Phformian's page

Yeah, basically what Ravingdork and Pantshandshake said. Plus, it scales decently as you level so you can put all your credits into your main weapon(s) and armor and still have a decent backup weapon.

Thanks for the answers, all. I was a bit concerned there might be some table variation there, but I feel a lot more confident planning exocortex + brain augmented characters now.

Hey Magyar5, thanks for replying. You make some really good points, but there are other issues that need to be clarified based on them (I'm hoping for a power armor & unarmed strike FAQ, honestly. I have no preference as to which way it goes, I just want to make sure my numbers are right).

1). You must use the power armor's mode of movement. If the armor's movement is 20 ft. Your movement is 20 ft. This is it's maximum land speed. If you have say.. the Blitz style for Soldier, you don't get the additional movement speed (see page 203).If it does not have flight capability, and you have wings of some type or a flight capability from some other source, that is negated and you can't fly without removing the power armor.

2). You use the power armor's strength modifier for all attack rolls although your strength may be higher.

Agreed 100%.

3). There is no 'unarmed strike' with power armor. It's called an unarmed melee attack (also see Damage on page 203). This is an important distinction as feats that deal with unarmed strikes do not apply to this attack. Think of it this way. The armor itself is the weapon being used to deal damage. Not the strike. Kinda like Tony Stark in his power armor. Take him out of it and have him throw the same punch. Which did more damage and why? The power armor was responsible for the damage and not Tony Stark's impressive biceps.

This raises some issues if it's true (I'm not saying it isn't, mind. This is actually how I'm interpreting the rules until there's some clarification).

So you may ask yourself, what is the advantages of powered armor?

It's also rad! :D

Lastly, if you are asking yourself the difference in an unarmed strike vs an unarmed melee attack think of it this way. Can your soft squishy hand punch through a brick wall? No.. it can't. Despite what the movies tell you.. it ain't happening. People who train to make unarmed strikes train in focusing that energy into a VERY small point and striking very vulnerable parts of their opponents. This is what give punches and kicks so much power. You put a LOT of energy and momentum in to a VERY small area (the knuckles or fore foot). It requires training and practice. The damage comes from that training and your own knowledge of your enemies weak points. Power armor is just hitting someone with an oversized hammer.

This I think is what confuses me the most. I've been looking at specialization and IUS as being based on technique, not brute force. So it seems odd to me that the hypothetical vesk above has a much weaker attack when using a strength enhancing, armored suit (most of the art showing vesk shows them in PA with articulated tail armor) than they would when using their non-power-assisted, non-armored tail.

Anyways, thanks again for your answer. Good things to consider.

Phformian wrote:

Could someone explain to me how there are sample forms for a blue dragon and a dragonkin? I don't see where any of the polymorph spells allow making dragon type forms. I just got AA2, and the polymorph rules are kinda intimidating. Sorry if this wasn't an appropriate place to post this!

They never took the dragon type (which would be illegal), they merely picked a number of abilities that allowed them to mimic draconic forms.

Does make me wonder if they get the +10 disguise bonus to look like one or not though.

You'd think if it's a made up form you wouldn't get the +10 bonus.

Otherwise, I could take the construct type, a host of disparate abilities, tell the GM that my mutant form looks entirely like a mundane dog, and get a +10 bonus to disguise checks to prance around town looking like a dog?

That doesn't sit well with me.

Thanks! So type and subtype only really matter if they are on the list of sub/types that give resistances or if they are determining how equipment works (absorbed vs. adjusted). Otherwise they're just flavor, right?

Could someone explain to me how there are sample forms for a blue dragon and a dragonkin? I don't see where any of the polymorph spells allow making dragon type forms. I just got AA2, and the polymorph rules are kinda intimidating. Sorry if this wasn't an appropriate place to post this!

Can a character who is wearing power armor make an unarmed strike without using the power armor's modification to unarmed strikes?

For example, if a level 20 vesk with Improved Unarmed Strike and 14 strength is wearing a level 5 Battle Harness (Damage 1d10B, STR 18), can they use, say, a tail slap to do 7d6 + 4 + 30 damage instead of 1d10 + 4 + 20?

