Elf Archer

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Okay, I'm pretty sure that 50% of people who answer this thread won't read more than the title, so I expect mostly "Who is Erasmus?" and "He's the iconic for mediums, guess what he is!" answers.

Now the ugly truth is, that Erasmus and the Medium have very little in common, fluffwise and ruleswise. Let's start with fluff, because in the end it doesn't matter, everyone can change it around to fit what they like. The description of the Medium says: "A medium serves as a vessel to channel spirits—astral echoes of powerful souls from ages past that live on in myth and legend." Well, I guess it's pure accident that the "spirits of legend" the medium can channel all share names with mythic paths. If Erasmus' uncle, sister and brother were legendary, mythic beings he's kind of the underachiever of the family. And his brother a genius for killing them all. But as I said, that doesn't matter, a medium that channels the spirits of dead relatives is an awesome idea, so now we come to the ugly part, let's look at the story of Erasmus:

"With the aid of his uncle's mastery of magic, Erasmus easily retrieved the keys to his cell to secure his escape. Under the control of his battle-eager eldest sister, the asylum's guards had no hope of restraining him. But when he gratefully burst open the King's cell, he found it empty. Too harried to ponder the implications of his friend's disappearance, Erasmus fled, relying on the influence of his roguish brother Baylock to slip through the shadows to freedom."

Sounds awesome, doesn't it? I really want to be like that guy.... So let's play through that scene with the actual medium rules:

"Erasmus spends one hour channeling the spirit of his archmage uncle (because a cell in an asylum is obviously the right location to channel an archmage), then he uses his magic powers to retrieve the key to his cell. He spends the rest of the day waiting until he can perform another seance. Then he spends one hour channeling the spirit of his champion sister (again his cell seems to have turned into an "appropriate location" for the spirit he needs) and breaks out, overwhelming the guards who were trying to restrain him. He also tries to break out the cell neighbour who taught him about being a medium but he's gone. So now Erasmus waits for the remaining twentyfour hours (I don't get it, did he murder all the guards? Wouldn't they wake up otherwise? Then why does he need to hide?) and until he can spend one hour to channel his trickster brother Baylock (he obviously found an "appropriate location" in the asylum for that) "to slip through the shadows to freedom".

Seriously. What sounds like an evening's work in the background story takes at least two days with the rules. We really need an archetype for someone who can channel blood relatives without silly twentyfour hour limits location restrictions.


Hello, after seeing Slashing Grace in the ACG which allows swashbucklers to add dexterity to both, attack and damage rolls and longswords, and reading that they would release another feat to allow the same just for rapiers I was a little bit disappointed, since I'm a big fan of short swords and still would have to use Mythic Weapon Finesse for that. So I made a feat that hopefully brings the short sword on par. It's not only useful for swashbucklers (since unlike a longsword everybody can finesse a short sword) and to make it more appealing I gave it a small benefit against damage reductions by allowing it to deal two types of damage. As Gurney Halleck said: "The point can also cut; the blade can also stab [...]"
Feedback is welcome. Too powerful? Too weak? Just right?

Ancient Fencing Style (Combat)
Due to your mastery of the short sword your damage depends more on well-placed blows than brute strength.
Prerequisites: Dex 13, Weapon Finesse, Weapon Focus (short sword).
Benefit: When wielding a short sword, you can add your Dexterity modifier instead of your Strength modifier to damage rolls and it does both, piercing and slashing damage. To use this feat, you cannot attack with a weapon in your other hand or use a shield other than a buckler.


2 people marked this as FAQ candidate.

Am I seeing it right that inquisitors and druids are excluded from getting the Divine Protection feat?

The feat says:

Prerequisites: Cha 13, Knowledge (religion) 5 ranks,
ability to cast 2nd-level divine spells; blessings†, domains,
or mystery class feature.

