MurphysParadox's page

The ruling for PFS, when official FAQ/Errata is absent, is "depends on the specific GM's opinion." You could seek some answer from the local chapter's captain, but that isn't binding.

I'd say treat the druid as the spell caster for the purposes of the Damned ability. The druid can choose for Many Lives to activate, which would suggest that they qualify as the character trying to bring back the target.

Alternatively, you could be more literal. Many Lives causes a 'reincarnate' while Damned attempts to block 'resurrection'. In that case, Damned cannot stop raise dead or reincarnate.

However, what would be a lot of fun is to allow the reincarnate, then kicking off an entire plot line where in some powerful duke of hell comes after the druid because their soul belongs to the duke and he's unhappy at being dodged.

The Iguanodon is an example of a creature whose natural attack is improved due to an EX ability. If you beast shape into one of these, you don't (strictly speaking) get the thumb spike increased crit multiplier. Now, a reasonable GM may agree that it is an aspect of the creature's physical form, so you can have it, but the rules strictly interpreted say you don't.

Now, if you are talking about the Giant Lake Octopus then we have another issue. You cannot, technically, polymorph into a Giant Lake Octopus because this isn't a normal octopus; it is an octopus with the Giant and Advanced templates applied to it and templated creatures are not normally valid choices for a polymorph effect. That said, if we presume your GM allows it, there is no EX ability listed that increases the range of the octopus tentacle attack; it is just the attack as it stands.

Not to my knowledge.

If you become an octopus, do you have tentacles? Are some of them longer than others? Is a 30 foot tentacle considered extraordinary or part of the creature's natural attack.

Basically, if it is described in the Attack Block and there's no special ability (EX, SLA, etc) that mentions it, then it must be part of the Natural Attack. What else could it be?

You gain the attacks of the base creature. So if it has really long arms, you get really long arms. If it is an Extraordinary physical ability, then generally no but your GM may allow it because that's what the creature is (though this is more about things like super sharp claws that have an increased threat range or crit multiplier than with reach; concept is the same though).

Awesome. Should have had the bell kill her, then her shoes pop off and her feet curl up. Then a young girl and her little dog too could have walked out of the abbey looking more confused than usual.

All treasure is calculated according to the market price, not the sale price. So a CR2 fight would let your players find 600 gold, or 100 gold and a 500 gold item, or so on. If your players do not like the 500 gold item, they can sell it but they'll only get 250 gold for it.

If you don't like giving your characters items they may not like, then just give them gold.

Now, for art, gems, nonmagical jewelry, and other non-money, non-PC-usable items, the value of the item is the amount you can make selling it. So you could give the PCs 50 gold coins, 3 onyx gems worth 100g each, a small carved stone statue worth 150g, and a pair of level 1 potions worth 50g each.

The PCs can sell the gems and statue for full value (a total of 450g), but if they sold the two potions, they'd only get 25g for each. This is because items like art and jewelry have no use to PCs while potions, weapons, wands, etc have use. Things with usefulness sell for 50% what a PC must spend to buy it.

Constrict and the slam are separate damage sources, so the Beast's DR would kick in twice. It really depends on whether or not you want the Beast to survive. Even if the Promethean kills him, he'd have done enough damage that the party should be able to finish the fight.

Yeah, he doesn't need to break free of the grapple, he can still deliver full attacks with natural weapons. I believe the whole idea is for the pair to be tearing at each other with tooth, claw, fist, and tentacle while the players rush to the rooftop.

Or your players could be like my players and just bumrush the entire tower, ignore the attempt to explain the device on the roof, and just destroy an APL+3 (or even +4) in less than five rounds without anyone dying (so close). I mean, whatever works for you guys, heh.

First, I direct you to this XKCD comic.

Secondly, it sounds like you would have to start with the base system and work your way up, not with the most complicated character class from the second round of characters. If you want to manage wording and system standardization, you first have to gather the base rules together and standardize them. Then you have a single lexicon from which you can build upwards. Starting with a class means you'd have a lexicon for just that class that may not be compatible with other classes.

