"An inquisitor who slips into corruption or changes to a prohibited alignment loses all spells and the judgment ability."
At this point the next time they try to use a judgement or casts a spell inform them nothing happens.
From there as others have said they have the option of Atonement, the Heretic archetype or finding a new deity who's okay with slaughtering the innocent.
Heaps of ways. Infernal/Celestial Healing, class based auras, Misdirection, possession by something with an evil aura, holding an item with an evil aura, Imbue with Aura. It's so easy to fake an alignment aura even if there was a good god okay with murdering all evil creatures you meet they still would want you to take steps to make sure they've actually done something horrible to make sure.
Go back to where you met the mother, ask people questions, find out what happened to her and how she died. Follow the plot thread and you might just find something or someone useful.
You know what'll discourage the spamming of it? Remind the Paladin that every time they use Detect Evil they provoke attacks of opportunity, it takes them 18 seconds of standing and staring to narrow down the aura, and if a high enough evil cleric is in the cone they get stunned.
As a GM: NPCs will attempt to identify the spell being cast but probably fail and take attacks of opportunity to disrupt the Paladins concentration, then either run away from the scary person who casts spells at them without their permission or get violent.
Paladin commits murder, Paladin falls, if they fail to hide the body local law enforcement will use Blood Biography, and possibly Red Hand of the Killer, to hunt down the murderous ex-Paladin.
As a player: I react IC to my party member committing murder in front of me. This may involve revoking their weapon privileges, possibly their freedom privileges. If for some reason the Paladin has been able to get away with this repeatedly while still maintaining a lawful good alignment and powers my character will either lose faith in the gods or assume something has gone terribly wrong in the upper planes.
Assuming they didn't break the magic circle it should still be active and have 2 abjuration auras; one faint aura for the magic circle, one moderate aura for the dimensional anchor effect (there has to be one as accuser devils can teleport). If they did break the circle the auras linger for 1d6 rounds for the faint aura and 1d6 minutes for the dimensional anchor.
The fighter is obviously Evil if that's normal behaviour for them.
The warpriest is fine, they couldn't have stopped the fighter and the code of Iomedae talks more about protecting your allies than punishing evil. The Paladin code does, however, require them to punish those who harm the innocent.
What might be a good way of handling this is having law enforcement, good adventurers, or maybe just a friend or family member of the hobgoblin try to hunt down his murderer through a spell like Blood Biography or Red Hand of the Killer. Have consequences to this beyond getting stuff without having to pay for it or the dwarf's just going to keep murderhoboing.
It would be a DC 21 Knowledge (Arcana) check. Knowledge (Arcana) because Bard is an arcane spellcasting class, DC 21 because the masterpiece can be learned at a minimum of 11th level.
In a spellcaster heavy group a Magician Bard can do pretty well. But at higher levels even a core bard has Dirge of Doom to lower all enemy saves by 2.
Looking through the other Witch archetypes, all the ones that actually replace hexes uses the word replace. Archetypes that use the word alter tend be ones that add more options, like granting access to Shaman hexes.
Given this, my conclusion is that the bonus hex granted by Season Witch is in fact a bonus in addition to the normal 1st level hex.
Level 1:
Barbed Chains
Burning Disarm
Protection from Alignment
Level 2:
Spear of Purity/Arrow of Law/Shard of Chaos/Dread Bolt
Blinding Ray/Burst of Radiance
Boneshaker
Calm Emotions
Hold Person
Life Pact
Pilfering Hand
Spiritual Weapon (if you let Oracles use CHA)
Sound Burst
Level 3:
Archon's Aura
Bestow Curse
Blindness/Deafness
Chain of Perdition
Dispel Magic
Invisibility Purge
Magic Circle Against Alignment
Prayer
Stone Shape
Summon Monster III
Wind Wall
Level 4:
Aura of Doom
Blessing of Fervor
Holy Smite/Chaos Hammer/Order's Wrath/Unholy Blight
Debilitating Portent
Summon Monster IV
Terrible Remorse
Warp Metal
Spiritual Ally (if you let Oracles use CHA)
If you believe my regular playgroup I play exclusively bards. My dozen or so bard characters are, of course, bards. But also my druid is just a bard that likes nature a lot, my witch is a creepy debuff bard, my oracle was Princess Mononoke as a genderqueer bard, my swashbuckler was just a bard who really liked stabbing things with his sword (wink wink nudge nudge say no more). Even when I play other RPGs like World of Darkness; my werewolf, my vampires, my hunter; all bards.
