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Everyone made good points there, i will let him fight with his mount since he invested a lot in it.

Thank you everyone.

By rule for taking a level in the hellknight prestige class you have to win a duel against a devil with an HD superior to yours.

My player, which is a level 6 cavalier, wants to become an hellknight at level 7, i wanted to make him fight against a bearded devil with 1 more HD than usual.

My only doubt is: should i let the cavalier fight with his mount? Or is it balanced even when the cavalier has feats that don't work without a mount?

I think that it should be fine considering the cavalier have the challenge class feature, the banner and silver weapons.

But i wanted to have a second opinion from you folks, thanks in advance.

So let's take the case that you have a +2 bashing shield as your sacred gear.

- The +2 is not a "weapon enhancement bonus," it's a "shield enhancement bonus."
- Bashing does not convert your shield EnhB to weapon EnhB. It simply allows you to treat the shield as a +1 weapon while bashing. If it already is one (due to you installing a weapon EnhB somehow,) then bashing doesn't give that part of the benefit.

Under magic items, armor/shield section:

CRB wrote:

Shield enhancement bonuses stack with armor enhancement bonuses. Shield enhancement bonuses do not act as attack or damage bonuses when the shield is used in a shield bash. The bashing special ability, however, does grant a +1 bonus on attack and damage rolls (see the special ability description).

A shield could be built that also acted as a magic weapon, but the cost of the enhancement bonus on attack rolls would need to be added into the cost of the shield and its enhancement bonus to AC.

So this is what I think at 7th:

- Blinding is no problem; your shield has a shield EnhB.
- Can't do flaming, because the shield doesn't have a weapon EnhB; you need to give it a +1 first.

So i can give it weapon enhancements bonus! That's the answer i was looking for, Thank you!

My PC is a Human Warpriest that uses the Shieldbearer archetype.

I wonder how would the shield's enchantments work in this case:

Since:

A shieldbearer treats shields as sacred weapons

And:

A shieldbearer gains the ability to enhance his shield with divine power as a swift action. This ability functions as the sacred armor ability, except as follows. This power grants the shield a +1 enhancement bonus (this bonus does not act as an attack or damage bonus when the shield is used in a shield bash)

And:

At 4th level, the warpriest gains the ability to enhance one of his sacred weapons with divine power as a swift action. This power grants the weapon a +1 enhancement bonus

(In this case the Shieldbearer gets this ability at level 7 but it's irrelevant)

And the question is: If the warpriest reaches level 7 will he be able to enhance the shield both as an armor and as a weapon?

Can i make the shield both Flaming and Blinding for example? How would this interact with a Bashing Shield?

My conclusions are the following:
The shield can be enhanced both as a weapon and as a shield and the slots of the enhancements are separated.

About the Bashing enhancement i think it would effectively change the Base damage and make it act as a +1 weapon (Unless it gets an higher bonus somehow)

Does this look correct? Thank you in advance.

One of my PC's in my homebrew campaign is a witch conceived by an important demon of greed.

As her "personal objective" she wants to accumulate 100.000 GP and make "the biggest sacrifice the world has ever seen" to her father.

I feel the expectations are very high, giving her very strong boons wouldn't be sufficient and giving her too much power would be unfair to the other PC's, so i wandered through the first party content looking for an inspiration and found This.

The spell mentions a "gold guardian", i looked through the bestiary and online and couldn't find anything that is first party but i managed to find this sheet that i could use instead.
I wonder if someone there knows which sheet should i use by RAW.

My current plan is getting them to perform the ritual during a siege, that way i can meet expectations by giving the witch a spotlight (and some permanent bonuses) and make everybody happy for it

So lots of monsters in PF1 have the Grab ability and are meant to be effective as grappling foes. We've seen it in TV and movies, where a creature lunges from the darkness and wraps a good guy up in it's grip trying to drag them away or strangle them, while the heroes look on in horror!

Only, PF1 has specific mechanics and action economy. In this advice thread, I'm specifically looking for help designing encounters that feature a grappling foe pitted against a party of adventurers.

Now I get that a single opponent against 4 is already poor design. Action economy dictates that the PCs can all pile on against this singular opponent. But even in a mixed group of foes, a single grappling opponent is hard to understand as effective.

In order to grapple you have to 1. attack and hit your opponent, using at least your Standard action, then 2. successfully initiate the grapple. Any special effects, such as small weapon or natural attacks, moving an opponent, pinning, etc. come in successive rounds, meaning the grappler needs to maintain said grapple against their opponent.

I struggle to understand how to use this combat maneuver effectively when you have for PCs and a single grappler in the battle. Your one monster has locked themselves into a single course of actions that eats up all they can do, meaning that even if you have other monsters/hazards in the fight, those have to be effective enough to stand in for the threat this grappler posed in the battle, right?