I found this page which has a more detailed description of the city plus a map with specific areas called out in more detail than I recall being in Ashes at Dawn itself.

I don't believe you can provoke 'out of combat' because there's no combat, thus no one is being all 'watch for an opening and strike!' It is simply called starting a surprise round. Now, if you start a surprise round and somehow lose the init to a very perceptive enemy, you can still AOO the bad guy as they move towars/away from you.

So, functionally, it isn't really any different. You say "I am going to attack that guy surprisingly!" and the GM has the guy make a perception check, then everyone rolls inits. You either get a straight up normal attack (target fails perception check or loses to you in initiative) or they have to move through your threatened range and you get an AOO.

Actually, yeah it looks like only Behemoths have any rules regarding daze, and it is just that they automatically recover from it, not that they are immune to it.

So yes, a level 7 swashbuckler could stand next to an Ancient Wyrm and let his party murder it (might take awhile, but it will happen).

Only if you are actually forcing the player to track rations or making them march through a desert. Otherwise it is nothing but a bit of flavor that will have no mechanical impact on the game.

Ward and Battle Ward are different hexes and do not share any rules. By what Battle Ward says, there is no restriction to the battle ward on how many creatures it can affect, though it does have the "no more than once in 24 hours" bit. Whether or not Battle Ward is considered a 'ward' for the purpose of the Ward Hex's wording is generally up to the GM, but the game makes no attempt to create a classification of abilities called wards.

Yes, the spirit animal is a familiar with all the rules of a familiar except where noted in the Shaman class feature description. It doesn't comment on the skill bonus, so you do get that.

You do not get a free attack when fighting defensively, it simply says you can choose the 'fighting defensively' status when you make either a full or standard attack action.

I read it as saying that you can do your normal full attack without penalty, then activate the dizzying defense ability afterwards to get the +4 AC and only suffer -2 on any attacks made from then until the start of your next turn (which would be any AOOs you make). In other words, you get a full attack without the attack penalty and then gain the AC bonus for the rest of the round.

Well, the elemental is a 3rd party creature, so your GM has to allow it. Secondly, channeling is a Supernatural Ability, not a spell or spell-like ability, so the elemental cannot maximize the channeling (only cure spells).

Lastly, the channeling sources do not stack (see this FAQ). So he doesn't have 20 channels, he has three buckets of channels each at a different level. None of the classes indicate their channeling stacks, just that the level in that class are used to determine the strength of the channeling.

For example, a Shaman (life) 2/Oracle (life) 1/Cleric 1/Vitalist 1 with a charisma score of 16 will have a channel pool of 4/4/6 doing 2d6/2d6/2d6 healing (that includes the elemental's bonus). He does NOT have an effective cleric level of 4 with 14 channels and doing 3d6 each use. When he takes feats that allow for extra channeling or stronger channeling, he has to pick which class' channel energy to apply the feat. If he levels up and picks Shaman (life) 3 and boosts his CHA to 18, his numbers would become 5/5/7 doing 3d6/2d6/2d6 (including elemental's bonus).

Vitalist is pretty broken in this case. The only gotcha there is a requirement to be in line-of-sight to all members of the collective. That can be manipulated by the GM through things like darkness, cause blindness/deafness, or mundane walls getting in the way.

So yeah, it sounds like a few bits of information were missed by the player and GM.

Sorry, I meant to state that in my game, I ran it such that the guards were not dominated to get around the issue raised by Voomer. They were just hire-a-thug style. I had also planned for a dominated city guard captain to show up with normal city guardsmen when the PCs left the tailor's shop, but things didn't quite fall that way.

Nope, that's it. Unless you can convince your GM that there is totally something called the Orc Bastard Sword and Orcatana (get it? Orc Katana? I'm a comedy genius!)

They are refused docking rights at any harbor because no one wants a zombie croc. Now and then, they have to fight off some Pharasma inquisitors who want to destroy the abomination. Maybe the croc gets loose and goes around eating fishermen while the players are in town.

