling on it.
(This is for PFS, but if I can't make it work there I might use this character somewhere else)

Battlefield Presence (Su)

At 3rd level, a tactician can direct her allies in battle, granting each ally within 30 feet one teamwork feat she possesses as a bonus feat as a standard action. All allies must receive the same feat, but do not need to meet the prerequisites of this bonus feat. This ability does not function if the paladin is flat-footed or unconscious. Allies must be able to see and hear the holy tactician in order to gain this benefit. Changing the bonus feat granted is a swift action.

This ability replaces aura of courage.

My problem here is that technically my Paladin can only grant her allies her Bonus feats to her allies. I can't take teamwork feats at other levels if I want to be able to use them with this ability, and have to rely on only the bonus feats I get at levels 3, 7 & 11.

My question here concerns this: Since it says "...she possesses as a bonus feat", and doesn't say "...she possesses as a bonus feat gained from this class", can I use bonus feats from elsewhere with my Battlefield Presence ability?
For example:
Humans get a bonus feat at level 1.
Fighters get bonus feats at most levels.

Or if you have a problem with those, what about the bonus teamwork feat gained by taking Holy Guide? (which as far as I know is compatible with Holy Tactician) This would be a bonus feat from the same class.

If there's already an FAQ about this a link would be great, otherwise anyone's thoughts would be appreciated.

Hi all, just wanted to check I had all the ruling correct for how to use this.

I'm designing a Holy Tactician with a 1 level dip in Sohei so that I can take advantage of the Lookout Feat.

I'll highlight the important parts as I can see them.

LOOKOUT (Combat, Teamwork)

Your allies help you avoid being surprised.
Benefit: Whenever you are adjacent to an ally who also has this feat, you may act in the surprise round as long as your ally would normally be able to act in the surprise round. If you would normally be denied the ability to act in the surprise round, your initiative is equal to your initiative roll or the roll of your ally –1, whichever is lower. If both you and your ally would be able to act in the surprise round without the aid of this feat, you may take both a standard and a move action (or a full-round action) during the surprise round.

DEVOTED GUARDIAN (Ex)

At 1st level, a sohei can always act in a surprise round even if he does not notice his enemies, though he remains flat-footed until he acts. In addition, a sohei gains a bonus on initiative rolls equal to 1/2 his monk level. At 20th level, a sohei’s initiative roll is automatically a natural 20.

BATTLEFIELD PRESENCE (Su)

At 3rd level, a tactician can direct her allies in battle, granting each ally within 30 feet one teamwork feat she possesses as a bonus feat as a standard action. All allies must receive the same feat, but do not need to meet the prerequisites of this bonus feat. This ability does not function if the paladin is flat-footed or unconscious. Allies must be able to see and hear the holy tactician in order to gain this benefit. Changing the bonus feat granted is a swift action.
This ability replaces aura of courage.

So the way I see it:

Does that seem right to everyone?
Have I missed anything?
Anything else anyone wants to add?
Thanks for checking out my post

So I'm designing a Holy Tactician, and I wanted to take a 1 level Dip in Sohei, primarily for the "always act in the surprise round" ability, so that I can take advantage of the Lookout Teamwork Feat.

Aside from that great ability, it also gets me 1 bonus feat, a slight increase to my Reflex Save(I think?) & Improved Unarmed Strike (which COULD be useful ... Feat prerequisite maybe?), 2 extra skill points, and a few extra class skills

The downsides are -1 BAB, less HP (d8 instead of d10 & no favored class) and late entry/progression for all my paladin abilities from that level onwards (thinking level 6 for the dip?).

On paper it seems like it's worth it, but that -1 BAB also effects Weal’s Champion (If I don't hit, my team-mates don't get the bonus), and since I haven't played a Holy Tactician before I don't know how much late entry/progression is likely to hurt the class.

The idea of this is that it's for PFS (so anything they won't let me use is of course out), but at this point it's kind of theory-crafting, so it could be used elsewhere.

Thanks for checking out my post =)

*Edit: Just realised that taking the dip at Level 6 would mean I miss my 2nd Iterative Attack, probably rethinking when I take the dip.

I'm trying to find item-creation rules for non-combat magic items, but I can't remember where they are (Possibly in DnD but I don't have those books with me).

What I'm talking about are items that PC's would rarely - if ever - take.

Examples:
Farming tools enchanted to help with the harvest
Crafting tools enchanted to improve crafting
A nobleman's necklace that makes him always appear refreshed.

One or all of those might be somewhere in the books, but I can't find them right now =P

I seem to remember reading something about it in one of the books (GM's Guide I think) ... Any ideas?

Edit: What I'm really looking for here isn't a list of items, it's a reference to how I'd come up with my own items to add into the game. Whether that's just a vague suggestion or actual crafting mechanics and spells, any help would be appreciated.