Clerics have the domains class feature. Inquisitors have the domain class feature. (For that it doesn't matter if the Inquisitor chooses a domain or an inquisition since the class feature remains the same and is not identical with domains.) Druids have the nature bond class feature which can grant a domain but still isn't domains.

Is everything correct or did I overlook something? (Until today I believed that Spring Attack and Vital Strike could be combined, so I'm wary now.)


I searched for an answer but didn't find anything official or convincing, so here's what confuses me:

Maximized Critical (Ex): Whenever you score a critical hit, the weapon's damage result is always the maximum possible amount you could roll. This doesn't affect other dice added to the damage, such as from sneak attack or the flaming weapon special ability. For example, if you score a critical hit with a longsword (1d8/×2), treat the sword's damage dice as if you had rolled 8 both times, then add any other damage bonuses that you would normally apply to a critical hit.

That's a nice ability, especially for the new warpriest. However, Critical Master looks like this:

Critical Master (Ex): Whenever you roll a critical threat against a non-mythic creature, you automatically confirm the critical hit and deal the maximum amount of damage to that creature. This ability can be selected twice. The second time it is selected, it also applies to mythic creatures.

What is that supposed to mean? Are all dice maximized? For a rogue with sneak attack that would be insanely powerful. Is it supposed to mean weapons damage dice only? Then why doesn't it say so? Sure, you have to take it twice, but then it would make Maximized Critical completely obsolete.


Hello, I'm currently thinking about a mythic build and a bit confused about a few things so I'd like to know if I understand everything correctly.

Beyond Morality (Ex): You have no alignment. You can become a member of any class, even one with an alignment requirement, and can never lose your membership because of a change in alignment. If you violate the code of ethics of any of your classes, you might still lose access to certain features of such classes, subject to GM discretion. Attempts to detect your alignment don't return any results. If a class restricts you from casting spells with an alignment descriptor, you can cast such spells without restrictions or repercussions. If you're the target of a spell or effect that is based on alignment, you're treated as the most favorable alignment when determining the spell's effect on you. Any effects that alter alignment have no effect on you. If you lose this effect, you revert to your previous alignment.

Divine Source (Su): You can grant divine spells to those who follow your cause, allowing them to select you as their deity for the purposes of determining their spells and domains. Select two domains upon taking this ability. These domains must be alignment domains matching your alignment if possible, unless your alignment is neutral. You grant access to these domains as if you were a deity. Creatures that gain spells from you don't receive any spells per day of levels higher than your tier; they lose those spell slots. In addition, you can cast spells from domains you grant as long as their level is equal to or less than your tier. Each day as a spell-like ability, you can cast one spell of each level equal to or less than your tier (selecting from those available to you from your divine source domains). If you're a cleric or you venerate a deity, you may change your spell domains to those you grant others. At 6th tier and 9th tier, you can select this ability again, adding one domain and two subdomains (see the Advanced Player's Guide) to your list each time and adding their spells to the list of those that you can cast.

1) As I understand it, if I choose Beyond Morality first I can freely pick my first two domains but don't get any associated subdomains (even though people who worship the character could still take them). If I choose Divine Source first as a chaotic good character I get the Chaos and Good domains and keep them even after choosing Beyond Morality.

2) Even though it's not explicitly stated I guess it is intended for the second and third time you take Divine Source to get a domain and the two associated subdomains.

3) Can you grant spells to yourself? Since Divine Source mentions the possibility that you can exchange your old domains for the ones you are granting others that seems to be a fair question. Also you can grant a total of 4 domains and 4 subdomains. The rule kind of sounds like you get them all in exchange for your old domains, even though it is explicitly forbidden to have both a domain and one of its subdomains. (That last part luckily doesn't concern me since it's a Warpriest/Inquisitor gestalt but I'm still curious).

4) What happens if one of your clerics (or other divine spellcasters) breaks your code of conduct? Do you know instantly? When he prays for spells the next time? Not at all until you find out?