There is always argument over the term "When your character is not in immediate danger or distracted". I know GMs that don't allow a take 10 on climbing because there exists a chance of falling. There are also the ones don't allow taking 10 with the spellcraft check made while crafting items because there is a consequence to failure there as well.

I made the Beast intelligent but morose and fatalistic. He was smart enough to converse on numerous topics and would wax philosophic, but he was convinced that there was no point in arguing his position because he knew they already thought him guilty. This was a lot more interesting for me than the child-like idiot version in the actual book.

But that's book 2 stuff, so you should check out the book 2 thread for more details on changes done by us GMs who have run it.

Book one and three are as fast as you want them to be; lots of ways to extend or contract the roleplaying pieces and the dungeon crawl aspect are pretty straight forward (though you can fiddle with the Feldgrau in book 3 quite a lot).

Book two is in three parts; first is the trip to town (fairly short), second is the trial which is time bound to three days (and fun for the players to have to handle the short time frame), and third is the Castle, which is fun but very straight forward.

Book four allows a great amount of fiddling throughout (my players assume every NPC with a name must be a bad guy, especially after book three's lodge, so they just about killed a mean-but-not-evil mayor of the first larger town). Book five is very player-directed and can take quite awhile or be very short depending on how they approach the ruling group.

Book six is a massive dungeon crawl. It has a lot of room for player-created content, but as written it is a very extensive and fantastically clever dungeon.

Balance isn't necessary but the more unbalanced a group, the harder it is for the GM to make sure everything is going well. If you choose to be a very niche build, or do something completely without merit, then you also should be accepting of the GM's difficulty in accounting for your specific needs.

Unfortunately, it is my experience that people who do want to play so unique a choice also want their uniqueness celebrated every second of the game. If you're playing a fighter and dump your two skill points into Craft (metalwork) and Profession (blacksmith), you shouldn't complain when the GM fails to work those skills into every single adventure. But the GM should consider a way to work in everyone's strengths at some point. He should find a way for that fighter to buy/acquire/build a forge, or the GM can kick the crafting system into high gear so it becomes actually practical for the PC to make his own gear.

The players make characters they want to play and the GM makes a game in which the characters are worth playing. Sometimes compromises are necessary.

Standard action to activate it and it will last for 'a number of rounds'. But if you stop and restart it, you spend another standard action.

Ghost Touch scythes aren't all that big a deal. Only the Paladin can use it and it just means the weapon damage is full, not half... so like an extra 5-10 damage per hit.

If you're worried about the value of the treasure, since that's a +2 weapon at level 1, you could say the ghost-touch effect only works within the walls of the prison.

The rules do not specify that you need two hands free to use a bomb. Just that it is a standard action to make and deliver it, and that throwing is the method used - so it requires at least one free hand.

It isn't a huge deal to let him toss a bomb while holding onto the bow; he can't do both in the same round and he has so few bombs a day, the range is so small, and it is about the only way he won't just stand 80 feet away from every fight firing arrows at stuff. So really, it is in your favor to let him do it that way. Anything that makes an archer stand closer to a fight is good for the GM.

Do you want the RAW or the RAI answer?

As Written, it is a 35 DC. Invisibility gives you a +20 and that's just that.

As Intended, it is a 15 DC. There's no reason invisibility would make you quieter.

Whatever your GM says it covers. Traditionally, Arcana would involve itself with magical facts and figures while History is historical events. So if you're trying to learn about the Great Magus Virraln and the vast kingdom he ruled thousands of years ago...

History would let you know things like where and when it existed, any particularly important stories exist, how scholars viewed its impact on society and culture at the time.

Arcana would let you know things about Virraln, how his magic worked, what he did with the magic, what branch(es) of magic he founded or used, if there were any great demons/demigods that he enslaved, and things like his Great Fire Gem Of Volcanic Summoning which he used to crush the enemies (it summoned a volcano that spat out fire elementals, really neat stuff).

