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So I ran a high level game and realised there are so many character options that cause the flat-footed condition: Sword crit specialisation, rogue's double feint, investigator's shared stratagem, flanking.

All these options detracted from the importance of flanking as the condition doesn't stack. I'm considering changing flanking to work like it did in 1e so that it grants the attacker a +2 circumstance bonus to attacks. It would also trigger sneak attack.

What are folks' thoughts on this change? Would it give the PCs too much advantage... If they can stack flat footed with flanking bonuses ?

Please share your thoughts

Hi friends, please share your collective thoughts on this one.
1) do you need to be able to be able to SEE a creature to target it with the message cantrip? (It’s clear they need to be able to see you in order to respond)
2) and if so, do you need to be able to see a creature to target it with the sending spell?
3) Sending has a range of “planetary.” I can guess what this means, but is it defined anywhere in the rules?
4) finally what do you think the RAI are for how these two spells should work?
Many thanks !

I’m looking at adding Surprise Rounds to my game, similar to how they worked in first edition. If combat breaks out and only some (but not all) of the combatants are aware that combat is starting, then we have a Surprise round. Everyone rolls initiative as normal, and is ordered accordingly. But then only those who are aware of combat get to act (in their initiative order). Once this Surprise round is over, we go back to the top of the initiative order for the first full round of combat.

In First edition, during a surprise round, you could only take a single move or standard action. This represented a shorter amount of time to act before everyone was ready and aware of combat. With this standard action you could make a single attack, move or Cast a Spell or similar.

Now in Second edition, during the Surprise round, I’m unsure whether to allow a single action only. (Which wouldn’t allow for Casting a Spell) or whether I should allow 2 actions. (Which would allow creatures to attack twice) or some more nuanced allowance (eg one attack or Cantrip plus one Step)

Has anyone implemented similar in their games? What are your thoughts on this house rule? What should creatures be able to do in a Surprise round?

As a final consideration - Surprise rounds were addressed in Pathfinder Unchained (which was the precursor to Second edition’s 3 action system. Unchained gave two “acts” as follows:

“Surprise Round
When combat starts, if some but not all of the participants are aware of their opponents, a surprise round occurs before the first round of combat. Those who are aware can commit up to 2 acts during the surprise round, and gain a reaction when that round is over. If all combatants are aware of their opponents, skip the surprise round.”

Hi guys, I’ve been GMing a homebrew set in Golarion for the last 7 years. The campaign started with the Price of Immortality trilogy and then branched our into homebrew territory. The Big Bad is still Razmir and his Church, and the Demon Lords he’s allied with to secure his own immortality. The party is level 19 - duelist/fighter/rogue, Oracle of Flame, Warpriest and Ranger. Super powered but great, creative role players. They’re about to head into Razmiran into the Forgotten Track (a gulag-like mining complex underground). I want to use a published Paizo dungeon from one of the APs that I could tweak to fit the setting but that would come ready made with interesting encounters (combat, puzzles, RO etc)

tl;dr: can anyone suggest a dungeon from a published AP for a 19th level party that I could tweak to fit into my homebrew campaign. Got to be challenging and fun and be able to be ported underground in Razmiran.

All Hail the Living God!

Fellow GMs! I'm approaching the final chapters of a 4 year long campaign which began with the awesome 'Price of Immortality' trilogy of modules. The Cult of Razmir has hounded my party all these years - tormenting them across the Inner Sea Region as far as the Elemental Plane of Fire. My PCs are now level 16 and they're finally ready to take the fight to Razmir himself in Thronestep! I'm looking for any cool ideas for what lies ahead within the Theocracy. I imagine a final showdown in Thronestep (with Level 20 PCs) atop the 31st step where Razmir sits gilded in blood and gold, mad with power and perversion behind his mask. The campaign has developed the Living God's growing ties to the Abyss and Abraxus who has promised Razmir eternal life in exchange for the souls of those his growing empire enslaves. Any ideas or resources would be greatly appreciated. My PCs are currently attempting to scry on the Living God's Kingdom from the Plane of Fire... But his demonic allies surely provide some trickery against such prying, for as we well know, one must "Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster... for when you gaze long into the abyss. The abyss gazes also into you.”

Hi guys, 2 questions about the gore attack:

1) how would you work the gore attack you get from this helm into a PC's attacks?
If a pc has iterative attacks from high bab, does this gore attack replace one of those iterative attacks at normal bab? Or is it an additional attack over and above normal number of iterative attacks? And if so what is the bonus to hit? Is it treated as a secondary natural attack or what?

2) Do u add strength bonus to the gore, and if so as its a single natural (?) attack would u add 1.5 STR modifier?

Many thanks for input

Fellow GMs - I need some help building a winter witch BBEG for my home group to face at the end of my current adventure arc. They are about to enter a Winter Witch's ice spire base deep in Irressen territory on an assassination mission for a Linnorm King. I've set up the idea of the Witches as powerful evil masters of cold and death who steal children across the border to trap their souls in porcelain dolls and steal their youth for eternal life - but I don't know the witch class very well at all. What are some cool tactics she could use when they face her - I'm looking for flavorful combat ideas - hex/spell combos etc. that are thematic and effective. The party is pretty powerful at Level 10 average. They have it All - barbarian cleric wizard ranger rogue occasionally a paladin and/or bard too.

Any ideas welcome - would love to incorporate environment and/or magic items too.

Cheers!

If a spellcaster is polymorphed into another form with Beast Shape spells or Alter Self - would a detect magic reveal the deception? What exactly would it reveal - a magic aura of the transmutation school?