Would they use their normal strength modifier (+2) or the strength modifier of the armor (+4)?

When you make an unarmed melee attack with the powered armor, it deals damage equal to the armor’s listed damage value plus its Strength modifier.

Also potentially relevant, from Armory:

Powered armors of Large or greater size use their own arms

and hands, rather than allowing the user to manipulate objects or weapons with their own hands. Operating such a suit of powered armor requires all your hands to be free (within the armor’s cockpit) and allows you use of all the armor’s hands. Large and bigger suits of powered armor have two arms and hands unless specified otherwise.

Powered armors of Medium or smaller size allow the operator to use its own limbs (however many that is), and does not require any hands be free in order to operate the functions of the powered armor.

Realistically, I think this makes it clear that the answer to this question is no if the person is medium and wearing large armor, since they're remote controlling the armor from inside the cockpit. It leaves things open ended for a medium user in medium armor though.

My opinion is not, because:

• It acts similar to a piece of cybernetic hardware, not as one.

• Custom Rig specifically states that it can be installed as a cybernetic augmentation and goes into detail about how augmentation systems work, while the Exocortex section doesn't mention it at all.

I can see an argument for either interpretation though, and wasn't able to find a ruling either way.

Does a mechanic's exocortex take up the brain augmentation system?

You begin play with an exocortex, an artificial processor that interacts with and augments your biological brain’s cognitive functions, which can aid you in a variety of tasks, from combat to digital infiltration. Your exocortex is implanted within your physical body or brain, similar to a piece of cybernetic hardware, allowing your AI to access your mind and feed you information. As you gain levels, your exocortex advances in sophistication and processing power—see Exocortex on page 79. Only you can access or interact with your exocortex.

Based on the outsiders shown so far, it seems like the outer planes have a similar level of tech as the Pact Worlds. Alien Archive has nanite inevitables, starship devils, and the barachius angels who try to prevent technology being used for evil (their entry also makes reference to hacker-devils).

As to why their tech seems to have advanced at the same rate as that of the Pact Worlds, the simplest answer is probably that Starfinder and Pathfinder have different genres. That said, it's possible that the outer planes work in such a way that a location in an outer plane maps to a location in the material plane. So if you die in the Pact Worlds, you end up in an area of whatever outer plane you end up on nearby other people from the Pact Worlds. This would help to explain, for example, why outsiders summoned in Pathfinder didn't have laser rifles and whatnot even though Androffans already existed back then. I'm sure there are some inconsistencies with that explanation though.

Lightning Reflexes and Improved Lightning Reflexes!

Unfortunately an operative can't take Reflect Projectiles, but maybe Deflect Projectiles anyways?

That's all I've got. Awesome character idea!

I'm not sure if the anacites of Aballon had any inspiration taken from the axiomite Godmind, though I suppose it's possible.

I've not however read Hyperion.

Hey, thanks for the response! I'm really looking forward to Planar Adventures, by the way.

I just finished reading Fall of Hyperion, and also noticed that it was in the "inspiring reading" appendix of the PF core rulebook, so I guess that's probably why I was wondering if it might have been a source of inspiration.

I was just looking through "The Great Beyond" and was reading about the axiomites and how they can temporarily combine to form the Axiomite Godmind - basically a supercomputer made of axiomites. This made me think of the anacites of Aballon and how they have the philosophy of Singularitism: the belief that connecting all lifeforms and technology will bring about a godlike Godhead. Anyways, I was just curious about whether the similarities are coincidental (they both seem like they could be nods to the Technocore's Ulitimate Intelligence in the Hyperion series) or maybe if there's some kind of connection. Anyone have any opinions or speculation on the matter?

Phformian wrote:

Would anyone mind giving a sentence or two about the Arcanamirium Sage archetype or the Dragonblood or Roboticist themes (and which ability scores they add to)?

** spoiler omitted **

Sounds cool, thanks!