There would be some overlap, of course. It is quite likely History would say he had a great magical weapon and Arcana would say he used it to conquer neighbors. However, History wouldn't know how it worked and Arcana wouldn't know which neighbors.

Other examples are for esoteric issues like the lost spell of planar destruction thought to be created by the First Wizard of Theearn. Given that it is some kind of spell, esoteric, believed to be mythical, and very long ago, History would have almost nothing to say on it. Historians wouldn't care. Arcanists though, they'd care. They'd teach about it and talk about it and search for it.

The hesitancy comes from the ability to circumvent the natural drawback that is meant to balance out the benefit, namely an extend reach. I agree to a point; I would never let someone just use the longspear as a club for free but I would allow the Catch Off Guard feat to work in this case (making it a 1d6 improvised weapon). The reasoning is that I don't mind players avoiding drawbacks if they spend a feat to do so, be it catch off guard, imp. unarmed strike, exotic weapon prof, etc.

We were playing a friend's very first dungeon. So, of course, when we found our way into a tunnel behind the throne room, the cleric just cast Transmute Stone To Mud and there was the boss. So the bad guy is some kind of fighter/wizard hybrid. He casts fly and moves into the air so he can better rain down spells upon us. The dwarf fighter gets fly and charges him through the air.

He hits with the dwarven waraxe. Crit. Confirmed. Roll Damage (2d6+10, x3) was 5 6 6 5 6 6 = 34 + 30 = 64. Fort save against massive damage: rolled a 2.

We killed the boss on the first round of combat after exploring only a fifth of the whole dungeon. The friend never GM'ed again.

Remember kids, the boss is where you want him to be when you want him to be there. If the players break into an area early, the boss just happens to be elsewhere.

Not functionally. Initiative checks set your position relative to the other people involved in the fight. After that, the order is set and only things like delaying or readying an action can functionally shift your location in the order. Basically, the reasoning is to ensure that each entity in the encounter gets a turn before anythings gets a second turn.

I would argue that blink is a bad idea. A melee character's purpose is to hit things and the miss chance goes directly against that single goal. While blink has a lot of other benefits, not hitting a target is too great a penalty. Remember, if offense is not the melee character's best defense, that character shouldn't be in that fight.

Or in the tongue! Then he could literally lick his wounds to heal them!

So if the druid gets hurt, he chases his tail until he catches it in order to deliver the touch spell? I've watched my cats do this and tail chasing looks pretty complicated and involved; certainly takes more than a few seconds. Perhaps the druid is also using it with an attempt to confuse and confound the enemy?

Seriously though, no he can't. Touch spells are still involve a touch attack (though the target may choose to be willing, it just means you automatically hit). Touch attacks must be delivered by something that can deliver attacks. The leopard's tail cannot be used to deliver attacks since it is not a natural weapon. Ergo, no touch spells on the tail.

Try this thread which is really just a collection of links to other threads regarding the "Does Catch Off-Guard count as improvised weapon proficiency?" question.

The general idea is that no, technically there is no way to become proficient in an improvised weapon HOWEVER it is also perfectly reasonable for a GM to choose to interpret Catch Off-Guard as making one proficient in improvised weapon. Just remember that this is not a formal definition.

In a home game, I'd totally let you run this concept. In a PFS game, you are asking for some trouble if the table's GM disagrees with your interpretation.

1) The beginner's box is a subset of the game. You won't really have to learn different rules from what you know, just more rules than you know. It is relatively easy to start plugging in some of the advanced systems, opening up the various choices (feats, spells, races, classes), and otherwise slowly expanding from the BB base.

2) Turns only have meaning in combat as a way to allow a fair chance for everyone involved to act. Outside of combat, it is personal preference. If there is no more combat or traps, you can stop using the map and turns. If there are undiscovered traps, or monsters waiting to ambush, I may use the map, but I may just keep asking the players what they are doing every minute or so of game time. Once someone hits the trap or triggers the ambush, I'll have the players put their minis down about where they would have been.

