Plausible Pseudonym's page

Impact is not from a weapon enchantment. Esoteric can add different special abilities with their arcane pool. One of those abilities is Impact so it definitely can be used with IUS.

No, unarmed strikes are light weapons, so it's an unusable ability without an exception written in. It's not uncommon for Paizo to publish broken or useless and redundant abilities in their archetypes. It's very common to see illegal gear or abilities published for NPCs. Neither category of error actually makes these things legal.

TriOmegaZero wrote:

Sir Thugsalot wrote:

Worst class: CRB Ranger (TWF).

Discuss.

Not so much so. Combat Style means they don't need to have high Dex to take the chain. That lets them increase their Str for more attack and damage.

They died like mice in PFS. (I forgot 'em on my list of most-likely-to-die; I'd put 'em second, after barbarians.)

Statistics: Army paratroopers die at higher rates than personnel clerks.

Sir Thugsalot: Personnel clerks are more effective at combat!

Can Paladins use hair dye or makeup?

It's never too early to start planning for the future.

Other than meaningful Solarion choices, high level envoy abilities, and a drastic change in the economy, especially for the cost of expendable items, what do people want to see in Starfinder 2.0?

Sleet Storm doesn't work with Rime Spell, because it doesn't inflict cold damage, just gives terrain modifiers. Ice Storm works.

Lanitril wrote:

It turns out, we only thought they were.

Easy mistake to make, given how we didn't know all the information. Cause it was changed. Retconned. Not everybody is a fan of the change, but I think most people either are, or don't care.

Thank you. I'm not sure how I feel about the change from a lore perspective, but it makes sense, and opens more player options. I still think there should be a sexually dimorphic alien race because Sexual dimorphism is awesome in animals in real life (Lion Manes, male anglerfish, the beautiful tails of male peafowl...)

It's pretty awesome in real world humans, too.

How does this rod work? If I am 5th level and use the rod to cast Sleet Storm would I essentially be spending two spell slots (both 3rd level spells, 1 for Sleet Storm and another one for the Rime effect)?

Note that Sleet Storm doesn't actually cause any cold damage, and therefore can't be modified by Rime Spell. It would work with Ice Storm.

Ok I did find something. On page 206.

Starfinder Core Rulebook page 206 wrote:

"BACKUP GENERATOR: You can connect charged electric items such as batteries to this miniature generator to recharge them. The electricity comes from the kinetic energy of your movement, which generates 1 charge every 10 minutes of movement. No more than one item can be plugged in at a time, and the generator doesn’t produce charges when you’re resting or otherwise stationary."

Someone do the math and figure out how laughably little power this is and how expensive this makes the average US electric bill in Starfinder credits.

Or -6 to the casting stat (if known) of an enemy spellcaster, which could stop them from casting their highest level spells.

This part is wrong, ability damage/penalties only hurt DCs. Only ability drain, which actually lowers scores, would take away the ability to cast spells.

I'd like to recommend the Easydamus "real alignment" page, easily googled, for a comprehensive take on what Matthew Downie is talking about.

Looking at the rules it seems like that is a variant rule and since you still need to roll to get the result, Flash of Insight applies.

The player rolls a Craft check to see if he can identify it. The GM rolls to determine what it actually is. No flash of insight.

It's the equivalent of using Spellcraft to identify treasure chosen off a random magical item table. You could use flash of insight on the Spellcraft roll, but not the random treasure roll.

Lady-J wrote:

Create Mr. Pitt wrote:

Lady-J wrote:

strange fluids is both the best and the worst drug in pathfinder, you can get any were from being disintegrated to going into a coma for a day and gaining a level

Strange fluids has terrible downsides and its best upsides only occur 1/100, and even then the real best effects are about 2/5th of that 1/100.

Not worth the risk I'd think.

which is why i said it is equally the best and the worst at the same time

Or you cheat with Flash of Insight.

The way the full strange fluids rules are written up the effect is actually testable (with 75% accuracy) with a Craft (Alchemy) DC 25 check before you drink it, so while they do shift effects periodically (about once per hour) they have a semi-fixed effect before you drink. So Flash of Insight doesn't work, the GM should roll for what it will do before it actually hits your system.

So the best way to do it is run a Craft (Alchemy) check every hour until you get the result you want. Then you've got a 75% chance of being right, a 25% chance of rolling randomly to discover it switched to something new between your test and your effective consumption.

The good old candiru.

ok i can't tell if the sneak attack damage from acute shot can be used by non rogues

Yes, there's no restriction to rogues in the feat.

I can't find drugs in the core rulebook.

Of course not, your avatar looks like a narc.

