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This humanoid seems to flicker in and out of existence. Its smoky black fingers are unnaturally long, and one hand fervently grasps an hourglass filled with golden sand.

Time Thief CR 4
XP 1,200
CE Medium undead
Init +6; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +5

----- Defense -----
AC 16, touch 16, flat-footed 13 (+3 deflection, +2 Dex, +1 dodge)
hp 24 (4d8+6)
Fort +3, Ref +3, Will +5
Defensive Abilities incorporeal; Immune undead traits
Weaknesses Borrowed Time

----- Offense -----
Speed fly 40 ft. (good)
Melee incorporeal touch +3 (aging, see below)
Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
Special Attacks Timesteal
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 5th)
At will—ethereal jaunt

----- Statistics -----
Str 10, Dex 14, Con --, Int 13, Wis 12, Cha 16
Base Atk +3; CMB +3; CMD 15
Feats Improved Initiative, Dodge, Skill Focus (Stealth)
Skills Fly +6, Knowledge (religion) +5, Perception +5, Stealth +9, Sense Motive +4
Languages Common

----- Ecology -----
Environment urban
Organization solitary
Treasure none

----- Special Abilities -----
Timesteal (Su) A target hit by a time thief's Timesteal ability instantly ages 2d6 years.
Borrowed Time (Su) Time thieves each possess an ethereal hourglass (AC 16, incorporeal, 12 hp). Any damage to the hourglass prevents the time thief from using its ethereal jaunt ability. Destroying the hourglass instantly slays the time thief and restores all aging caused by that time thief's Timesteal ability.

Often mistaken for a shadow or similar type of undead, the time thief was once mortal, but has entered into a bargain with creatures of other planes to avoid it's death. Time thieves seek to evade the natural ends of their lives by stealing life from other living beings. However, unlike most undead, the time thief attacks the victim's timeline, the amount of time the gods have allotted them to live. Their victims are often left incapacitated by sudden aging, caused by the time thief's Timesteal ability.

The appearance of the time thief suggests how recently it has "fed" on the stolen time of others. If the time thief appears old, and most of the sand is in the bottom half of the hourglass, it is likely to be actively hunting for a fresh victim. Conversely, a young appearance and sand in the top half of the hourglass indicates that the time thief has recently stolen time from someone. Regardless, the stolen time is used up very quickly (a decade stolen is at best a month of continued existence), and the thief will soon be on the hunt again.

Time thieves are almost always paranoid, and guard their hourglasses of stolen time jealously, as it is the source of their existence. They hop back and forth between the ethereal and material planes frequently, whichever seems the safest at the moment. In combat, they make hit and run attacks, sneaking up behind a helpless or otherwise preoccupied opponent to make a few Timesteal attempts, and then withdraw to the ethereal plane. They seldom fight to the end unless desperate or cornered, though they may also try to slay anyone who knows the secret of their hourglass and has tried to destroy it.

Death Mask
Aura faint necromancy; CL 5th
Slot head; Price 8,000 gp; Weight 4 lbs.
Description
This elaborately carved wooden mask is styled in the image of the god of death. When placed upon a corpse, the user may ask the corpse up to three questions, as if the user had cast the cleric spell speak with dead at level 5. As long as the head of the corpse is intact enough to fit the mask onto it, the spell will work, no matter how damaged the corpse is.
Additionally, if a living person dons the mask, their appearance changes to that of the person whose corpse was most recently used to speak with, when the deceased was still alive, as per the alter self spell.
Construction
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, disguise self, speak with dead; Cost 4,000 gp

Has anyone out there got an iPad mini and tried to read a Paizo PDF, especially the bigger files? I currently have a 3rd gen iPad, and I love the Retina display. WHat I'm concerned about is readability and speed for rendering these large PDF files. I probably won't get an iPad mini until the next generation, but I would like to know how they perform.

Early in the game there is less numerical difference separating the classes, and it's possible to pick up a secondary role within the group, such as a ranger switching back and forth between ranged and melee, or a bard who flips between a rapier for damage or a whip for tripping. However, as monsters get tougher, characters need to develop a specialty to be able to hit higher ACs and CMDs. You need the extra bonuses from feats to be able to pull of the same moves. This isn't a bad thing per se, but it does narrow your options a little. By mid game the cleric probably isn't doing much melee anymore in favor of being a full-time caster, for example.

Which brings me to the bard. Someone who has been traditionally typecast as a jack of all trades doesn't really have a good niche. He may be a great skill-monkey, but that doesn't necessarily help in combat. How do you build your bard, either as a supporter or as a damage-dealer?