Hello, I'm currently collecting ideas for a setting that is based more on antiquity than on the Middle Ages and while looking at pictures of armor from that time I wonder what it would be in Pathfinder terms.

I always considered the armor of wealthy hoplites breastplates, but according to Ultimate Equipment those don't protect the back.
Also, what would this be then?

I guess the rest would fall under everything from quilted cloth over hide and the various lamellar armors to scale mail, but those two are giving me headaches.


Hello, I'm working on a custom race for a homebrew setting, fey progenitors of the elves who have mostly withdrawn from the material plane since those who later became known as "drow" made sure that there are plenty bad people with cold iron blades around. So far the only way to depict that was giving them DR/cold iron which is expensive and makes them look bad. (Really, they leave the material plane because of weapons who hurt them like normal weapons hurt every other living being? D'awww let's play the world's saddest song on the world's smallest violin.)
Now the mythic playtest rules have exactly what I would need.

Material Weakness: Select cold iron, silver, or wood.
Weapons made primarily from the selected material
automatically confirm all critical hits against you and
the critical multiplier is increased by 1, to a maximum
of ×4. If you ever gain damage reduction, no matter
the source, weapons made primarily from the selected
material bypass that damage reduction.

I'm a bit unsure how the race point cost should look. The closest thing would probably be elemental vulnerability a -2 RP, but the mythic equivalent looks a lot worse, so I'm thinking about -3 or even -4....


I'm pretty sure that you would prefer to keep your books separated but reading the test pdf immediately made me think about a tiny expansion to the race building rules. In fact that would be the best place for some of the mythic flaws like material weakness. Having race point cost for those and for a very low-powered mythic ability (one daily use of mythic power to add 1d6 to a d20 roll, converts to an additional daily use of mythic power if the character actually gains mythic tiers) would be great.


Welcome to another paladin thread. This one is about the special mechanics of the blackguard and anti-paladin and the big problem of paladin mechanics. As most people who don't try to inject real world moral relativism into their D&D/Pathfinder know a Paladin gets a bunch of cool special abilities as long as he follows a pretty rigid code. If he breaks it he has to atone to get his power back. BUT he has the honour of being the only class whose alignment is locked on both axes from level 1. A paladin who realizes that lawful good just isn't something he wants to be for the rest of his life is a worse waste of space than a mule in the Mines of Moria. Well, unless he gets the idea that heaven is for chumps and evil is cool. In that case the blackguard or the anti-paladin allow him to get back all of his powers twisted to do the opposite. Welcome to the dark side. Since being evil is all about the easy way (well and not bothering with the greater good, otherwise you would be neutral) that's easy. The gods of darkness, blood and murder embrace you. Wooooooo.
Now there are two ugly problem with that in the otherwise nicely symmetrical cosmology. If you drop out of paladin school without going all the way to kicking puppies and sacrificing virgins you are screwed. Bad paladin, no powers for you. Why is that? The other thing is that a blackguard or anti-paladin can go nowhere. It doesn't matter if they go into neutral territory or all the way to good, no one will accept them and give them powers. A level 20 anti-paladin who is redeemed is a knight of the sad countenance. Seems that the good gods aren't that much into redemption after all.
I would really like it if there would be multiple "divine champion" classes for the different alignments, especially now that the cavalier, samurai and hellknight beat up the paladin to take his most important class feature. Atonement would allow them to switch between the archetypes on an alignment change. Of course if someone tries to do that too often he could run out of gods he hasn't annoyed yet.


I'm currently thinking about a few houserules for my homebrew setting concerning (native) outsiders that have levels in divine classes. The first is the idea that outsiders can take a feat to fuel their own divine magic which takes away the need to serve a god for some classes. However if they fuel their own powers it would also be logical that they can keep them when violating their code of conduct. Now I'm wondering how much of a balance factor the code of a Paladin really is. Most of the abilities of the paladin are defensive, except smite evil, and that only works against evil opponents. I would really like to hear some opinions on that.