Amulet of Natural Armour
Othwrworldly Kimono
Orange Prism Ioin Stone
R8ng of Freedom of Movement/Spectral Shroud/Boots of Escape/Shoes of Lightning Leaping
Multiple Snapleaves
You know it really should require some actual Imperious blood considering it contains actual preserved blood but yeah RAW you can craft it yourself and just ignore the prerequisite.
Time and Trickery are both good options with strong low level spells. There's also Deception for Invisibility and Blink, Elements for Fireball, Peace for Calm Emotions and Wind Wall and Protection for Sanctuary and Resist Energy.
Actually, Con Flame might not be that common. You need rubies and the world would quickly run out of rubies if even a city used that much light. That's a bit too expensive. If Con. Light was still around, though....
Summon Monster fixes this problem, Lantern Archons have Continual Flame as an at will SLA.
Also, paladins should never fall from a catch 22 unless they deliberately take a third even worse option.
That's 100% wrong. I've seen option 1, 2 and 3 make the paladin fall. Some games it's only a matter of WHEN a paladin falls, not if.
"Oh no, you didn't save the innocent villagers!! Fall!
"Oh no, you attacked the natives that are fighting back against the invading people!! [the villagers] Fall!!!
Failure never makes a Paladin fall, alignment shifts and committing evil acts make a Paladin fall. Picking a side in a battle where no one's the good guys is neither of these things.
Looking at the Pathfinder gods, this does seem like a pretty reasonable belief. In fact I would argue most of Golarion would consider quite a number of deities to be monstrous.
I feel like there's a difference between "tricking" the party and putting innocent people in front of a party that thinks NPCs only exist as bags of loot and XP or servants and having them stand up for themselves.
Also, paladins should never fall from a catch 22 unless they deliberately take a third even worse option.
Very small armies, defence spending is best put towards training, paying and equipping high level spellcasters and their bodyguards as a military force rather than large numbers of low level troops easily wiped out by AOE damage spells. The exceptions would be areas that have spent decades at war.
High populations due to magic bolstering food production and magical healing keeping people alive longer and curing disease.
Every nation will be ruled by a magocracy. The actual sitting leaders may not be spellcasters but they will require the support of spellcasters to lead and will bow to the whims of the spellcasting elite. The position of spellcasters in society would be very privileged but there would also be systems in place to ensure that they progress in their magical aptitude as quickly as possible (The Bartimaeus Sequence does this pretty well).
Non-spellcasters, treated like second class citizens, will try to rebel. Most of these rebellions would be run by idiots and easily squashed, but the smart ones will first try to level the playing ground with magical items and rapid advances in technology.
It might help to think of the gods as a bunch of level 20 mythic 10 wizards.
There are 3 main purposes of the godwizards:
1. Explaining things you don't actually understand - Storms are manifestations of Gozreh's will / I dunno, a wizard did it.
2. Maintaining social order - If you're bad you'll go to one of the lower planes / if you're bad a wizard will scry and fry you.
3. Justifying oligarchies and autocracies - I have all the money and power by divine mandate / I rule because the wizards picked me and they'll totally smite you with Lightning Bolts if you don't obey me.
I think we can all agree that having the burden of proof has never stopped people from believing whatever they want to believe.
Also the Pathfinder gods are actually lizard people who are keeping our characters' brains in jars and all of Golarion is just a mindscape they're kept in.
If you ask me, Neutral Evil is one of the best alignments to have in a party. Neutral Evil characters place a high value on maintaining valuable alliances and will do their best to avoid compromising their relationship with any party members or the overall mission of the party. The only downside is that their strong self preservation instinct makes them more likely to betray an ally who becomes a hindrance than other alignments.