Alignment exists and is known in the world. I would expect that many organizations with an ethical bent would test their people. Common folks wouldn't know and most wouldn't care.

While detect spells only work on level 5, aligned weapons affect anybody despite their aura, and despite spells that mask it. Prick somebody with the holy axiomatic needle and if their arm turns black then that's a sign.

I'm imagining a box with four needles. You press it to their skin and see how big each wound is. Sort of like an allergy scratch test.

The extra damage would kill a lot of low level NPCs.

So what this something about torture related mystic ability associated with Zon-Kuthon and Devourer also being associated with Iomedae?

Like, is that a typo, or is Paizo seriously going with "LG and Torture goes together!"? :D

Iomedae granted power to that LN inquisitor in Kenabres who tortured people looking for demonic infiltrators.

The Redemption Engine featured rogue LG angels who stole evil souls and forcefully turned them into angels. The various empyreal lords maintained plausible deniability, neither condemning nor assisting.

Inflicting pain and spiritual kidnap is apparently ok for LG as long as it's in the service of good or fighting the really bad evils.

Singing kumbaya or being a peacenik hippie is more a NG or CG thing, tbh, and in a world of objective morality you can push the limits to find out where they are. There's no point in arguing about whether you think something should be evil or good, it just is. If you can torture potential demons with a certain error rate and still not slip to evil, you don't have to worry about morality, only practicality and usefulness.

I applaud Iomedae for her embrace of all eggs in the war for better omelets.

MageHunter wrote:

I actually really like the new direction with Half-Orcs. They have formed their own true race now. Like the Chelaxians formed by Ulfen & Azlanti crossbreeding.

I guess then the Half-Orcs might just need a new more appropriate name then.

They could just drop the hyphen as Halflings did and become Halforcs.

Note that nobody seems to remember what Lings were. ;)

It's a corruption of Lengs, as in Denizens of Leng.

At 4th level, the phantom blade can use her phantom weapon to aid her in casting spells with thought components. She can center herself as a swift action. At 12th level, the spiritualist can center herself as a free action.

It helps with this.

Thought Components: Thought components represent mental constructs necessary for the spell’s function, such as picturing a wolf in vivid detail—down to the saliva dripping from its jaws—in order to cast beast shape to transform into a wolf. Thought components are so mentally demanding that they make interruptions and distractions extremely challenging. The DC for any concentration check for a spell with a thought component increases by 10. A psychic spellcaster casting a spell with a thought component can take a move action before beginning to cast the spell to center herself; she can then use the normal DC instead of the increased DC.

Instead of requiring a move action to remove the concentration penalty, a 4th level phantom blade can use a swift action. At 12th level they can use a free action, essentially eliminating the penalty for thought components. This is a big advantage they have over the Mindblade Magus, although outside PFS a cheap Centering Jewel can help, especially if you can craft the effect onto your +Int headband.

Someone should probably start a potential errata thread to post things you think are errors and assist the staff to compile them for potential FAQ clarifications or eventual errata.

Spell-like abilities would also work, as they take only a standard action even if the spell they are replicating would take longer.

It actually true. They take as long as the spell, as long as they say (if they do) or a standard action if they don't say and they aren't based on a spell.

It's in Occult Adventures.

Many of these alternate class rewards add only 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, or 1/6 to a roll (rather than 1) each time the reward is selected, or add 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, or 1/6 to a class ability (such as adding to a mesmerist’s number of mesmerist tricks per day or the total number of points in a psychic’s phrenic pool). When applying such a benefit to a die roll or class ability, always round down (to a minimum of 0). You may thus need to select such an option several times before the benefit takes effect. If an alternate favored class option modifies a class feature or ability, it can’t be taken before the character has that class feature or ability. For example, if a class gains a class feature at 6th level, a character couldn’t take a racial favored class option that applies to that class feature until 6th level, even if the benefit from that option wouldn’t be high enough to add a bonus until a later level.

Murdock Mudeater wrote:

Dr Styx wrote:

Would Ectoplasmic Spell Feat added to the Summon Monster Spell not work?

Effects of Metamagic Feats on a Spell wrote:

Metamagic feats cannot be used with all spells. See the specific feat descriptions for the spells that a particular feat can't modify.

The Feat says nothing about not working with this spell.

I think, yes, you could apply the feat, but I'm not sure what it would do. The spell just summons a specific monster. This metamagic feat doesn't affect the damage that the specific monster deals, nor does it affect any other, normal aspects of the spell.

The Feat turns your spell effect ethereal...

The Summoned Monster is the effect, and now would be ethereal...
The ethereal Monster would do ethereal damage...

What aspects of a spell do you think the Feat changes?

The Feat does not change one part of the spell, it changes the whole thing.