The other houserule idea would be that outsiders with that feat can choose the proficiency with the weapon of their celestial ancestor whenever they would get the favored weapon of their deity.


Hello, I took advantage of the sale to get the PDF-version of the Inner Sea World Guide, which in turn made me stumble over the Harrow Deck. Now I'm wondering if there is any text on the cards since I'm sitting in Germany and would prefer getting the English version if there was a difference between the cards (rulebook doesn't matter, the English version is a free download).


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....without appearing to be completely insane?
In our world some of the worst people are those who actually think that they are doing good. Would something like that be possible in a world where moral alignment is a tangible force?
For a paladin it's practically impossible. If you cease to be lawful good you will realize soon enough that your divine powers have vanished. A cleric could champion a cause he believes noble and just but if he is actually evil he will channel negative energy which should tell him something. For non-divine classes it could be easier, but as a villain who is anywhere but the smallest villages you would still have to interact with the rules at some point. How do you think of yourself as a good being when a paladin almost bisects you with a smite or if the gaze attack of a Ghaele shakes you?
I would like to see some other opinions on that.


Hello, one thing that always bothered me about half-celestials in 3.X were the wings. There were tons of interesting outsiders from the good part of the great wheel, but somehow every child of a good outsider and a mortal looked like an angel and could fly like one even if none of the parents had wings. Pathfinder got rid of the explicit mention of wings, but they still all get a fly speed. Here I want to collect fluff descriptions for the children of outsiders that fly without wings and alternate rules for those of non-flying outsiders. For the latter I will assume that the template is normally applied to beings with a 30 ft. speed, so the replacement ability will be around 10 RP. I'm going to start with those in the original Bestiary and will add others as I make them.

Half-Ghaele: The half-ghaele and his equipment start glowing with celestial light while he takes off to fly. (Think of Dr. Manhattan, just with equipment.)

Half-Bralani:While in flight the half-bralani's legs are transformed into a whirlwind of dust, snow, or sand. (Think of Red Tornado just with the appropriate material instead of the redness.)

Half-Hound Archon:
Change Shape (Su): At will, a half-hound archon can assume any canine form of Small or Medium size, as if using beast shape I. For the purposes of this ability, canines include any dog-like or wolf-like creature of the animal type.
Tail: Half-hound archons get a +2 racial bonus to Stealth and Survival skill checks. (I hope my dictionary didn't fail me when naming this trait. :D)

No Half-Lantern Archon. Thinking about how they would procreate with mortals and how the children would look broke my brain.


While trying to figure out a few hybrid races with the Advanced Race Guide I stumbled into a few issues I'm not sure what to do about.

First of all, if you apply the half-celestial template to an elf "The creature's type changes to outsider (native)." Since he is now not a humanoid (elf) anymore wouldn't he lose all access to elven feats, items, prestige classes, etc?
It gets even more interesting if you do that with a half-elf, because of the Elf Blood entry in their rules. "Half-elves count as both elves and humans for any effect related to race." Would he be considered a native outsider, a human and an elf at the same time? Would he also be considered a humanoid?
There's one alternate racial trait for Aasimar that makes them count as both outsider (native) and humanoid (human), in Races of Faerun there were Fey'ri that had "Elven Blood: For all special abilities and effects, a fey'ri is considered an elf. Fey'ri, for example, can use or create elven weapons and magic items with racially specific elven powers as if they were elves." Would "for all special abilities and effects" also include spells that target humanoids, so it would essentially have the equivalent effect of the new Aasimar trait from the RPG?


2 people marked this as FAQ candidate.

While pondering gestalts I stumbled over the empyreal bloodline for sorcerers (very useful for Cleric or Inquisitor gestalts) however their bloodline power makes me wonder a bit

Sacred Cistern (Su): At 9th level, your bloodline makes you a natural receptacle of divine energy. You can channel energy once per day as a cleric of your sorcerer level – 4. This bloodline power replaces wings of heaven.