3) Well... you get 1 hit point per level from a "full night's sleep". In pathfinder, that is described as a solid 8 hours of rest. Usually, however, this is really 8 hours within a 24 hour period. You cannot sleep for 8 hours, adventure for 2, sleep for 8, adventure for 15 minutes, then sleep for 8 again. However, if you take a day or two off from adventuring and just take it easy for 24 hours, it is perfectly reasonable to gain 3 times the 8 hour rest number.

This 8 hours thing is also needed by spell casters (wizards, clerics, at least) to memorize a spell list and to recharge any used spell slots. It can only be done once per 24 hours.

4) Remember that this isn't a video game. It is a living story within a living world. It is generally smart, as the GM, to always let the players have some way to run away if things get bad (it sure beats having everyone die, at least in the early levels). However, the players may have gotten out but the Goblins are still going to go about their lives. They may fortify, bring in more guards, or set ambushes to attack the PCs when they return.

Try to think as a goblin from their point of view; what did the PCs say and do? What do the goblins want? What would they do to PCs who attacked them vs ones who tried to be nice and left when the king got angry. Maybe the king demands money or for the PCs to go kill some kind of monster for him after they were so rude last time!

5) Always round down (so yes, half of 1 is 0).

6) As with question four, it is always a more interesting story to keep PCs alive than to kill them. Later on, when everyone is far more skilled with the game, killing PCs is different (some games are bloodbaths with each player running through a half dozen characters while others never feature PC death either because the GM avoids it or the players are just very good).

In this situation, I'd have monsters knock the players unconscious (-1 or worse hit points) and then go after the other guy. Then the two PCs would wake up in a jail and have to get out through roleplaying and/or combat... or outside the cave with a crude note saying "and don't come back!". These outcomes are a far more interesting story, and the point of the game is to have interesting stories.

7) Heal is a skill. Skills are an area that is simplified from the full game, so assume in this case that if you have the skill (ranks were put into it, which may be automatic with the pregen characters) then you can use any action it allows. Heal is mostly for out of combat use (except for the check to stabilize someone), to provide care and thus allow more hit points to be gained back with rest.

As for monster care, I don't have the Beginner's Box and can't be certain of the specific wording. As for healing monsters, well, it may come up. If you decide to not kill the Goblin King after beating him, maybe you'll need to use some first aid (showing mercy may be a good thing, though realistically, a goblin would likely turn on you the moment it can).

8) Again, I don't have the book, but in general if there is no specifics on something in the adventure book (which happens), then it is up to the GM (one of their jobs, in fact) to fill in the missing details. You try to make it seem reasonable and have it fit within the game. Would a bunch of goblins let you take their treasure, even if you did help them? Not likely, but maybe you can get them to pay you extra with some use of Diplomacy? Or maybe you can have one PC distract the goblins while the other sneaks over to grab some gems or an item. Though be sure to know what you'd do if the plan fails!

9) Again, whatever seems reasonable. They probably wouldn't be allowed to walk right up to the King; most likely, the guards would stop the PCs and lead them over to the king.

Generally, you want to let the PCs place their models on the board in a reasonable location when a scene with combat starts. By reasonable, it can be a bit tricky. If you say "place your models on the map" or "can I have a perception check?", the players know there's about to be a fight and may try to be a bit... unrealistic about placement. "oh, uh, well my ranger just happened to have climbed this tree over here right before the bandits attacked... because, uh, he likes climbing trees?" is a bit suspicious. However, if the ranger was on the side of the road looking at some plants because earlier he said he was keeping an eye out for certain herbs, then that's totally fine.

10) You generally don't tell anyone anything. However, any PCs with a bit of attention will figure out the AC by simply taking note of what does and doesn't work. If a 16 misses but a 17 hits... the AC is 17, so it really isn't a big secret. However, I won't start off the fight by saying that either. You would not tell them about the bad guy's attack bonuses or hit points though.

