Nathara's page

I am planning on a level 8 druid character and am trying to assemble a few defaults for wild shape, but I am having trouble backtracking where the individual stats for various animals come from.

I have no experience with using wild shape whatsoever, so I am a little unsure, could you check whether the following statements and conclusions are correct?

Let's say she assume the form of a viper.
1) The cloak of elvenkind and the belt of incredible dexterity would stay in effect, as they are constant effect items.
2) The stealth bonus for a default viper are composed as follows: 3 dexterity bonus + 8 size tiny + 4 racial = +15. Consequently a default viper has no ranks in stealth.
3) If my character assumed the shape of a viper the resulting stealth score would be:

• 8 ranks
• 3 class skill (due to silent hunter trait)
• 1 trait bonus from silent hunter
• 8 size
• 4 circumstance competence bonus due to cloak of elvenkind
• 8 dexterity bonus (20 Dex default + 2 belt of incredible dexterity + 4 beast shaped into tiny animal = 26 Dex)
• No bonus from the natural stealth +4 quality an actual viper has

Which would sum up to +32 and she could speak a Blend she could get another +4 enhancement bonus for a +36 if she wanted to. Due to to Natural Spell and the fact that the spell only has somatic components she can do so even while already in a viper shape.

Hello,

I am just toying with a bloodrager, which I am creating on level 4 for a forum game. There are a few things funny when I consider the rules though.

a) A minor thing as the DM already ruled that in my favour, but the according to the rules as written, the fiendish sorcery trait of tieflings works only for sorcerers, not bloodragers. Given that in the game only the default tiefling is allowed (+2 Dex, Int, -2 Cha) that's a serious pain. Since the tiefling existed before the bloodrager class was introduced, that's an understandable oversight, but it should mention explicitly in the description of both the infernal and the abyssal bloodline for bloodragers that the tiefling's "fiendish sorcery" trait applies to them.

b) The weapon which is kind of implied in the abyssal bloodline is the claws of the bloodrager. How effective that is in rule terms may be debateable. I suspect a greatsword would have far larger impact, but, if you want to actually use the claws, you have the problem that you cannot enchant them using Magic Weapon, because it doesn't work on natural weapons. Magic Fang, which could be used, is not on the bloodrager spell list, however. Either Magic Fang should be on the bloodrager's spell list, or there should be a ruling that Magic Weapon applies to the fangs. (That is both the base spells and the more powerful versions such as Greater Magic Weapon)

c) I don't quite see the point of Rage as bonus spell for a bloodrager. Blood ragers can rage, anyway.

d) The various mali to AC accumulate -6 on 12th level (-4 instead of -2 due to Abyssal Bloodrage (Su), -1 due to size, -1 due to decrease in Dex). On top of that, depending on the base dexterity, they might be in trouble when it comes to fulfilling the prerequisits to dodge. I know there are severe benefits, but is that really balanced? -6 to AC?

And that all on top of the little detail that the bloodrager resistances overlap with the tiefling resistances, which is a serious waste. But that has been the same with aasimar and tiefling sorcerers, anyway. To pick the matching bloodline for the characters origin seems penalised by overlapping boni.

An Oracle cursed with "Powerless Prophecy" cannot take any actions during the surprise round. That makes sense if she's the one being ambushed but did notice the enemy - she can neither forewarn her companions nor do anything about it.

However, if it is the enemy who is not aware of the oracle's presence and she intends to ambush them, that leads to situation where she can't attack and there might be no combat, unless she makes the enemy aware of her presence first - she's laying in a hiding place, having a crossbow aimed at the enemy, but just can't pull the trigger.

So the question is: Does the Curse of Powerless Prophecy really prevent an oracle from attacking an enemy who is not aware of her presence?

I just have a minor detail question regarding the setting:

Prince Aduard Odranti III. is the nominal ruler of Ustalav according to the Inner Sea World guide. The name "Odranti" means he is a member of "House Odranto" and actually rules the county Odranto from Castle Odranto, doesn't it?

I am trying to create an adventure according to the setting, at least as far as depicted in the Inner Sea World guide. I don't mind if there are contradictions to other source books, but it should be in line with that.