Would anyone mind giving a sentence or two about the Arcanamirium Sage archetype or the Dragonblood or Roboticist themes (and which ability scores they add to)?

Sounds a lot like the Battle Scion, from Kobold Press.

Battle Scion

Sounds like a neat concept. One possibility would be having a living ship that grows alongside the characters (like Talyn from Farscape). Then the weapons/modules/defences being unlocked could be explained as them growing or as the ship learning to use them. There's even the medium sized Oma ship frame from Alien Archive, if you decide to go this route.

Another thought off the top of my head would be that all controls and consoles in the ship are encoded in either a strange language or encrypted, and the PCs have to figure out how to use them (either using culture checks with progressively higher DCs for more advanced modules, or using translations found during quests).

Sounds good, thanks again! Good playing with you all.

Confirming as well! I will try to post my technomancer stats tomorrow.

Thanks for running, I had a lot of fun!

Could the extra channels from the Extra Channel feat be used for the Soul Warden's Channel Casting ability (which requires a use of channel energy), or only the Channel Damage ability?

Thanks.

Clearly *something* is off. I'll see if I can figure out which is off, and what it ought to be.

I don't suppose you ever did figure out what the Soul Warden's Fort save should be, eh? It looks like the author meant for it to be high, like the will save, but copied the BAB column by accident.

(I apologize for this most ironic necromancy, haha)

So I've been meaning to make this thread for a while now. The idea is to just talk about interesting things in the campaign setting, their implications, and speculate wildly to get ideas. There will almost certainly be spoilers.

To get things started, I'll mention one of my favorite bits of lore from the ISWG. Apparently, in 4700 AR, 13 eyeless kraken corpses washed up on Kortos. That just seems kind of ominous, you know? My theory is either some kind of natural or supernatural disaster killed them (which doesn't explain the lack of eyes, or why only krakens washed up) or that something is hunting them (but only taking the eyes and leaving them on Absalom's doorstep). I don't know if the number 13 has any special significance on Golarion, but it is certainly a large number of highly intelligent and powerful CR 18 creatures to wash up. Kinda makes me glad prophecy is on the fritz, in case they were heralding something really bad.

Anyways, thanks for reading. Hopefully the thread grows a bit, so feel free to leave a post, and don't feel restricted to only posting about dead squids.

The general consensus in past discussions has been that GSS applies to all Specialized Spells.

Otherwise... you can usually just take the Preferred Spell feat instead.

Good to know, thanks. Although I think I'm going to try to find a way to make my character work with just the one spontaneous spell. I'd rather not rely on a rule that's open to interpretation.

spell specialization says specifically that you can take it multiple times. its odd that the wording on the greater version doesn't account for that. it should say something like "choose one of your specialized spells" or "can be taken multiple time, each applies to a different one of your specialized spells" if it means to only work on one of them. it should say "this works for all of your specialized spells" if it means to apply to them all. i agree this needs to be clarified with errata or a faq.

there are two kinds of rules sets, those that allow everything except those things which are forbidden by the rules, and those that disallow everything except those things for which permission is given by the rules. pathfinder is that second kind, so unless a rule specifically says you can do X, you can't do X.

since it doesn't specifically say that it works with all the different specialized spells, i think rules as intended is to pick just one it applies to like a fighter's weapon specialization. in a home game i would absolutely let you apply it to them all as a cool laid back guy not afraid of some power creep and mild exploits of rules as written, but i would not think you would get away with it in society games.

Thanks for the answer! That's a good explanation, especially the comparison to weapon specialization.

Hi everyone. I spent some time searching the forums but couldn't find anything definitive, and anything I did find was pretty old, so here goes:

If a character has taken Spell Specialization (Ultimate Magic) multiple times, does taking Greater Spell Specialization (also UM) once allow them to spontaneously cast any of their specialized spells?

Thanks in advance.

"In for a penny, in for a pounding"

Cu in Hell!

(I am so sorry)

Okay, I'm gonna necro this threat massively.