The Weapon Finesse feat allows you to use Dexterity instead of Strength with you CMB when perform a combat maneuver with a finesse weapon. In this case, a whip. The Greater Whip Mastery feat allows you to grapple with a whip. Can you apply the Weapon Finesse feat to this situation as well? In the FAQ, it said that only disarm, trip, and sunder can be used with a finesse weapon, since there are no weapons that allow you to grapple.

The archaeologist seems to satisfy my need to be a skill monkey with a dash of magic. He can disable traps like a rogue, but without the pain and heartbreak of trying to set up sneak attacks. He can cover both the roles of being a trapfinder while also having some controlling/buffing abilities with spells and the whip. He's support, not a damage monster So, here's the build I was thinking of:

Human bard 1

Str 10
Dex 16(+2 racial)
Con 12
Int 13
Wis 10
Cha 14

The attribute advances at level 4 and 8 will go into Charisma. Charisma will help more at higher levels. Dexterity pays off now.

For traits, I'm going with Gold Finger to make Disable Device a class skill, and Maestro of the Society to increase my daily rounds of archaeologist's luck from 6 to 9.

Two feats for being human: First is Lingering Performance to effectively triple my use of luck. The second is Weapon Finesse. My weapons of choice are rapier and whip. Finesse not only makes my attack bonuses with both to not suck, and they also allows me to use Dexterity instead of Strength when making trips and disarms with the whip.

For skills, I have eight picks, or a ninth if I'm willing to give up a hit point. These five I should take at every level:
Acrobatics
Spellcraft
Perception
Use Magic Device
Disable Device

Knowledges can be dipped into just for the +3 class skill bonus. Bardic Knowledge will give me a hefty bonus, and eventually I'll be able to take 10, so once I get my bonus up to +10, that should be enough for a knowledge skill.

Sleight of Hand is another choice for a one or two rank dip, as are some of the social skills.

As for future feats, I went with 13 Intelligence to open up Combat Expertise for the improved/greater trip and disarm chains, but I'm cool on them. The Whip Mastery chain is another possibility that offers some nice utility. I could also shift a bit more towards melee damage with Arcane Strike.

What do you think, sirs?

I am 15' away from an orc, and wielding a whip. My ally is adjacent to the orc. Using my whip, I attempt to disarm the orc and succeed. I don't have Improved Disarm, but since I am out of the orc's reach, he can't make an attack of opportunity against me.

My ally goes next, and he wants to either pick up the orc's weapon or knock it away. The weapon is still in the orc's square. How does this work?

While there's nothing to stop you from holding a weapon in each hand, you need the two-weapon fighting feats to gain any extra attacks, right?

So, how about this situation. I have weapon A in my right hand and weapon B in my left. On my first turn, I attack with weapon A. On my next turn, I use weapon B instead. How does this work? If there is a penalty for attacking with an off-hand weapon, how do you switch them?

With the Whip Mastery feats in UC, I'm looking at a whip-using bard as a controller. He'll never be dealing massive amounts of damage, but that's what the fighter is for. How can you build a whip user as a bard?

Here are the feats of immediate interest:
Weapon focus (whip)
Whip Mastery Chain
Combat Expertise
Improved/Greater Trip
Improved/Greater Disarm

Also, how do trip and disarm work at range? Do they still provoke AoO even when you're 15 feet away?

There's a pretty big swing in power levels between characters who are well optimized versus those who are not. Right now there are hundreds of feats and pieces of gear in Pathfinder. Without any prior knowledge, how do you know which ones to take? If one choice is clearly superior than the rest, is it really a choice?

What I'm getting at is that system knowledge can give a huge advantage to the veretan player over the newcomer. Do you consider this fair? I just read a couple of threads in which four powergamers were stomping through printed adventures with no challenge. Obviously these materials were not tuned with highly optimized players in mind. This isn't a bad thing; if you want to play that way, go for it. But if you mix veterans who know how to optimize and new players who don't, is this a problem?

If anyone out there has ever run a Pathfinder version of E6, what kinds of extra feats did you houserule in? Restoration is pretty essential, and Stone to Flesh and Neutralize Poison are up there too. How about capstone feats, or expanded casting, hit points or skill points?

The main reason that rogues seem to be poor choices of an archery build is that they can't effectively use their sneak attack. I'm trying my hand at making generic classes once more, and I'd like to give rogues a valid option to pursue this combat style. I've always considered rangers to have more in common with rogues than fighters. While the fighter is still the stronger one in battle, an archer rogue should be able to contribute.

Assuming you take the usual feats for archery that fighters or rangers would take, the rogue's shortcomings are that he has fewer feats and a weaker BAB. The BAB is the trade off for being a rogue and not a fighter, but hypothetically speaking, could you give up sneak attack in exchange for archery feats, and if so, how many and when?