It may not be a bad idea to come up with phrases like "he is unhurt", "he is a bit bloody but still coming at you", "he is definitely limping but is determined to fight on", and "he is swaying and has some difficulty focusing on you as he swings his sword" to give the PCs a feel for how damaged the monster is. I am also a fan of the "He's hanging by a thread" or "a few threads" or "six threads" when a monster has just a hit point or two (or six, heh) left.

I also tend to hint heavily at, say, a wizard who is planning on spending a big spell on something that is a sling stone away from death because no one likes wasting a burning hands when the goblin has 2 hit points left

11) Officially, PCs don't know what any magical item is until it has been identified. This can be fudged a bit, especially if they already have a few potions of CLW and can say "hmm, looks the same, tastes the same, smells the same" in comparison. Now, you can still use something that isn't identified. A +1 magic sword still gives +1 to attack and damage even if you have no idea that it is a magic sword.

You can hint at it though: if the PC attacking a goblin gets, say, a total 15 to-hit and the monster has a 16 AC, you can even say something like "Your sword strikes true but the goblin turns to block the blow with his thick armor. To you, but more importantly the goblin's surprise, the blade punctures the heavy leather and draws blood!". This indicates that it hit a bit better than simple skill (the PC's normal attack bonus) would suggest, hinting at it being a magical weapon. However, in my games, I don't generally bother with hiding what a magic item is or does; PCs like magic items so much and identification is pretty straight forward that I'd rather just give it to them straight.

Lastly, you need to always keep in mind that the game as written is for a group of four players. If you only have two, you will probably want to make combat less busy; reduce the number of bad guys by 25-50% (especially boss fights). You can also stagger combats to make it less of a bum rush. For example, the Goblin King may let his guards attack the PCs first and won't get involved himself until the guards are mostly dead.

The written adventures are frameworks with suggestions built into them. They are never expected to be run 100% by the book because every party is different. Some groups will absolutely destroy anything considered by the rules as "level appropriate", so the GM makes stuff much harder. Other groups may not have any arcane spell casters, so the GM has to change the arcane puzzle into something the PCs can actually solve. It is alright if the PCs fail, but they should fail while trying, rather than fail because they can't even try.

As for getting a thrown knife or a used bolt. The official rule (from the full game) is that you can always retrieve the thrown weapon, but ammo is different. If it hits the target, it is considered destroyed. If it misses, there's a 50% chance that it is still usable. Of course, this assumes the PCs can loot the room; it may be that the PCs win the fight but run out immediately to chase a running goblin (which is usually more important than recovering a few arrows).

However, it is also going to make the game much faster if you assume thrown weapons are automatically retrieved after the fight (unless they have to run away) and ammo is always destroyed. As with many things, you are trading a bit of realism away to make things move a bit more smoothly.

Welcome to Pathfinder! It is a different kind of game than most are useful, it takes some getting used to and practice to even be a player, let alone a GM. However, it is also a whole lot of fun; where else can you create a world of your own bound only by imagination? Where you choose the direction of the adventure and tell the stories you want to tell!?

Feel free to post any questions, comments, concerns, funny stories, or anything really on the boards and the community will be here to help!

I'd say you can use tongues to understand mi-go's clicking/lightshow language but not speak the native language since it isn't speaking but creating visualizations (which the Oracle cannot do unless the PC has strapped a few mind-controlled chameleons to their forehead). The second quote is for when a mi-go must speak to a non-mi-go in a non-mi-go language.

For one, it is an unbiased answer to the question. While in a perfect world one could assume the GM and the Players could all just have a good time and work together, there's a lot of emotional investment in the roles played. An 'official' ruling is one that can't have claims of favoritism, self interest, or vindictiveness.

Even when the people involved are all friends who can get along, it is nice to have something that maintains the desired power curves and intent of the development group. Officials can consider more than the small specific scenario that generated the question. They may know of combinations that the GM or player doesn't know of and thus they can move to counter it. They also maintain a general equivalent level of power and similar intent. This is, of course, up for debate... but that leads me to the final point.

Any rule, even ones that are officially ruled, are free to be house ruled or modified by the GM. An 'official ruling' is a good way to have a starting point from which house ruling can expand.