Depends on the monster, for example there are monsters (such as giant ants) that can bite an opponent, grab them (free action) and as a free action try to hold the grapple (with a -20 penalty).

Usually monsters that are meant to be very strong tend to have a huge grappling bonus (to compensate the -20 and thus being able to attack the PC's while holding one reliably) and have other abilities associated with grapple such as swallow whole or constrict.

If a monster just have "grab" with a relatively low CMB bonus then it's probably supposed to be an expendable mook (Example: Giant soldier ant)

I'm a DM of 6 players, they've been playing pathfinder for several months (at least once a week) but they still miss out many mechanics that they could use in order to struggle less in fights and while exploring, they just seem to "forget" such things exists.

For example, they got a rogue with trapfinding that doesn't go ahead of the party and look for traps in a dungeon, he also doesn't even try to scout ahead in search for dangers.

So i thought about running a "tutorial" session next week in order to teach them a thing or two.

Basically this is the setting:

The PC's must convince they're strong enough to bring with them the lost relic that 2 paladins are keeping safe without getting killed by evil forces.
In order to demonstrate that the paladins demand the party to explore a dungeon and then fight a mirrored match (i will use their character sheets and items) in an arena.

The mechanics:

Basically every action they will do can add or cut points from a "total party score", they must reach a certain party score in order to get the relic, else they must face another dungeon with a very dangerous monster inside.

I will rate every significant action they will do, i will reward generously teamworking and particularly intelligent moves while punishing egoistic moves or the stupid stuff they do (such as attempting to do something that has low chance of success and dire consequences on failure).

Also, i will cut points when they don't do something they should do, such as sending the rogue ahead or forgetting to add bonuses to their rolls (i try to remember them but frankly i can't always pay attention on 6 PC's + 4 pets and also my NPC's)

Teachings i plan to insert:
- mechanics of flanking, charging and sneak attack
- Basic roles they should have in battle
- Use of the environment at their advantage
- Use of their spells and abilities
- Use of rogue out of battle
- Coordination and pre-planning
- No gambling except when it is necessary

What do you think about this idea? Do you have any suggestion to improve it? There is a mechanic you suggest i should teach?

I'm a DM in an homebrew campaign, one of the PC's is a Level 5 time oracle and we agreed that some spells that the time mistery gives are not very useful so i'm trying to get a second opinion and see what happens.

Memory Lapse
Used on the right NPC's it's nice, but you can't always cast and it has a very low Will save DC because it's just a level 1 spell.

Gentle Repose
It is Bloody useless.

Sands of time
Would be ok if there were any construct or undeads in the game i'm DM'ing, but there aren't so many so it ain't very useful in this case.

Threefold aspect
It's not bad but it's not something i would rejoice for, very good for roleplaying tough, undecided wether to keep this or not.

The other bonus spells are very nice, but that PC is level 5, i don't want to make him wait until level 10 to get cooler spells.
I'm not sure what spells should i give him, tell me what do you think about these spells:

Instead of sands of time i would give him Haste (i know it is given by a revelation, but that way he can bestow it to an ally)
i would substitute Gentle repose with Escaping Ward and Memory lapse with True strike

I would keep the Revelations the same as they are but i would unlock a level 7 revelation earlier to give something cooler early on.
About the True Revelation i shall keep the vanilla one since it is very nice

In short:
(Homebrew Campaign) My PC's are exploring a temple, they will find a door locked behind a strange mechanism.

Considering that:
- They will find a hoard with lots of very good stuff for their characters
- They will be able to try to solve the puzzle between 2 sessions (1 week)
- It is purely optional

https://layton.fandom.com/wiki/Puzzle:Royal_Escape

I thought about putting this one, but i don't know if they will be able to solve
it, i want the puzzle to be difficult but not impossible and i need it to be doable by everyone (by that i mean no hard mathematical solutions and such).

What i like about this sliding puzzle is that it can be "ported" on Roll20 by copying it and giving them control over "the blocks".

Obviously i will reskin the puzzle so they can't just look it up on google.

If you got any suggestion on what puzzle put on the door tell me, i prefer something like the one i proposed but feel free to ask me

Stumbling bash might be better than shield slam if you're doing TWF. It applies a -2 penalty to AC to the target for 1 round which could make your later attacks in a full attack hit. Or shield snag has a fun effect. Shield slam is the prerequisite to shield master, but that's late enough that it's not on your list - if your character isn't going to get to 12th level then shield master doesn't matter.

BTW I've seen worse English on these messageboards from native speakers. Including one who got huffy when I asked them whether English was their native language.

i will probably get to level 12 and i shall get shield master, i will consider shield snag.