Lawful Evil characters make good party members too, and their code of honour means you don't have to worry about them betraying you as much as a Neutral Evil character. At the same time they tend to be a lot less willing to compromise than a Neutral Evil character, which causes issues when you need a chaotic solution to a problem.
Chaotic Evil, however, is the worst alignment to have in a party. It's the ultimate "doesn't play well with others" alignment.
Getting drunk and singing bawdy tavern songs, charging into battle to the beating of drums and rhythmic war chants, Dwarves are clearly a race well suited to being bards.
False Life and Mage Armour, never leave home without them.
Try not to rely on your hexes too much, sometimes it's better to keep your distance. Alternatively, invest in ride, cast Mount and have an extra move action to move back after using an offensive hex.
Witches do have access to the cloud spells, I would consider investing in Fogcutting Lenses in the future if you find you like using them to keep yourself alive. Bleed for your Master and at later levels Die for your Master allow you to shunt off incoming attacks to your familiar. Life Pact is also an option.
Plus the only way to know someone's alignment with absolute certainty is if they resurrect you, and even then you only know what their alignment was during the casting of that spell. There are all sorts of reasons someone might detect as Evil without having an Evil alignment.
Even if they are Evil, "because they're evil" isn't a good justification to murder someone, and is contrary to the respect for sentient life that Pathfinder mandates is part of a good alignment.
Killing a good person is an evil act because you're taking their future from them and causing pain to their friends and family by robbing them of a loved one.
Healing patron of course! You want to make sure your food is clean and free of disease right?
Erastil definitely wouldn't be keen on cooking people but as a Witch you don't have a direct connection to your deity anyway so really it comes down to whether or not your character believes his priests and how fervent they are a follower of him.
As far as Hexes go I'm a fan of the utility Hexes like Healing and Flight. If you don't mind spending feats on Extra Hex you can get Misfortune at level 1 and Cackle at level 2 to give you a good combat Hex that isn't Slumber.
Less than 50% actually, even after getting past the concealment you still have to succeed at a touch attack.
OilHorse wrote:
Also allowing you to allow someone to freely move through your square while you are invisible will open up the the ability to move through an enemies square while invisible with no checks.
Um, no it doesn't? The occupant of the square determines if they will allow creatures through it, not the person attempting to move through.
I guess if they're letting their own invisible allies through their square you could take advantage of that but otherwise there's no reason to assume that they'll allow you through their square.
I'm saying that the inability to end your movement in an occupied square is simply that, you can't end your movement in the square. The rule that says that does not say "you automatically succeed a touch attack as you bump into the occupant of the square before being placed in an appropriate square." Therefore assuming that there is an invisible occupant in that square is indeed metagaming, as your character has not pinpointed the location of said creature, only you have, because you know the movement rules that your character doesn't.
OilHorse wrote:
So being flat out pedantic, there is no way to get by the invisible guy because movement rules. Or do you think that people can just walk over a waist high retaining wall because they don't see it and it is obviously not an enemy.
I'm pretty sure waist high retaining walls are not capable of choosing to allow someone to move through their square, being both stuck to the ground and presumably not sentient.
How about an invisible guard who is ambivalent to the party, or even just didn't notice the party as his back was to them as they came down the 5' corridor he is standing in the middle of?
No GM is going to suddenly apply combat movement rules in this situation. But if you were to apply them:
Ambivalent guard & someone moves through square: Guard chooses to let them through the square, no issue.
Ambivalent guard & someone tries to end movement on square: They end their movement a square back, on the next round the above applies.
Oblivious guard & someone moves through square: Player is told something invisible is blocking their movement through that square, guard gets a perception check, if he succeeds he gets an attack of opportunity.
Oblivious guard & someone tries to end movement on square: They end their movement a square back, guard gets a perception check, if he succeeds he gets an attack of opportunity.