Of course, in PFS, the situation is different because the GMs can't arbitrarily modify the rule system and consistency between games is paramount; official rulings drive that consistency. Also there are GMs like myself who enjoy staying as close to official rulings as possible and will revert house rules if a FAQ comes out that specifically rules differently. But that's just because I'm pedantic.

Understand that Pathfinder is a GM vs Players kind of game, not System vs Players. While there is such thing as a global maxima for damage, it is a purely theoretical issue. When playing in a specific game, there are so many other considerations beyond pure damage, including the style of the GM, the skill level of the other players, the goal of group, the type of game they want to play, and the group dynamics. A lot of people who theorycraft the "best Whatever ever!" forget this point as a matter of course.

Most of what you'll read about healing is that it drops group damage output and in-combat healing is a waste of time. That is technically accurate. Taking a round to move to a wounded PC and heal him for what is about a single attack's worth of damage (maybe 2 attacks if you're good, though if you roll poorly then it may be even less) is usually a bad thing from a "win the battle in the fastest way possible" kind of consideration. But getting a gold medal in the 500m monster slaughter event isn't what the game is about.

True healing specialized classes focus on group healing options like Channel Positive Energy and Life Link, as well as feats to make healing spells do more, cast more quickly, and without threat to the caster. A non-"combat healer" type healer is more than useless in a fight because they are probably better off doing something else. A "combat healer" class is very good at what it wants to do.

However, unless someone is about to die, healing during a fight isn't necessary. You generally don't have to keep everyone topped off because it is decidedly rare to see the kind of burst damage that can kill someone outright. You still need to be able to contribute offensively to a battle.

I agree with Devilkiller's point: most players would love to have a healer. It makes everyone's lives easier and longer. Bards are good for buffing the party; they get so many uses of bardsong that you can generally use it every single fight, and they have a lot of out of combat utility as well. They can heal, but you're better off using wands instead of spells.

The current "best combat healer build" in Pathfinder, which is to say the one most capable of casting in combat and dropping AOE heals and not dying from a single glance by an enemy, is called the Oradin (Oracle of Life/Paladin). It has the strong healing of the Oracle and the survivability of the Paladin; it can even do some good in a fight.

Still, even with a great healer class, you want to use Wands of Cure Light Wounds for all out of combat healing; it is the most cost effective post-combat recovery option.

In a home brew game, anything is allowed if the GM is cool with it.

There are two intimidate actions: (1) Apply shaken to a target for 1 round + 1 round per 5 points by which you surpass their DC (10 + their level + their wisdom bonus). (2) Over the course of at least one minute of conversation you can temporarily, for 1d6x10 minutes, make the NPC friendly and willing to assist you but after which they drop down further than their original position on the interaction chart.

As a home brew rule set, I would say that any player may add Strength or Charisma to option (1). There is no special feat, there's no choosing at character creation, there's no class specific division. The target must be able to perceive you and you must be able to physically act (so if you're tied up, it is pitch darkness, for example, would preclude this option).

Option (2) would still have to be Charisma only because it has to do with impressing upon the target during a conversation all the ways they should fear upsetting you more than they should fear whatever will happen if they help you.

That's how I would run it.

You're saying that if Arnie in his prime (Terminator, Conan) walked up to you with a mean look on his face and towered over you, you wouldn't be intimidated at all? I'm not even saying this as a 4'11" weakling. I'm 6' 2" and I'd be scared.

No, he's saying if Arnold was just standing there curling 150 pound barbells, you would not be Shaken. If he walked up and towered over you, he'd be making an intimidate check. He's not towering because he's strong, he's not towering because he's 8 feet tall. He's "towering" because his presence is so strong that he makes you feel shorter than you are. That's charisma.

Remember, we're talking about the ability score used. Adding strength mod to a skill roll isn't used just because you have muscles, you have to use those muscles to justify the reason you're adding the stat to the 1d20 roll. Flexing them doesn't count.