Hello,

I would like to kindly request certain features for the forum, primarily with the intent to improve the possibilities of play-by-post, as well as posting Pathfinder Society characters into the character sheets. I really love the means that the system already provides, but in comparison to other forum systems I find other features that would make a lot of things simpler and easier to read.

In my personally perceived order of importance:

• Tables
  Obviously helpful for inventory lists and arranging stats such as ability scores. It is helpful to somehow discern between header cells and normal cells. I've seen different systems, some of which use a syntax close to HTML, other which lean towards Mediawiki syntax.
  A relatively simple alternative would be to allow people to use blocks with a monospaced font in which multiple white spaces are not omitted, similar to a <pre></pre> block. However, not exactly like a pre-block because inside it further formatting (such as bold characters) must not be ignored and it must not exceed its boundaries, when a line becomes to long it must be broken into the next.
  
• Horizontal rulers
  The can be mimiced by several dashes etc. to split a single one post into logical groups (i.e. one in character, one out of character, or to indicate a change of scene), but that looks a bit awkward compared to actual horizontal rulers.
  
• Footnotes
  Can be helpful to keep ooc comments out of the floating text as well as offer "translations" for text spoken in elven, infernal, ulfen and what not. Those things don't really have to be spoilers, just need to be kept separate. (Some players like to provide such text as a google translation into a real life language none of the other players speaks.)
  Possible example: "I humbly thank you for your welcome, milady. Might I request that our caravan might be permitted passage through your lands?"[fn][dice=Diplomacy|1d20+2[/dice|[/fn]
  
• Multiple gameplay threads in a single one game
  If the story breaks down into several threads, some players whish to continue a conversation of their characters that actually happened the night before and so forth the result is multiple time line in a single one thread which can get messy and notoriously difficult to understand. Thus it is helpful to have multiple gameplay threads in one game.
  

Beyond that a few additions the the dice rolling mechanism would be nice. Many forum systems have a mechanic to automatically omit the lowest roll from a set. For example "4d6dl1" might mean to discard the lowest one and thus sum up the three highest from the set.

If you forgive me for advertising an idea I once programmed myself for a different forum system: Progress bars to indicate health point levels and checkboxes to indicate the amount of available resources of a limited kind, such as arrows. See here for an example:
http://games.dnd-gate.de/index.php?topic=7858.0
Basically it adds: [bar]15/19[/bar] tags which allow one to have a hit point bar and [uses]18/20[/uses] which allow one to have a number of (Unicode, not HTML) checkboxes of which two would be checked in the given example. The prior can deal with negative quantifiers and qualifiers, but not currently with quantifiers that exceed the qualifier (even though that has been requested).
(This is based linear gradients from CSS 2, however, if someone comes around with Windows XP and Internet Explorer 6 it won't work)

And finally a a reversible "language garbler" for fictional languages would be nice. E.g. [elven]May the light shine on your path.[/elven] rearranges everything somehow to indicate that it is an actual strange language, but the result can, at least theoretically, be reversed into the origal, no information gets lost.

Hello,

when I read through some forum games and thought about concepts for unusually powerful, maybe even epic characters I couldn't help but think of certain comic book characters. I was wondering whether there is a meaningful way to have a character carry a symbiotic creature with its own will and alignment such as the Witchblade.

The most obvious way would be to make it an artifact. But one can't just have an artifact that gives them virtually unlimited power - while the wielder does not have perfect control over it, it is defined as a primal power in the universe, which may be a little over the top.

Another approach would be a race template, but race templates make it tricky to grow in power.

So I was thinking that maybe it would be best to simply make it a class with twenty levels. That will require some research (i.e. buying and reading comic books - however, there are some collected editions I was keen on anyway) to figure out which powers exactly it has, to which degree they can be introduced at which level without spoiling the game balance and how one keep the door open for multiclassing.
Obviouly witch would be a sane choice for multiclass characters, as suggested by the name. Since the purpose of the Witchblade is to be an actively balancing entity between its good and evil counterparts (the Angelus and the Darkness) druid seems like a sane choice as well. Finally the original comic book wielder of the Witchblade is a police officer, which suggests a rogue type character, specifically the "Investigator" archetype.

So, I might ultimately end up with different variations which are meant to be combined with different other classes.

Ultimately I can't call it "Witchblade" of course, since that's a trademark, but that should not be a problem since it's neither really a blade nor does it necessarily have anything to do with witches.