Regarding various guilds/colleges are there any adventure paths/modules that feature the PCs trying to graduate/attend/etc.

I am doing a campaign where the players will be at a similar school and was wondering if there was any examples of that sort of game.

Maybe check out the Academy of Secrets module? I've not played it myself, but according to the description it takes place in Acadamae in Korvosa. It is a level 13 module though.

From PFS pregenerated characters, Traits are listed in their own line after Skills, not in Special Attacks. Unless a trait solely modifies another existing statistic (in which case note it as already applied), you can describe its effect in full as a Special Ability.

Ok, thank you!

Sorry if this is in the wrong forum.

Are feats/traits or their effects ever listed under the Special Attacks section of a character's stat block?

In particular, would the Volatile Conduit (UC) trait be listed under Special Attacks, as it increases spell damage and is usable once per day? I've already listed the name of the trait under Traits.

It's not real important, I'm mainly asking so I can keep my stat blocks consistent with each other and those made by others (as much as is possible). Thanks.

I got mine out sometime in the last few years, I forget exactly when. I spent the rest of the day playing video games and made sure I always had a cool glass of water to drink. That night I had spaghetti and by the next day I was back to normal. So, for what it's worth, my advice is to do something interesting to distract from the discomfort.

So I've had a chance to look into the Battle Scion, and I think that is what I was looking for. Sorry for how vague the initial post was, and thanks everyone for giving lots of great ideas anyways.

Third party allowed? If so check out the Battle Scion from New Paths Compendium. Into based arcane caster with a sword and a d10 hit die.

I'll have to ask, but it should be. My GM is usually pretty laid back about 3rd party stuff. That sounds a lot like what I'm looking for, thanks. I'll have to check it out.

Inspired blade swashbuckler/kensai magus can work pretty well, and has more of a martial feel than a typical magus.

I probably should have said this sooner, but I was thinking more of an edged sword than a rapier, sorry. Looks like a neat combo though, I may use that for the pirate campaign one of our group members has planned down the road. I'll look into the kensai archetype though, thanks.

Well if you want a single class, then [url=http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/hybrid-classes/bloodrager] though a charisma based spellcaster, is a hybrid class of sorcerer and barbarian.

Yeah, the Bloodrager looks pretty cool. Worth keeping in mind, for sure, though I think I'll keep looking around for a bit since I'm not a huge fan of the rage ability. Thanks for the idea though.

For what it's worth, in the Pathfinder Tales novel Death's Heretic, there is part where a priest casts Speak With Dead and another character is the one who asks the questions. As Kalindlara said, this isn't RAW, but does seem to back up the idea that having someone other than the caster ask the questions is a reasonable interpretation of the ability.

I'd like to build an effective character who is mostly a warrior-type but with some arcane spellcasting, likely for buffing. I'm having a hard time deciding which class(es) to go with. I'd prefer to have intelligence based spellcasting than charisma, both to fit the archetype of mages being intelligent and because my real life lack of charisma makes roleplaying a charismatic character rather difficult. I've looked at the magus already, but they focus a bit much on the magic side of things for my tastes. Maybe a fighter/magus combo though? Possibly slayer/magus? I'm not really sure.

The character is starting at level 1, but I'd like to have some idea of where I'm going before deciding on the first class. The only thing I've settled on for this character for sure is that he can make good use of a sword and has just enough magic to be able to call himself a mage. I haven't been having much luck coming up with ideas yet, any help would be appreciated.

This could explain how we on Earth would know of Golarion:
The Golem

I mean, it's obviously a joke, but something similar could potentially have happened. Maybe a powerful divination wizard on Earth did some scrying or something, and published the results somewhere?

Or maybe it's like how any movie that takes place on Earth needs to pretend that it (the movie) never happened. For example, are there Terminator movies in the Terminator universe?

Thanks for the replies, everyone. Lots of good points. I was asking purely out of curiosity, not in terms of a current campaign (which is why I didn't ask my GM). I think I was a little confused about how corpses should be respected, I think I was thinking of a passage from Death's Heretic where:

Anyways, thanks again!