So far no problem, I never liked wings of heaven thematically. It seems way too angel-specific. However, Sacred Cistern only replaces Wings of Heaven as a Bloodline Power, the rest is from the Celestial bloodline, among others:

Ascension (Su): At 20th level, you become infused with the power of the heavens. You gain immunity to acid, cold, and petrification. You also gain resist electricity 10, resist fire 10, and a +4 racial bonus on saves against poison. Finally, you gain unlimited use of the wings of heaven ability. Finally, you gain the ability to speak with any creature that has a language (as per the tongues spell).

On the one hand it looks like an oversight, on the other hand one channel energy per day at -4 level is not really a replacement for level*minutes of flight.


4 people marked this as FAQ candidate.

Hello, while working on a new character I ran into a few interesting questions with a few things that seem barely legal concerning the Eldritch Heritage feat line. The character is going to be an Inquisitor and when I stumbled over Eldritch Heritage I got the idea to use that to give him a familiar. Some kind of bird like a hawk he can use to better hunt enemies of the faith. That seemed straightforward enough, fulfill the prerequisites for Eldritch Heritage and choose the 1st level bloodline power of the arcane bloodline.
However, then I saw that there is also Improved and Greater Eldritch Heritage and that's where it starts to get suspicious.

Improved Eldritch Heritage says: "You gain either the 3rd-level or the 9th-level power (your choice) of the bloodline you selected with the Eldritch Heritage feat."

The 9th-level power of the arcane bloodline is:

New Arcana (Ex): At 9th level, you can add any one spell from the sorcerer/wizard spell list to your list of spells known. This spell must be of a level that you are capable of casting. You can also add one additional spell at 13th level and 17th level.

Okay, the effective sorcerer level for the bloodline abilities you get through the feats is character level -2 but even at 11th, 15th and 19th level and only for classes with a "list of spells known" three picks from the sorcerer/wizard list seem pretty powerful, especially for divine casters who don't have to worry about arcane spell failure. While it seems legal per rules as written as far as I can tell I'd really like to know if it works as intended.


Hello, I started testing yesterday and ran into a problem, namely the type trait. I can't find anything about choosing multiple Type traits. My first idea was an Azata/Elf-Hybrid as an advanced race, which would have both, the elf subtype (humanoid) and be a native outsider. On the one hand this makes sense for a lot of things (at least if you are used to the old D&D template system), one the other hand being allowed to stack type traits can lead to half-human, half-ogre, half-drow characters.


Hello, when reading the rules of the Shadowdancer and of the Shadow Conjuration spell he gets as a spell-like ability I started to wonder about something.
If a wizard casts Shadow Conjuration to mimic Summon Monster I most people who see it won't be able to recognise that he does something different than casting the actual spell. So they get a saving throw when interacting with the summoned monster to realise that they are partial illusions and everything is fine.
But what if the party sees someone who wears leather armor, uses weapons, teleports between shadows, hides in plain sight and starts casting conjurations? Could they claim to automatically disbelieve it to reduce the damage? Should they make a knowledge check (and if yes which one) to see if their characters recognise it too? And what if one of the characters is a shadowdancer himself? Would he automatically recognise a colleague?


Hello, I'm looking at the shadowdancer and wondering if the shadowdancer levels stack with rogue levels for the caster level of Minor Magic, Major Magic and Dispelling Attack. It's not mentioned in either class entry. It seems like common sense but is there somewhere a rule for that?


Hello, I became fascinated with hellknights, not as player characters, but as antagonists that don't necessarily have to be smitable by a paladin. Now it seems that every order has its one specialty they fight against but all that are stationed in Cheliax also defend the laws of their country. Now my question is: What are the laws in Cheliax? They will probably be unfair and draconic (LE), but I would like a bit more specific information. Is there any source where I could find it?