Hi friends,

I've been running a home campaign for about 6 months - party is now up to level 8 using the fast progression track - good times... currently trying to escape from the Harrow Deck in the Harrowing. My girlfriend is playing a Ranger 7 Druid 1 elf archer character and she's fallen into a rut of casting Gravity Bow in round one, then just using her manyshot feat to fire 3 arrows into everything. I get the feeling she's losing interest in the game as she's a one trick pony. Its great having her at the table and I dont want her to lose interest in the game.. but also dont want to drastically reduce combat situations because the other guys enjoy that part immensely. Besides mixing up encounters with a good range of combat/social/puzzle obstacles - what are some easy ways I could make combat more fun for her. She's not as into crunch as I am, and doubt she'd read through all the spells and feats available.. i just want to give her a few good, easy, fun options to use in combat - did i mention i gave her a really powerful bow: +1 flaming composite Longbow (+2 str) which might be compounding the problem as she's dealing the most consistent damage in the party by far. She's also got a wolf animal companion (but its weak as a Class Level 5 animal companion - cos of Ranger levels - so most time is now spent keeping him out of harms way rather than adding to her options)

* What are a few neat tricks she could use in combat, ie spell combinations, feats etc? besides gravity bow and full attack?

* I was thinking of giving her a bag of randomly rolled arrows of slaying so at least she'd have something to try work out(what type of monster she's facing with a knowledge check or twp) before launching volleys of arrows.

* Is there something I could do by controlling monsters differently so she's forced into melee or different tactics? Dont want to make it feel like i'm picking on her character though by having every monster rapple her for instance.

* should I just level her wolf companion to level 7 (with some cool story to back it up) so it grows up to (7th-Level Advancement: Size Large; AC +2 natural armor; Attack bite (1d8 plus trip); Ability Scores Str +8, Dex –2, Con +4.) so it keeps up with the rest of the party and she has that to play with as well?

I'm happy to make her a little overpowered, as long as she has fun and has options in combat.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks

Whats a cool Half-elf / Elf god for my PFS character to worship despite being a slave to Chelish Masters?

I'm creating my first PFS character and am going with a half-elf fighter in the cheliax faction - i love the idea/flavour of the Ancestral Arms racial trait and equipping him with a Elven Curve Blade. Mechanically I want to go down the heavy crit tree... but i want to support all mechanical choices with cool flavourful back story.

so choosing traits i like the +1 will from indomitable faith... all this leads to my idea that he was a slave in Cheliax - yet always maintained his faith in some elven god (should be lawful) because although he hated the loss of freedom he respects order (probably Stockholm Syndrome of sorts) - and his ultimate dream is to become a Hellknight.

What god make sense for him to have followed his whole life as a slave... that led him to freeing himself (how?) and seeking out his homeland, where he took (by force?) his fathers Ancestral Elven Curve Blade as his right... and found that although he'd left Cheliax. Cheliax hadnt left him. So he joins the pathfinder society as a chelish agent to fullfil his dreams of becoming a Hellknight and smiting chaos where'er he finds it.

Hey fellow pathfinders,

I'm running a campaign for my home group - we've just completed the Price of Immortality trilogy which was AWESOME. They are now heading back to Kassen to return the amulet to the Crypt of the Everflame and put the souls of the dead to rest. While they've been away, of course, the Negative Energy which Assar unleashed has seeped out of the Crypt and corrupted the Fangwood forest. When they return via Kassen, they'll find the town besieged by a horde of undead - shambling zombies, gate-smashing zombie giants, and other abominations of nature and unlife. As a respite from the combat heavy end to City of Golden Death, I wanted them to find Kassen Mayor Uptal's young daughter corrupted by the Neg Energy and transformed into an Attic Whisperer. The scene will play out something like the Exorcist - with the girl bound in bed... using her father's stolen voice to get a PC to stroke her cheek, then biting them and stealing their voice.

My question - other than killing the girl and ending her torment - what are some ideas for reversing/curing/undoing undeath to save the girl's life? (It could simply be saved when the PCs fight their way back into the Crypt and return the amulet, sealing off the Neg Energy Plane from this world... but something interesting which will delight my players by revealing something of the magical/planar/religious workings of Pathfinder time-space would be awesome!

In short - how can you turn an Attic Whisperer (Bestiary 2 pp. 34) back into a sweet little girl?

Thanks for the help!

Friends,

I'm GMing my very first Pathfinder RPG campaign, and have started with Crypt of the Everflame. My PCs are pretty much all 1st timers to RPG in general with 1 who has played a little 3.5. Crypt is working out well as a classic dungeon crawl and intro to Undead... Though i dont feel the rest of the modules (Masks of the Living God) would be the best fit for these 1st timers as it seems more RP heavy. I really like the classic themes and tropes in Rise of the Rune Lords and wondered if people could offer their advice. Would Rise of the Rune Lords be a good AP to continue into after Crypt... for eg. after the party returns to Kassen after getting the Everflame, some lead leads them to Sandpoint - a clue about the robbers who robbed Kassen's tombs (who turn out to be the Skinsaw men) or have the goblins attack Kassen (as opposed to Sandpoint) and take it from there...
1) which AP would you recommend I embark on - as a new GM with new PCs (I'm a little worried about having to adjust the 3.5 rules for Rise of the Rune Lords into PFRPG rules, but sure i could do it)
2) Which major threads could i use as links.. as i'd like to set up some of the story arcs asap in the Crypt. (I can use the background of the crypt robbers as a clue, also whatever was stolen from Kassen's tomb, and by whom are all easy hooks to attach to other AP story material.)

3) Finally, if by the end of Crypt of the Everflame the party is level 3... is it still worth starting at the beginning of the AP (eg. Burnt Offerings if Rise of the Rune Lords) or should i skip forward to the 2nd segment? Or just up the CRs of the encounters by adding more monsters, advancing them etc...?

Any advice to this super-keen, inexperienced GM would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!