I would very much like to know which of those approaches some players more fit in the rules than I am would suggest.

Hello,

I've been considering cones from the Pathfinder Core Rule Book. I've always had my problem with the definition of the template for the 15 ft. cone aimed straight upwards and cones in general. The red dot is supposed to mark the location of origin, which it does in case of the examples for radius areas of effect. But in case of the cones it just represents the location of the caster.

Looking at how the cones spread, the actual location of origin for the up/left cone example is actually the upper right (north-east) corner of the caster's square. For the upward 15 ft. cone it's no corner at all, but the middle of the upper (northern) border.

I've made a little PDF with the results of some calculations of which fields would be in a fifteen foot cone:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7N84XKHAtV5M05JYzl1NWt0UEU

Unfortunately the rules for counting through the fields were difficult to match. In my example a square lies in the area of effect if its geometric center is within the are of of effect. That's leads to slightly different results on the 45° examples.

While in the case of a mere 15ft. cone one could have simple counted this through, these are the result of a few lines of Haskell code to actually which I have posted here:
http://pastebin.com/J8xw6E5M
(not that this links will become dead in one month)

For example, if I loud the module and enter:
> squaresInCone (2, 1) "NW" (pi / 4) 3
meaning, I want the squares in a cone originating from the north western corner of square 2 east and 1 north with an angle of pi/4 = 45° and a length of three fields I get:
[(2.0,2.0),(2.0,3.0),(2.0,4.0),(3.0,2.0),(3.0,3.0),(3.0,4.0),(4.0,2.0),(4.0,3.0)]

Of course I don't really consider "cones" here but quarter circles, a third dimension would be too complicated.

EDIT: The first version of the PDF file contained an error with the 22.5° cones.

Hello,

we're a little group of players who met up in an intro scene for Carrion Crown campaign. We connected, we played we had fun and - in my case - like hardly ever before in these forums. However, that scene happened to be a staging area and it appears that our little circle didn't represent what the GM was looking for.

Now we're in the situation that we don't just want to play Carrion Crown, but do so as a team. We're looking for a GM who'd like to lead a Carrion Crown campaign with and would like the opportunity to pick up a working group and go for it.

The characters whose player's I've contacted and from which I got a positive response from where:

Maia - NG Female Aasimar (Emberkin, Elf base) Wizard 1 and her chatty raven familiar Val
Morthos - LG Male Aasimar (Angelkin) Paladin of Iomedae 1
Bran - CG Male Human (Varisian) Barbarian (Drunken Brute) 1
and myself:
Narah - CG Sylph Cleric of Calistria 1

Another player who I have contacted said he'd prefer to do look for any random BPB group, but I have a certain feeling that Borden might come along if a GM showed up. A fifth player I've contacted (not counting myself) has not replied yet and a sixth I would have contacted has been accepted into the original group (I am not entirely sure whether I should be happy for her, I have a feeling she'd have more fun with us).

We're not exactly a group who never does anything unpredictable, but I hope you'll agree we're all decent types. You may reread the events that connect us here:
A Heavy Burden (Discussion Thread)

Well, I hope there is a GM who would like to play Carrion Crown and finds the group appealing.

Regards,
Narah / Feuerrabe

Hello,

I am looking for a Paizo prestige class or maybe an archetype I might apply in retrospect that puts some more emphasize on the divine aspect of ranger.

I was considering to multiclass as a Ranger / Cleric of Shelyn with this character in future: http://paizo.com/people/ShaliraLebeda

But I don't really like the idea of having two separate divine caster classes, as marginal as the ranger's spells may.

Does anyone have a good suggestion on this?

Regargs,
Feuerrabe

Hello,

I've always liked to toy a little with the magic of chance and numbers and chance, so I've been toying with some

And even though my statistics are a bit rusty and I would have to read terms like "median" "golden cut" and "standard deviation", which I vaguely remember but wouldn't know how to calculate from scratch.

A collague at my work who has studied statistics has been extremely helpful pointing me to the fact that I can calculate the probability of things like "If I roll six scores in this manner, how likely is it that I get two or more results of less than ten?" using the binomial distribution, for which a lot of online calculators across the internet exist. Which is a good thing, since I was already about to write a script to build a binary tree out of all possibilities and then traverse it, tracing the probaility and result of each branch.
A very helpful site is for example: http://stattrek.com/online-calculator/binomial.aspx

Anyway here are the first two alternate methods I've been considering. Everyone is more than welcome to comment on it, especially if they know more about statistics than I do.