Hello,

I thought up an alternative table for the Leadership-Feat, which is based on Challenge Rating rather than level. A quick guide to the CR's (thanks to stringburka for explaining them to me):

NPC-class with non-heroic stat array: CR = Level -2
Kobold with NPC-class and non-heroic stat array: CR =Level -3
PC-class with heroic stat array: CR = Level -1

CR 0 = 1/2
CR -1 = 1/3
CR -2 = 1/4

Now what's the point of the whole thing?

1) Flexibility. You can take whatever followers you can get that have a CR equivalent to the follower level. You can take kobolds as followers without being nerfed, or gnolls or pixies, whatever fits you style (and what the DM allows).
2) A slight nerf. There was almost no reason to take NPC-classes as followers and I didn't like the idea of Leadership creating an army of heroes, so now the bulk (namely everbody on CR 1/3) has to be a member of an NPC class. I spread the followers over 7 CR's instead of 6 levels so you can still have a halfway competent court wizard or cleric.

Feedback is appreciated.^^


Hello,

I'm wondering a bit about the leadership feat, especially the follower part.

Benefits: This feat enables you to attract a loyal cohort and a number of devoted subordinates who assist you. A cohort is generally an NPC with class levels, while followers are typically lower level NPCs. See Table: Leadership for what level of cohort and how many followers you can recruit.

First of all, it's pretty clear that it's not really about class levels. You can't take a Deva with 1 level of warrior as a first level follower. So it probably would be better to make that table with CR's. Now I never really got behind how CR's are calculated. What I do know is that exotic races have different CR's.

A level 1 kobold warrior has CR 1/4, a level 1 drow warrior has CR 1/3, a level 1 tiefling rogue is CR 1/2 and the race is supposed to be more powerful than a standard race. So I can't figure out how much of that CR increase is from the race and how much from the heroic class. Leading a kobold tribe with the Leadership feat seems kind of unfair against normal leadership followers (I assume Drow have the normal powerlevel, but I'm not sure) or a demon cult with a lot of tieflings.

Another important question is the class. Under normal circumstances I would say that the Followers have NPC-classes. Heroes are usually the ones who run around on their own plundering dungeons, killing monsters and occasionally stopping armies. But what if a Paladin takes the Leadership feat to found his own order? Or what if somebody uses it to found his own kingdom and wants his two highest level followers to be a court wizard and a cleric? Both are roles an adept can't really fill out.
In 3E adepts and aristocrats counted as followers that were two levels higher. Those with heroic classes counted as three levels higher, but it seems that this was dropped in 3.5. So how would you balance different races and class types?


Hello,

after (re)reading Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic I started thinking about how half-drow with a non-human parent would look like. I used the template from Plot & Poison as a starting point, but didn't really like it and the Plot & Poison drow are quite different from Pathfinder drow, so I made some changes.

Please comment.^^

Half-Drow Template


Hello,
I have tried to convert the old D&D 3.0 eladrin ghaele monster class from Savage Species to an azata ghaele for pathfinder.
For those who don't know Savage Species, the feats and ability score increases in the table replace those of table 3-1 in the core rulebook.

Feedback would be appreciated. :-)

Azata Ghaele Monster Class


Hello, as a big fan of Savage Species I'm thinking about converting the old Eladrin Ghaele monster class to an Azata Ghaele. Now I'm wondering about a few things:

1) Why Azata? Did WotC claim Eladrin as exclusive name for their new high elves?
2) Are the new Azata more powerful or less powerful? They seem to have lost some class features and gotten others. Those seem a bit weaker but fit better into the concept. In exchange they got 3 more HD with everything that comes with that.
3) Maybe a better question would be if the CR in Pathfinder is identical with the one in 3.5 If yes would that mean, that their level adjustment now would be +7?
4) In D&D Ghaele had 10 HD and casted spells like a 14th-level cleric. In PF Ghaele have 13 HD and cast spells like a 13-level cleric. Would their spellcasting ability increase with further HD, or just the caster level? Or maybe nothing?

Thanks a lot.:-)