I'd also argue in the case of Agyra. I wouldn't say that thing is going to be doing much 'intimidating'. It will simply go straight to 'murder everything'. Intimidating is using the threat of force to get what you want, not actually using force.

I hit FAQ but I'd rule no in any of my games (unless a FAQ is released to the contrary).

My thoughts: The concealment is limited in scope. It doesn't make you hard to see, it makes you hard to hit by ranged attacks. I read it as a fast way to say "in only the specific case of being a target of ranged attacks, you gain a 20% chance of being missed by said ranged attacks as if you have concealment". It isn't global concealment and thus doesn't qualify the "concealment for stealth" requirement.

I also understand this is a debatable approach and I'm not trying to debate the issue, just to provide one viewpoint on the issue to those uncertain of their own thoughts. There are other viewpoints that exist and I'm sure their proponents see mine as wrong just as much as I see their argument as flawed. The joy of the game!

So, to summarize:

Move woman into a lead lined room. Cast Flesh to Stone on her. Move statue into smaller lead lined vault. Kick the vault into another plane without leaving the room. Destroy the room.

Or another fun thing is to shrink the statue and carry it around with you.

Or combine all of this! Baleful polymorph to a cute rabbit. Shrink creature. Flesh to Stone. Shrink item. Put marble sized bunny figurine in your pocket.

I wouldn't allow it because you've just readied two different actions. The danger of readied actions is that you may not use them; this plan completely removes that issue. Even two actions are better than one.

Of course, I also try to think in the mindset of the bad guys and what they would or wouldn't do in order, not as the omnipotent GM that can tell what the players are planning.

Another fun question is whether or not an enemy can tell you've readied an action and if it is possible to determine what the action and/or trigger is? While a wolf may charge you because you're a target even though you are standing there with your sword up high obviously waiting to strike, it is perfectly reasonable for a sword master to be like "huh, I think he's going to hit me if I get near him... time to go after a different target".

Regarding invisibility, it does counter it. Pinpointing, as suggested by you as a possible outcome, is far from accurate. If you can pinpoint a creature that is invisible, all that means is that you know which 5 foot square the creature is in. This is far from what you get if the entire creature is outlined in glitter.

Even if you can't see their facial features or read their "you can't see me" t-shirt, you still see them. You see their head, shoulders, arms, and legs. You see their weapon, footwork, and movements. You see everything necessary to fight the creature because the creature is outlined. Think of it as fighting a Shadow or a Ghost; you don't have any penalties to fighting one of those even though it is just a shape, an outline, with no distinguishing features within the emptiness of the form.

Your argument misses the one primal force of challenge: The GM.

The entire idea of character levels and APL and CR and Hit Dice are all just recommendations and guidelines (as Kolokotroni said).

The GM can swap out the Iron Will for Vital Strike, sure, and the GM should be aware that this will make things more difficult. It is up to the GM to determine if this change is acceptable for the party, give the party more rewards for it, or otherwise modify the encounter.

It isn't a rule's question because customizing monsters and building encounters are both fully in the purview of the GM's power as arbiter of the game and the events within the world of the game. There are no rules that state a party MUST fight APL monsters, and if they don't then they are entitled to something. There are no rules that state modifying a creature's feat or spell choices MUST affect the creature's CR. It is 100% GM fiat.

It was a stressful situation for the party; no one likes seeing the inevitable TPK coming at them. Stressful situations breed stressed people and stressed people lash out in anger at anything near them. Not knowing the specifics of your dynamic with the group and if this is an isolated event, I'd let it slide. Of course, if they do this often, then you might want to have a talk.

There is something to be said about the inability to ready actions outside of combat.

What you actually get is a surprise round that starts when the door opens. Whomever gets the higher initiative action acts first.

Find another group.

This group plays the game they want to play and how they want to play it, which is inimical to what and how you want to play. They aren't necessarily 'wrong' to play that way; Pathfinder can be played in whatever way the party agrees. However, it isn't what you want to do and they dislike your method as much as you dislike their method.