All methods assume that we're doing six times the exact same thing. I've considered other possibilities, but it only makes it unnescessarily complicated, imho.

4d4+2:
Result range: 6 - 18
Expectancy Value: 12
Likelyhood of at least one score less than 8: 11.16%
Likelyhood of at least one 16 or higher: 30.39%
Likelyhood of at least two values lower than 10: 19.27%
Diagram: http://ubuntuone.com/59CZxx1doXcM2SG2iZaen4 (PNG)

5d4, delete lowest, +2:
Result range: 6 - 18
Expectancy Value: 13.23
Likelyhood of at least one score less than 8: 3.47%
Likelyhood of at least one 16 or higher: 65.40%
Likelyhood of at least two values lower than 10: 3.87%
Diagram: http://ubuntuone.com/1w6b7Jrkpy51LK0LVaASXI (PNG)

For comparison:
2d6+6:
I didn't calculate that out in detail, but the expectancy value is 13, the curve is symmetric since you don't delete a dice and more flat than with 4d4+2.

Maximum Average with Point Buy 25: 13.5 (14, 14, 14, 14, 13, 12) or (16, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13)

Maximum Average with Point Buy 20: 13.17 (14, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13)
* with one 16: 12.67 (eg. 16, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12)

Maximum Average with Point Buy 15: 12.5 (13, 13, 13, 12, 12, 12)
* with one 16: 11.83 (eg. 16, 12, 12, 11, 10, 10)

4d6, delete lowest:
Result Range: 3 - 18
Expectancy Value: 12.24
Likelyhood of at least one score less than 8: 29.72%
Likelyhood of at least one 16 or higher: 56.76%
Likelyhood of at least two values lower than 10: 28.38%
Diagram: http://ubuntuone.com/0c9HI1IvrwByFCL1hetL08 (PNG)

5d6, delete lowest 2:
Result Range: 3 - 18
Expectancy Value: 13.48
Likelyhood of at least one score less than 8: 11.17%
Likelyhood of at least one 16 or higher: 79.83%
Likelyhood of at least two values lower than 10: 7.64%
Diagram: http://ubuntuone.com/5YYSs2rFynRu0witsoQku4

Looking at the stats I think I like the dsitribution 5d4, delete lowest, add two a lot better than 5d5, delete lowest two, but it it will still yield epic range chars, even though the expectancy value is slightly lower. What disturbs me about the 4d4+2 is the probability to get a value lower than 8. Two d6+6 remains a quite fine method.

There are a few other possibilties that I've been considering. Not add up the dice of a role, but use the average of two or three d10 or d12. Or use the geometric_middle(4d4) + 8 (which would make an 18 impossible, since four rolled 4s would yield sqrt(4² + 4² + 4² + 4²) = 8.

That would of course be a bit tough to explain to the players. They will feel cheated of they don't understand how you get from the rolls to the scores. But a DM who likes these stuff could formulate it somewhat mystical, making a kind of horoscope. (Eg. Your strength is determined by a star the four dimensions of your dice roll show. The first dimension is that of your parents... and make diagram of the first three dimensions with a stars background with bars in glowing colours. The fourth dimension might be the shifting chaos of the abyss which can never be visually represented.)

What I am trying to reach is a symmetric curve that is flat for the middle four or five stats and steep at the ends. And try to avoid values lower than 8, while making an 8 a realistic possibility. Unfortunately, I will have to dig a lot deeper into statistics, to reach a good, simple mode to that end.

Hello,

I am relatively new to the forums. Since I wanted to apply to a recruitment thread for an online game, and the DM specifically asked for a PM I wanted to send him a PM with an appication.

The problem is, that I can't find PM buttons anywhere. I click the user's name, I click "profile", and there is no link. Not only with this user but with a number random users I've tried. According to the FAQ there should be a button labeled "send private message", but neither my eyes, nor Firefox's search function can seem to find it.