I think the fighter level is a good idea because I just noticed something else:

You get proficiency in the tower shield as a weapon (because it's your deity's favored weapon) but I don't see how you're getting proficiency with it as armor (the tower shield proficiency feat). Without that you take the shield's ACP on all attack rolls. Unless, of course, the GM is giving you that as part of the weapon proficiency.

And just to verify: your GM is allowing you to apply the shield-trained trait to tower shields as well? I assumed he wasn't but if he is it makes the TWF penalty better.

I got the proficiency anyways because it was the god's sacred weapon, so that didn't mattered

The shield trained trait reduces the penalty

Things I see:

You can't take shield focus as your 1st level feat. It requires a BAB of 1 and a warpriest is a 3/4 BAB class. That delays the Mobile Bulwark chain, and means you are going to be taking some SERIOUS penalties to attack for quite a few levels. Even once you get Mobile Stronghold, I'm assuming the GM is counting your tower shield as a one-handed weapon, so you'll be taking -4 when TWF. You want to eventually get the Shield Master feat. Probably with your 12th level bonus feat.

TWF doesn't mesh well with Shield Slam/Bull Rush. The problem is that if you move them more than 5 feet, you can't follow them and continue attacking. Choose one or the other to focus on. If it's TWF, you need to get the Improved and Greater Feats eventually.

It is going to take you quite a few rounds to get "up to power." You have 4 different swift actions (fervor-cast, enter Mobile Bulwark style, enhance sacred weapon, and enhance sacred armor). The corset helps, but only a tiny bit. Not a problem, just something to be aware of.

I totally forgot about the BAB requirement in shield focus, that's a little disaster... i should be able to take one level of fighter and fix that in exchange of delayed spells and other stuff...

i think the bull rush/shield bash combo is not bad considering the following situations:

- if there is 1 boss i can hit him with the sword, shield bash him and IF it is pushed back i can step back so he can't just step and make use of his full round action (i deal less damage, so does him, i lose a lot less from this than him)

- in alternative if there is a wall nearby i can attempt to trip him

- if there are many enemies i can use the shield as the main weapon and attempt to push away more people at once

And then yes, the swift action economy is a nightmare, considering that at level 10 i will get quicken blessing

you still cant shield bash with a tower shield

Shield-Trained
You were trained to use shields as weapons.

Benefit(s) Heavy and light shields are considered simple weapons rather than martial weapons for you. Heavy shields are considered light weapons for you.

Shield, Tower
Benefit: In most situations, a tower shield provides the indicated shield bonus to your Armor Class. As a standard action, however, you can use a tower shield to grant you total cover until the beginning of your next turn. When using a tower shield in this way, you must choose one edge of your space. That edge is treated as a solid wall for attacks targeting you only. You gain total cover for attacks that pass through this edge and no cover for attacks that do not pass through this edge (see Combat). The shield does not, however, provide cover against targeted spells; a spellcaster can cast a spell on you by targeting the shield you are holding. You cannot bash with a tower shield, nor can you use your shield hand for anything else.

When employing a tower shield in combat, you take a –2 penalty on attack rolls because of the shield’s encumbrance.

I know and the DM knows but as i said the DM allowed an expection to this rule because of the god i'm worshipping

Told him about the trait and he said "it's ok, go on"

In short, in our game (homebrew campaign) we have a god of civilization and community which uses the tower shield as his sacred weapon.

Well, i wanted to be a Human warpriest that served this god and i wanted to base my build on TWF and the DM allowed me to bash with the tower shield for 1d6 of damage (don't really care since the shield is the sacred weapon, which scales).

Blessing chosen: Good, Law

The Stats are:
17 STR 8 INT
15 DEX 14 WIS
12 CON 8 CHA

(Wisdom is quite low, but i needed the STR for carrying stuff)

I got the following traits:

Shield Bearer (+1 damage when bashing, +2 AC for a turn once a day to an ally)
Shield Trained (I consider shields light weapons)
Competitive (i get a +1 when attempting to do something nearby someone trying to do the same thing, i find it very cool even though i could have got Fate's favored instead)

I don't know if the feats i've chosen will work, i post the list:

Improved shield bash (from the Shieldbearer archetype)
TWF (Level 1 feat)
Shield focus (Bonus human Feat)
Power attack (Level 3 Feat)
Mobile bulwark style (Level 3 bonus feat)
Improved bull rush (Level 5 feat)
Mobile Fortress (Level 6 Favorite class bonus feat)
Shield Slam (Level 6 bonus feat)
Shielded stand (level 7 feat) (maybe i could put something else there?)
Mobile stronghold (Level 9 Bonus feat)
Quicken Blessing (level 11 feat)