A creature can generally notice the presence of an active invisible creature within 30 feet with a DC 20 Perception check. The observer gains a hunch that “something's there” but can't see it or target it accurately with an attack. It's practically impossible (+20 DC) to pinpoint an invisible creature's location with a Perception check.
...
A creature can grope about to find an invisible creature. A character can make a touch attack with his hands or a weapon into two adjacent 5-foot squares using a standard action. If an invisible target is in the designated area, there is a 50% miss chance on the touch attack. If successful, the groping character deals no damage but has successfully pinpointed the invisible creature's current location. If the invisible creature moves, its location, obviously, is once again unknown.
Also goes on to list various other methods of detecting invisible creatures, such as them attacking, picking up a visible object, following tracks, scent, blindsight... It does not however list metagaming the movement rules as a valid means of detecting an invisible creature.
The fact of the matter is there are rules that tell you how to find invisible creatures with touch and they do not include zig-zagging back and forth with move actions until you find a square you can't enter or end your movement in.
Except some people here are arguing that this is exactly how you can do it. No, the rules don't say "do it this way" but the rules do say that it will work. For, uh, reasons.
For example, two posts above yours, Numerak (indirectly) advocates this very thing. By his response, the rules prevent you from entering this imaginary "square", roughly the square footage of a common elevator, even if you don't know there is a person standing there invisibly. Even if that person is TRYING to let you in. The RAW says "NO!!!" so it must be no.
Then he goes on to say you can finagle the "ally" rules by pretending your enemy is your ally to get around this hard-coded rule.
He's right. That's all true. Except the ally finagling might be more of a judgement call than an actual rule.
Although, this allows for this funny conversation:
Player: My PC walks over here.
GM: Uh, well, that only partially works. After the first three squares, you feel a mystical need to use Acrobatics to tumble through that fourth square.
Player: Why?
GM: I dunno. You just do.
Player: Can you explain that better?
GM: Well, the first three squares went OK. YOU walked normally, no problems. But then at this fourth square, some karmic mystical energy in the universe seems to prevent you from walking into that square. But you instinctively know that you might be able to enter it if you tumble.
Player: Why?
GM: Reasons.
Player: How do I know about the tumbling?
GM: Uhhhh, instinct, I suppose.
Other Player: Hey, Fred, stop there and ready an action to attack. On my turn I cast Glitterdust on that mystical tumble square.
Or you could not be silly and have it go
Player: My PC walks over here.
GM: [hmm, there's an invisible creature in a square he wants to move through. The rules don't 100% cover this but the intent is pretty clear you shouldn't be able to just walk into invisible creatures to find them since you need to use your standard action and make touch attacks to find someone invisible, so I'll let him pass by without incident as he isn't treating the square as being occupied by an enemy and the creature isn't going to take hostile action like an attack of opportunity or otherwise attempt to impede his movement.] Okay sure, anything else?
Race
AC 11 (touch 11, FF 10); CMD 16;
Classes/Levels
F/R/W: +1/+1/+2 (+1 vs fear); Init: +5; Perc: +0;
Gender
HP: 8/8;
About Chaytah "Rock" Dives Like Rock
CONSUMABLES:
Ammunition dagger (3) X X X
Spell-Like or Racial Abilities mage hand (1/day) X
Set Mind (1/day) X
Class Abilities Battleshaping (5/day) X X X X X
Transmuter of Korada (1/day) X
Male human (Shoanti) Wizard (Shapechange Specialist) 1
NG Medium humanoid (human)
Init +5; Senses Perception +0, Sense Motive +0
Languages Azlanti, Common, Shoanti
DEFENSE AC 11 (Dex +1), touch 11, flat-footed 10
CMD 16
HP 8 (1d6+1+1)
Fort (0) +1, Ref (0) +1, Will (2) +2 (+1 vs fear)
Defensive Abilities None
Immune None
Resist None
SPECIAL ABILITIES Arcane Bond (Ex) Chaytah’s Rhamphorhynchus familiar Screaming Arrow grants him a +4 bonus on Initiative checks.
Arcane School (Ex) Chaytah specializes in transmutation magic, with evocation and enchantment as his restricted schools.