I've been having an okay time playing my monk in PFS, but in the last few modules, I've been teaming up with maguses (magi), synthesists, and other heavily min-maxed characters who seem to be just so superior to me in pretty much everything. I know monks aren't a strong class, but it's getting to be not-fun. This along with the recent ruling on Flurry of Blows makes me not want to play this character any more. But he's already got 6 XP, and I really don't want to have to start again from scratch. Do I have any options here due to the rules changing on Flurry?

After reading through Rogue Eidolon's guide to Rogues, I'd like to know what my options are for a high Charisma and high social skills build, in addition to the High Dex/TWF feat chain. What tricks does a face have to make them more effective in combat?

I'm sure this has come up before, but I'd just like a quick clarification on this paragraph from page 19 of the PFS Guide:

"For the sake of simplicity, there is no difference between an arcane and divine scroll or wand in Pathfinder Society Organized play. Thus a bard and cleric may both use the same scroll of cure moderate wounds."

If I have a wand of mage armor, can a non-arcane caster use it? For example, a cleric doesn't have mage armor on his spell list. Does he still need to make a UMD skill roll?

I've been thinking about a campaign based on the plot of Might and Magic 7. The PCs have earned the title to a small castle and adjoining town that is currently in need of repair. After the goblin squatters inside are cleared out, they'll have to fix up their new home and rebuild the town while managing diplomatic threats from multiple sides as well as monsters in the countryside. Can the Kingmaker kingdom building rules handle this? I don't really intend for the PCs to expand beyond just the one town, but it could happen.

Where in Golarion could this work out? Someplace on the border of the wilds, fairly distant to major power centers, etc.

I've tried playing fighters before, and while they do great melee damage, they're kinda boring to play in practice. Stand there and swing, every turn. Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but what do you do to make fighters exciting to play, beyond watching the big damage pop up?

For those of us who have busy schedules, are PFS games ever played over the internet? Do you use a virtual tabletop?

I'm interested in trying out a game online using MapTools. Not a PBP, but a virtual tabletop. I've got plenty of experience playing, but relatively little with the MapTools program. Not enough to GM just yet though.

If anyone out there has experiences in using MapTools to run a game online, I'd like to hear it.

I'm currently working on a Monk of the Sacred Mountain build that uses Dragon style to buff damage and allow me to take Elemental fist. I'm up to 10th level in my plans, but not sure where to go from there.

1. Dodge
1. Ironhide
2. Improved Grapple
3. Dragon Style
5. Dragon Ferocity
6. Improved Disarm
7. Elemental Fist
9. Power Attack
10. Medusa's Wrath

Two extra attacks at your highest bonus make taking Medusa's Wrath a no-brainer for a 10th level monk. The problem is how to use it, since you have to be attacking an opponent who is either dazed, flat-footed, paralyzed, staggered, stunned, or unconscious. I've been trying to think of the best ways to do this, and here's what I've come up with so far:

Staggering Fist. At 12th level, Stunning Fist can instead stagger for 1d6+1 rounds.

Shattered Defenses. Using Dragon Ferocity, your critical hits leave the target shaken. Unfortunately you need to take the fairly useless (for a monk) Dazzling Display feat too.

Critical Focus-Improved Critical-Staggering Critical. While the pre-reqs are a damage increase, you can't get Staggering Critical until 19th level.

Dazing Assault. Also straightforward, but that -5 to hit sucks.

Are there also any other feats that are indispensable for a mid-high level unarmed monk? I'm especially curious about Hammer the Gap, is it worth it for a flurrying monk?

How does the Shattered Defenses feat work with Medusa's Wrath? I've been thinking about pairing these two feats with Dragon Ferocity to shake my enemies on a critical hit, then unload on them.

I've resurrected my idea of a Sacred Mountain Monk after I saw all the goodies in UC. I'm especially interested in the Dragon Style feats; the damage bonus is just insane, and I'm already taking Acrobatics.

So here's what I've got so far,

STR 18 +4
DEX 14 +2
CON 14 +2
INT 9 -1
WIS 14 +2
CHA 7 -2
(20 point build, racial +2 into strength)

Half-Orc
Darkvision 60'
Rock Climber +1 Acrobatcs +1 Climb
Sacred Tattoo +1 all saves
(These two are from APG)

Acrobatics, Climb, and Perception as skills.

Now I'm getting stuck on feat choices. What would your monk build look like? (assuming you wanted to stay with an unarmed monk like I do.)

I have an idea for a half-orc monk. The Monk of the Sacred Mountain archetype from the APG would fit his character, but I'd like to know if this archetype is any good. Is it worth it to give up evasion and some mobility, or does this just result in the monk becoming a very squishy front-line fighter?

How would you play a Monk of the Sacred Mountain?