The feat does not "turn your spell ethereal."

Benefit: An ectoplasmic spell has full effect against incorporeal or ethereal creatures.

So it's target or effect works on ethereal creatures.

Effect one summoned creature

Congratulations, Ectoplasmic Spell lets you successfully summon an incorporeal or ethereal creature, I guess. If one is on your list of allowed creatures...in which case you could do it anyway.

I've always found the violent thrust option of telekinesis used in conjunction with dozens of pre-prepared nodes of blasting to be decidedly effective at annihilating one's enemies.

Since it's untyped psychic damage, it bypass many resistances and immunities. What's more, as a psychic attack, there probably isn't any evidence left behind as to what it was that killed the victims!

I want to add to this that a Psychic can apply a phrenic amplification (more than one after level 11 if you take Dual Amplification) to their Nodes of Blasting to make them extra nasty.

Obvious ones are:

Relentless Casting: cheap to apply, makes it more likely to pierce SR.

Will of the Dead: Prepare some capable of damaging and staggering undead.

Synaptic Shock: If they're hit they're confused for 1 round even if they make their save. Yikes.

I wish Dispelling Pulse could apply to strip protective spells, but I think it technically doesn't. Your target is the object you place the Node of Blasting on, not the creature who later touches it, so no useful effect.

I'm looking forward to the really dumb and inappropriate character ideas for this one, people will have to be a little more creative than usual.

I'm thinking a half Ulfen, half Qadiran CE Vigilante (Brute) who worships Kostchtchie and has infiltrated the Ulfen Guard nominally on behalf of his Qadiran masters, but really because he hates the idea of a female ruler and wants to assassinate Eutropia if she ever gains the throne. Edgy!

If you follow the Devourer from Starfinder you can have a head like a hole, black as your soul.

Murderous Command + Deja Vu = 3-round-long Murderous Command (Deja Vu has no save).

Deja Vu doesn't work like that.

Whatever full-round, standard, or move actions the creature takes on its first turn after you cast this spell, it must repeat on the turn after that.

After being hit by the spell you act freely for one round, then repeat that on the second round. With appropriate timing (surprise, ally coordination or quicken) you can get a two round Muderous Command, but that's a lot of trouble, Extend Spell is easier.

Any way to make them into injury poisons? There's some with less potent buffs and more severe drawbacks that I wouldn't mind applying to enemies. And they're a lot cheaper than actual poisons.

Mahathallah has a Deification Obedience option for the Evangelist, but it's the third boon and therefore late career.

H.P. Makelovecraft wrote:

After reading this PDF all I have to say is my favorite weapon is the Grindblade

I have no idea what that is but I love it already.

It works best wielded by the Bumpgauntlet.

Or you enter stealth, move , and return to your original position.

Stealth is a skill. It's a very useful combat skill as far as skills go, but its not supposed to be something you roll every round of combat.

Cool, I think the US just retroactively won a lot of fights in the Vietnam War.

Mighty Strike wrote:

Whenever the heritor knight makes a melee attack as a standard action, she can apply the effects of Improved Vital Strike to that attack. If she has Greater Vital Strike, she can apply that feat’s effects instead.

Are you making a melee attack with the second attack in cleave?

Yes
Did it come as the result of a standard action?
Yes

You can apply the effects of improved vital strike to that attack.

You are inventing "as a result of" a standard action. It has to be made "AS a standard action." Bonus cleave attacks are not made AS standard actions, they are extra attacks that don't use an action.

The other interpretation would make the reach spell feat so limited as to be mostly useless.

Silly hyperbole. The majority of touch spells do not have multi turn use and are not affected at all by this interpretation.

Are there any new spells in this book? Bueller?

My gm always ruled that if you cast blindness first then you wouldn't take the minus four for unnatural lust, so we would go with blindness + unnatural lust + the ugliest thing we could find with a pulse.

Uh...how do you know where to go for your lustfull object if you can't see it? It gives you strong feelings, not radar or a mystical sixth sense direction finder.

]

This can be very powerful, indeed. If you combine it with the Summon Neutral Monster feat, you can Catrina Psychopomps. Get unnatural lust to stick for three rounds, and the target is dead.

They'd also have to fail three consecutive Fort 17 saves.

It's a problem with level inflation on the NPC Codex and the adventure paths. In theory, for a fantasy world to make sense, 95% to 98% of people should be BELOW level 5. Just normal regular people.

Have you seen how much xp you need to reach level five? You need to go through some very difficult problems to reach that level. It is basically impossible to reach that level without killing a lot of things.