The aim of this build is, obviously, Shieldbashing and knocking people way and possibly making them prone with the shield bash

Casting spells on myself is not a problem since Fervor allows me to get away with it easily, my shield has been consecrated, so it also acts as an holy symbol

Bonus, if you had 3K Gp's laying around what would you buy?
I thought about getting the Corset of delicate moves (2K GP's, gives 1 extra swift action once a day)

Rate the build and give advice if you wish so

Sorry for the poor language, i'm not an english mothertongue
if you need more info ask me

- my initial answer, addressing the O.P. at length got lost in the warp and I don't have time to rewrite it all for now -

In short, talk to your G.M. Your problem doesn't lie with the gear in the least bit but in the combat encounters. Also, how do encounters outside of combat go?

TxSam88 wrote:

Most GM's don't know enough about the game to create well written, balanced, level appropriate encounters.

Your inference from anecdotal evidence is weak, your statement is too broad. Most G.M. I've played with have a good idea of what they are doing, with the diegesis as well as with the system.

As i said to TXSAM88 the "not combat" encounters are good usually, he has problem in the "combat" part of pathfinder and that's it, the story may not be something of epic proportion but through narration he managed to keep us guessing and curious, which is the most important thing.

He has a few annoying fixations but he's not bad in this side

Two relatively easy and quick solutions:

Use the automatic bonus progression rules, which obviate the need for constant stat, armor, and weapon bonuses and the like: https://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/other-rules/unchained-rules/automati c-bonus-progression/

Get you geared up properly quickly, either via an easy encounter with extra loot or a plot device like a patron

i will try to propose him the bonus progression rules, it is easier to mantain and maybe he's more willing than just handing out thousands of GP's all of sudden.

Agénor wrote:

- my initial answer, addressing the O.P. at length got lost in the warp and I don't have time to rewrite it all for now -

In short, talk to your G.M. Your problem doesn't lie with the gear in the least bit but in the combat encounters. Also, how do encounters outside of combat go?

TxSam88 wrote:

Most GM's don't know enough about the game to create well written, balanced, level appropriate encounters.

Your inference from anecdotal evidence is weak, your statement is too broad. Most G.M. I've played with have a good idea of what they are doing, with the diegesis as well as with the system.

I've played since 1983, even done some work for WOTC, played at multiple conventions as well as in multiple countries, while there are some great GMs out there, most players and GM's have barely cracked open a rulebook, much less taken the time to read one cover to cover. While I've seen some great homebrew adventures that are very well written, balanced and written thorough enough to account for most issues, those are most certainly the exception to the rule. The vast majority of GMs out there are just doing things ad hoc and have very little clue how to make things balanced, enjoyable and level appropriate.

In this case you're right, he didn't read the book at all.

He calls me a rule lawyer and a min maxer because i take the right feats and read and understand the rules.

https://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/character-advancement/

I showed him this very simple table for the character wealth and explained him that CR is based also on the PC equipment and he said "i don't care, my campaign is low gold" and that's it.

i tried to explain him that a Newbie DM can't really balance encounters just using his istinct, he needs a guideline but he refuses to follow any.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nx-o8VAjhUwh3nnfzDQT-JA5eFLnN_BZJiBitGj BMDg/edit

I gave him this guide so he could understand what i meant, but i bet he didn't read it since we had to face a badly nerfed Shoggoth that caused a TPK (we were level 7 at the time)

If i were him i would have just used a different system because it doesn't match his GM'ing style

Pathfinder unfortunately relies a lot rules, there is a rule basically for everything and that's why he struggles when balancing combat encounters.

The story he's telling is not something huge, mythic, unique but he manages to make it good through narration,details and acting.

But when it comes to a combat ESPECIALLY against a boss it is always either TPK or plot armor because he struggles to balance it.

The fact that he refuses to collaborate with other people, seeking guidance demonstrates that he's not made for GM'ing with pathfinder system.

I've never seen such a low gold game.

i am a level 9 cleric with Honor and Fire domains, the value of my inventory is about 9K GP's.

The campaign is homebrew

i ain't got a Wisdom band and no magic item in general because i got no GP's (i've been VERY naive i know)

The encounters the DM throws at us are embarassing, they either TPK without a plot armor or are way too easy

His problem is that he doesn't know how to balance out monsters according to our wealth, our best tank is our cavalier (22 AC) and it is too low considering that our enemies are CL 9 and above.

So he resorted to throw at us 5 CL monsters or less so we don't die, but the spellcasters just use them to mop up the floor and kill them almost istantly with a fireball

What advice can i give to him?
What can i do to improve the economy?

EDIT: The only think i can think is to combine spells, which are independent from the GP's and hope for the best

Side note: He told me that craft feats will be useless because i will have no time to craft items