The FAQ also states that, if I don't see the button, the user has either blocked me or disabled PMs altogether. Which would consequently mean that either everyone hates me even though I hardly have said anything yet, or everyone disabled PMs, even when they are specificially asking for PMs...

Could anyone tell me what I should do, please?

Thanks
Feuerrabe

Hello,

I am new around here and am looking for some kind of online Pathfinder playing. The last few hours I've dug through rules, recreated a character according to, rewriting the background...

So now I am ready to find out what I am actually looking for.

I don't like voice chat but I am curious about MapTool and Rpg20.NET, I just stubled over MapTool earlier today and find it quite interesting. However, I don't like voice chat. So... are there text based groups? What is Google+ / Google Hangout? Visiting the page at google.com it looked more like something to share photos, like flickr. Is Google+ and Google Hangout the same?

Are there rounds that combine play-by-post with Rpg20.net or MapTool? I like having time to consider when I play and use more detailed description as live-playing usually allows (unless in pen and paper of course, but that's different), plus I live in GMT+1 time zone. But in a combat situation, such tools seem to be of invaluable help.

Is it possible for sanctioned Pathfinder Society games to take place on a different forum system? I usually like to hang out at a German language website and I kinda like the thought that, regardless where I play, the characters persist (either my own or that of my players should I ever be DMing). Are there non-English games run on this forum (well, particularly German games in my case).

Is there anything I should pay attention to as a new player when I apply for a play-by-post round here in the forums instead?

I've read over the rules for Pathfinder Society characters. For the character I created I selected Arshea as deity. I am not sure whether that is covered by the formulation:

Characters can elect to worship any deity

listed in a table of gods in the Core Rulebook, The Inner
Sea World Guide, Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Gods and
Magic, or any other source listed as an official Additional
Resource.

Do Empyrial Lords count? They are not on the table of gods, but on a table in the "The Inner Sea Word Guide"... I chose Arshea for the character, she converted from her faith to Calistiria.

I am also not sure whether I represented my character correctly on the sheet... if anyone could have a look, please? I just posted the output of Hero Lab into the sheet, followed by a background description. I just notice the program failed to print my bloody horse and the equipment I game to it...

http://paizo.com/people/Lurielle

Thanks for help. :)

Feuerrabe

To repeat the question in the title:

Does a mithral version of originally medium armor count as light for bard / magus spell failure ignorance?

This question is somewhat specialized, because the vast majority of bards and magi won't be concerned. By the time they become proficient with a given armor category, they gain the ability to ignore the spell failure on them as well.

The particular case however is a Spell Dancer however, a Magus archetype for elves (in this particular case for a half-elf - I realize that the topic whether this is allowed is hotly debated, but the DM permitted it, so that's that)

A Spell Dancer does not gain any armor proficiency beyond light armors. She could wear an Elven Chain (a mithral chain mail), which would suit her thematically pretty well, if she spent a feat to acquire the armor proficiency and the armor would still count as light armor in all respects other than the required proficiency. So judging purely thematically I'd say "yes". But balance wise its somewhat tricky because Spell Dancers do gain a +2 supernatural insight bonus to armor on level seven, which increases to +4 on level 13.

The question is, whether in this case she may ignore the spell failure. Is a mithral version of a medium armor a medium armor or a light armor in this regard? Should I plan to spend a feat and look for elven chain, or go for adamantine chain shirts.

Rules concerned afaik:
Mithral http://www.d20pfsrd.com/equipment---final/special-materials#TOC-Mithral
Magus Armor Proficiency http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/magus#TOC-Weapon-and-Armor-Pro ficiency
Spell Dancer Archetype (see "Dance of Avoidance") http://www.d20pfsrd.com/races/core-races/elf/spell-dancer-magus-elf

I have a little problem. My game master forbade me from picking up the Magus Archetype "Spell Dancer" because the character is not an elf, but a half elf.

Reading through regarding similar questions for both half-elves and half-orcs it seems to me that it is indeed permitted to do so based on "Elf Blood" - despite the formulation "Elf Blood: Half-elves count as both elves and humans for any effect related to race." it seems so that this also includes character option prerequisits (which are not effects).

Most similar questions on this board contain answers that the _type_ counts as prerequisit and not the concrete race.

The question is: Where can I find a credible, official ruling that clearly states this? Or am I wrong and it is indeed not permitted?