Nah, you have to "defeat" not kill an opponent, and APs always give you full xp for talking or sometimes even stealthing or decoying your way past challenges. Every time I got drunk at a party in college, had three belligerent guys threaten to beat me up, and then defused the situation with a joke (something that happened more than once) I would have earned xp for defeating them in combat in that encounter if life worked via Pathfinder rules. There are also story awards for accomplishing plot points, an Expert merchant would get xp for hitting certain profit thresholds.

Create pit, create water, and raise water works at more moderate levels.

That would be calm water, you only need a 6+ to avoid going underwater on your Swim test. It's bad if you fail consistently, I guess, but helpful if you want to climb out.

Can we get a spell list? Amazingly enough, it doesn't look like one has been posted yet.

I suspect the various religions preach about it, but some will lie. Unless you have really high Knowledge skills backed up with Plane Shift to go do some confirming field research, I don't know that you can approach objective knowledge about your fate. Evil people might believe they will be rewarded with power over others.

For high level BBEGs: Mind controlled hostages clustered around you, Veil to make them all look like you, Communal Mind Blank or Nondetection to keep them from being spotted with True Seeing, and Greater Illusion of Treachery to make it look like your spells are originating from one of your duplicates.

Publicize this tactic and the good guys are forced to lead off with a Dispel Magic or Disjunction if they don't want to kill innocents. With enough innocents and some CL boosting games via ioun stone to make an area Greater Dispel Magic useless for eliminating decoys, you force the good guys to accept innocent casualties ("fireball them all and let Pharasma sort them out") or waste a lot of time and spell slots on Dispels if they don't have Disjunction.

I'm pretty sure there is a very hefty fine per copy sold involved.

Also they could also get blacklisted from receiving advance copies.

If you go to court and pay attorney's fees, yes, you can get a judgment. And then you can spend money to collect on that judgment.

Or you can threaten to send late shipments of a niche product to a major retailer who can (and based on my B&N browsing, often does) do without the product altogether.

Or you can just politely ask them to correct the problem without childish threats of lawsuits and self destructive boycotts.

UI also makes it clear that unless you are observing a target you cannot target them with spells.

You can target someone with a 20% miss chance with spells

Therefore they are observed.

conclussion: UI is borked and doesn't cover the most relevant condition for stealth. It simply rephrased the old stealth rules sentence bY sentence.

Again, these aren't the same terms. If you're in partial light you are not observed. If you win a Perception vs. Stealth you are, however, observing. In that case you can target with spells, but the 20% miss chance still applies from the light conditions.

zergtitan wrote:

Um he Barnes & Noble in my area already has the book on the shelves! I am not kidding, I am reading the hard copy right now! Still going to wait for my copy to ship, but I'm going to spend some time reading this one here for now.

Uh then that's breaking the street date which is hella illegal (for them, not you). I would contact Paizo about that.

Breaking a contract isn't "illegal" (there's no law forbidding you to break a contract, and you can't be fined or punished for it), it's just a breach of contract, for which there may be remedies you can get in court.

I mean, it might be a better world if poorly trained or misinformed clerks at B&N could face a year in prison or a $5,000 fine for breaking a street date, but I personally don't think so.

Has there been any discussion of new spells?

Etheric Shard + toppling magic missile

You can make Etheric Shards itself toppling, it has the force descriptor. Now add Fear. "Stop knocking yourself down!"

Ah, yes, the medium cloak that fits the giant squid.

Fear + Etheric Shards along the path they have to run through.

Plausible Pseudonym wrote:

You should have a Moment of Prescience up anyway if you're a Psychic/Wizard/Sorcerer, that gives you an auto success to escape.

Does Moment of Prescience help with Maze? MoP refers to applying the bonus to "any single attack roll, combat maneuver check, opposed ability or skill check, or saving throw." Does the DC20 Intelligence check to escape the Maze count as "opposed"?

Good point, I selectively forget that.

Unopposed ability checks, rather than skill checks, are actually tough to boost.

Burst of Insight would help (marginally at that level, assuming you already have a +6 headband), but has a serious downside of being dazed for a round afterwards. If you've got Invisibility and Mind Blank up maybe no one will notice that you've reappeared and are standing around doing nothing.

Visualization of the Mind can give a +5 all day.

Good Hope is a +2 morale bonus.

Pale Green Prism Ioun Stone gives you a +1 competence bonus, Stone of Good Luck a +1 luck bonus.

Ideally, though, you Maze a dumb bruiser who doesn't have magic to help and doesn't have a decent Int bonus to have a very high chance of escaping in the first few rounds.

there's always time to craft during a campaign

Your world always sounds like such an interesting place.

Each has true seeing, so greater invisibility is useless.

Each also has Mind Blank, so True Seeing directed at their body is useless.