So animate dead is both an evil spell and would probably cause a worshiper of Pharasma to lose any abilities granted by her if they used it. Bone golems require either animate dead or animate objects to create. Would creating a bone golem using animate objects be an evil act, and would it anger Pharasma (lets assume it is made of non-humanoid bones, such as animal bones, so that disrespecting the dead isn't an issue)? Does a character who doesn't know either spell who takes a +5 to the construction DC get to pick which spell is emulated?

I'm mostly curious since I saw that the entry for the Equine bone golem from Tombs of Golarion mentioned it was favored by knights who preferred tomb guardians procured through non-necromantic means.

Phformian wrote:

Nice! Here's hoping they get funded in the not-too-distant future.

Next Sunday, A.D.?

Heh. That song's gonna be stuck in my head all day now. Wait, no, I just thought of the song from the Fugitive Alien episode. Good times.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions! Now all I need is some free time to check them out.

There are some new poisons in Southlands but I can't recall what the DCs are off the top of my head.

-Ben.

Ok, thanks.

I've heard decent things about Scourge: the deluxe Guide to Disease and Poison, but I haven't used it myself.

There's also Two Dozen Dangers: Poisons.

Thanks, I'll look into those.

I'm looking for a 3PP product (PFRPG) with new poisons. Specifically I'm looking for relatively well balanced poisons with DCs in the 20-30 range, for mid to high level play. I haven't had much luck with the search, unfortunately. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I forget what they're called, but the little ones that are basically glyphs that cast first level spells at will. Those alone have 1001 uses.

Edit: Rune Guardians.

From the Godsmouth Heresy, right? I actually have that module, too. For some reason I didn't think of them though. Guess I remembered them as traps rather than constructs or something. My character's even from Kaer Maga, those could fit pretty well. Thanks!

Hmm, might build a rune guardian with a 1st level buff/utility spell, combined with some modifications from UM and/or the above mentioned Construct Companion. Could make for an awesome, er, construct companion?

Phformian wrote:

Sounds interesting, I'll definitely look into this. Do many of the new creatures list their crafting requirements?

Yep! Every new animated object and construct in the book includes a construction block showing requirements and cost.

Ok, thanks! I might order a copy later this week.

Nice! Here's hoping they get funded in the not-too-distant future.

The Four Horsemen wrote the Construct Companion to try and cover all construct needs. It covers some pretty diverse applications of the Craft Construct feat, and a lot of constructs with utility purposes. For example, animated vehicles (tanks, dirigibles, galleys, etc.) and animated traps that activate at advantageous times or reset themselves. We also included a lot of modification options like animated object abilities/flaws and feats that improve your constructs.

There are also some specific construct creature statblocks with utility purposes, like the mechanical manservant (think transforming construct butler) or secret scarab (little disguised spying construct).

Sounds interesting, I'll definitely look into this. Do many of the new creatures list their crafting requirements?

PRD wrote:

Craft Construct creates permanent animated objects not susceptible to dispelling and antimagic.

The CR of a potential animated object depends on its size and abilities, as explained in the animated object entry.

Think of a mechanical device that would make your day easier.

Build it as an animated object.

Mechanical horse, wagon, or chariot?
Yep.
Flying saddle?
Possible.

With an animated object , time, and a GM who allows imagination, many things are possible.

Huh, I'd overlooked animated objects. I hadn't realized there were crafting rules for them, or that Ultimate Magic added a whole bunch construct modification rules. Thanks for pointing that out. The flying saddle idea is really cool too.

I recently picked up Craft Construct for my alchemist, and I've been having a lot of fun looking through the bestiaries trying to find a mechanical companion. However, my alchemist is pretty good in melee combat, and the majority of the constructs I've seen so far seem to serve the role of bodyguard, which I have little use for. However, I noticed that the iron cobra can be used to deliver potions instead of poisons, and it can be used to track targets. I thought that was pretty cool. So I was wondering, can anyone think of other constructs that can serve utility or non-combat purposes?