Battleshaping (Su) As a swift action, you grow a single natural weapon. The natural weapon lasts for 1 round and has a +1 enhancement bonus on attack and damage rolls for every four wizard levels you possess. You can grow a claw, a bite, or a gore attack. These attacks deal the normal damage for a creature of your size. At 11th level, you can shape two natural weapons. You may not grow additional limbs or a tail with this ability. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Intelligence modifier.
Overprotective (Drawback) In your youth, you saw a younger friend or loved one suffer a grievous injury or die, and you blamed yourself for not having been there to help, even if there was nothing you could have done. If one of your allies should fall unconscious from hit point damage, you take a –2 penalty on attack rolls and skill checks as long as you are farther than 10 feet away from your fallen ally.
Physical Enhancement (Su) You gain a +1 enhancement bonus to one physical ability score (Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution). This bonus increases by +1 for every five wizard levels you possess to a maximum of +5 at 20th level. You can change this bonus to a new ability score when you prepare spells. At 20th level, this bonus applies to two physical ability scores of your choice.
Set Mind (Trait) Once per day when you fail a saving throw against a charm or compulsion effect that would cause you to act differently than you normally would, you can immediately reroll that saving throw as a free action. You must take the second result, even if it’s worse.
Shoanti Tattoo (Trait) Upon reaching adulthood, you received a tribal tattoo, marking you with the symbols of your quah and totem spirits (see the inside back cover for suggestions and designs for Shoanti tattoos). You gain a +1 trait bonus on saving throws against fear effects. Additionally, you are proficient with earth breakers, klars, and Shoanti bolas.
Transmuter of Korada (Trait) You learned the secrets of transmutation from a follower of the empyreal lord Korada. Whenever you cast a spell from the transmutation school, its effects manifest at +1 caster level. Additionally, select one of the following transmutation spells: bear’s endurance, bull’s strength, cat’s grace, eagle’s splendor, fox’s cunning, or owl’s wisdom. Once per day when you cast that spell, its duration is doubled. A spell affected by this trait cannot be modified further by the Extend Spell metamagic feat or similar abilities.
Varisian Tattoo (Feat) Select a school of magic (other than divination) in which you have Spell Focus—you cast spells from this school at +1 caster level. Additionally, you gain a single spell-like ability usable up to three times per day. The spell-like ability gained (and its Varisian name) are as follows:
Transmutation (avaria): mage hand
BACKGROUND
As a boy, Chaytah lived peacefully along the Varisian sea cliffs of the Calphiak mountains with his greatfather Speaks as Storm, the village chief. The Shoanti villagers fished the Varisian Bay below, lived in luxurious caves halfway up the cliffs, and traded their catch with passing merchants from Riddleport and the Mierani Forest, or with the nearby Dreamstone Monastery, a small community of ascetics who worship Korada and could often be found meditating on rocks by the water’s edge, ignoring the fountains of cold salt spray for hours on end. Chaytah found the monks fascinating and frequently snuck away from the village to visit with them.
Like all youths in his village, Chaytah was a strong swimmer, though he lacked his peers’ grace when diving from the rocks above, often splashing ignominiously into the waves rather than cutting in cleanly. As he matured, his friends began to refer to him as Dives Like Rock. With any luck, such an honorific would not have stuck into his adult years, had any of his friends survived to give him a better.
As an older teen, the monks at Dreamstone recognized that, along with his impressive musculature, Rock (as he was now colloquially known) had a very keen mind and a natural draw to things magical. While the Shoanti youth would never reach the point of taking Koradan vows, a wizard adherent did volunteer to take the boy under his wing and teach him book magic. Though his greatfather was wary of this outside interference, he desired to help change the perception of his people as backward barbarians, so encouraged his grandson in his studies. Rock moved from his village to the monastery fulltime, providing fish in exchange for magical training.
Several years later, as Rock’s studies were just completed, villagers working to expand one of their sea caves, broke through a rock wall into a large chamber, apparently sealed long ago, and filled with trinkets and treasures from old Azlant. Though they strove to contain this news, word of the find spread into the outside world, and a Chelish scholar of Azlanti history and artifacts out of Riddleport raised a mercenary expedition to explore and loot the chamber. In a coordinated strike against the village from above and from sea, the mercenary’s forces overwhelmed the peaceful fishing village and looted the caves. So quick and complete was their strike, that Rock had no word of it until he, returning in triumph having been declared a full wizard by his master, found his home destroyed and friends and family murdered.
Overcome with grief and a taste for revenge, Rock left the ruins, taking only his greatfather’s earthbreaker. Enough clues were left behind to point Rock to Riddleport, where he just missed the mercenary, recalled to Cheliax, so the young man followed, making port in Corentyn. It was there, skulking around the docks, that Rock encountered a ship from Sargava offloading crates and cages of bizarre creatures from central Garundi. A small, winged lizard, looking miserable in its tiny cage, called out to the wizard, who used one spell to float the creature some food, then another to remotely pop open the door and free it. His efforts were not nearly subtle enough, however, and he was forced to flee Corentyn itself, before he could properly pick up the trail of the Chelish mercenary, learning only that the man had been sent on a Chelish expedition west to explore more locations of Azlanti interest. None of those expeditions would take a Shoanti barbarian, however, so Rock fled east along the coastal highway, through Westcrown, Egorian, and eventually into Andoran.
Along the way, Rock was joined by his reptilian friend. Glad of the company, Rock took care of the lizard, naming him Screaming Arrow from the way the wind would whistle around the creature’s tail as it dove quickly after prey. Once in Andoran, Rock heard the free nation was launching westward expeditions of its own, to a colony known as Talmandor’s Bounty. The application process was hard and highly competitive, especially for one considered a Shoanti barbarian, but Rock found a niche he could exploit. After several weeks spent in a local library and trading manual labour for lessons with a local sage, Rock showed up for his interview with a working knowledge of how to speak and read the Azlanti language. It had been a difficult task, but the Koradan monks had taught their pupil focus and determination. Impressing the interviewers with his initiative, his berth on the second voyage to Talmandor’s Bounty was assured.
DESCRIPTION
Rock stands at 6’3”, with arms the size of tree trunks and a neck the width of a (small) ship’s mast. His head is shaved, and his brown skin bears several tattoos common to the Shoanti people. He wears sturdy clothing, bought in Andoran and not traditional Shoanti garb, but carries a massive earthbreaker over his shoulder. What would appear to be a money pouch at his waist actually contains pulverized spell components and his backpack bulges from his concealed spellbook: most outsiders would assume the hulking man had stolen such things. Of course, the strange winged lizard that frequently suns itself on the man’s broad shoulders draws many stares of his own.
Screaming Arrow:
SCREAMING ARROW
Male Ramphorhyncus (Mascot Familiar) 1
NG Tiny animal (Ramphorhyncus)
Init +3; Senses Scent; Low-Light Vision; Perception +6, Sense Motive +2
Languages Common
DEFENSE AC 16 (Dex +3, Size +2, Natural +1), touch 15, flat-footed 113
CMD 9
HP 4 (1d6)
Fort (2) +2, Ref (2) +5, Will (2) +4
Defensive Abilities None
Immune None
Resist None
SQ
Affinity for my Team, Lucky Mascot, Sudden Swoop
SPECIAL ABILITIES Affinity for my Team (Su) A mascot is the heart and soul of its team. At first, the team consists of only the familiar and its master, but at 3rd level and every 3 levels thereafter, a mascot can add an additional member to its team. A mascot’s empathic link extends to all members of its team. A mascot can add or remove one team member over the course of a day.
Lucky Mascot (Su) Whenever a mascot uses the aid another action to improve a team member’s attack roll or AC, that team member also gains a +1 luck bonus to AC for 1 round.
Sudden Swoop (Ex) If a rhamphorhynchus makes a charge attack while flying, it does not provoke attacks of opportunity when it enters an opponent’s space to make a melee attack. It also gains a +2 bonus on damage rolls with its bite attack when it makes a sudden swoop.
