R.A.Boettcher's page

So this came up tonight where our party fighter suffered the Fleeing condition due to an Owlbear's Bloodcurdling Screech. As the GM I read this as fleeing at the fastest possible rate, meaning Stride actions. My player thought he should be able to use Step as well to avoid a possible AoO.

Was I in error here? Expediently as possible seems fairly plain to me as meaning as fast as possible, meaning no Step,

I have a player with access to a 30' Tremorsense (because he can assume facets of an earth elemental). Tremorsense states that it senses through 'the ground'.

Just what is meant by the ground? Earth, stone, and soil? Wooden buildings? Up a tree? How would you run it?

I've had DMs tell me that critters up a tree aren't going to be sensed by it because of the ground definition and it makes sense.

OK...I get that a spell's line of sight would be interrupted by a Obscuring Mist if your target was standing at its center. Spells with attack rolls can still target the square and risk the 50% miss chance.

But I'm a little less clear on what happens if the 50% concealment is the result of a personal spell or class ability and its user is targeted by something like a mind -affecting spell resisted by a Will save? Say you are using the psionic ability Greater Concealing Amorpha (50% Concealment)...would that be the same as breaking line of sight for the Dominate Person spell?

If a creature has a gaze attack, like a medusa's petrification gaze, and than has a defensive effect like a Blur spell cast on themselves, does the concealment interfere with the gaze attack? Do targets of the gaze attack gain any bonuses to save or something like this?

Does a shield proficiency cover both the defensive use and the shield bash use of a shield? Or do you need Martial Weapon Prof (Shield) to be considered proficient in the shield bash?

Question about Maneuver Master: Typically Grappling is a standard action. Flurry of Maneuvers adds a bonus combat maneuver attack IF you are making a Full Round Attack. So should I consider Grappling a full round attack if the player wants to add the 2nd combat maneuver (he wants to grapple twice a round at first level). Or can't you do this with a Grapple since its a Standard Action?

OK...I have a barbarian who wants to specialize heavily in unarmed combat using the various rage powers. The one that seems ideal is the Brawler rage power because it grants you the Improved Unarmed Strike feat while raging.

But that leaves me with a problem. There are a lot of good feats that require Improved Unarmed Strike as a prerequisite (Feral Combat Training comes to mind).

So I guess does my faux IUS feat from Brawler count for picking up these later feats?

It seems like such a waste to be forced to spend a feat slot on something I already get. And I do figure that any feats building off of Brawler would shut down if my character isn't raging at that moment.

OK...this is more about a psionic power (DSP's Energy Missile) then a spell but it should all be the same!

Suppose a spell/power says this for Targets:

"Up to five creatures or unattended objects; no two targets can be more then 15 ft. apart."

Does this mean...

a Chain? That is you can select a chain of targets in any configuration as long as each is within 15' of the previous target?

or a Box? No two targets can be further then 15' from each other, which effectively means the two targets furthest from each other, and that each much be within 15' of all other targets?

"Bracers of Throwing: 10,000gp (double the cost of the difference between a +2 weapon and a +2 weapon of throwing is my justification, it'll have some added power but nothing earth shattering and you can swap weapons)
It gives any weapon a 30ft thrown range if it doesn't have one and returns it to your hand at the end of the round, it can hold 4 thrown weapons inside it's vaguely claw like appearance (javelins, throwing axes, etc). Anything thrown from the gauntlet counts as a magic weapon but it has no enhancement bonus. Optional if you think it's not overpowered: +2 accuracy bonus to attacks with thrown."

A suggested magic item sent to me by a player. I'm not that familiar with the magic item rules so any suggestions on how to balance this would be appreciated.

A player of mine recently came up with this feature for his main weapon.

Sword of Morning: (+2000gp, the cost for a background)
Magic weapons sundered with this sword have half (unless you think full is good!) their GP cost applied towards gaining additional enhancement bonuses. Basically a cooler way to increase it's power instead of selling and recrafting new ones.

I suppose mathematically it works out. (the 'cost for a background' quote is the 2000 gp reward I give for a character background and description.) I'm just not feeling the love for it.

Are there any problems with this feature that I should be aware of?

Just the supplement I was waiting for! Rounds out the lycaonite nicely!

I do have a question about the Hybrid Fury feats though.

Improved Hybrid Fury adds not just one attack, but 1 Bite/2 claws at -5 to hit in addition to the hybrid's standard attacks?

Thats just....wow. So a 15th level Lycaonite Improved Hybrid Fury (plus the Improved Bite chain from the class) would have Bite +15/Bite +10/Bite +10/Bite +5/Claw +15/Claw +15/Claw +10/Claw +10, and if one of those bites and 2 of those claws hit you follow up with Bite +10/Claw +10/Claw +10.

A grand total of 11 attacks at 15th level. Is that the way its supposed to be?

Even a 15th level Fighter with Improved Two Weapon Fighting would only be scoring 5 attacks a round. That seems a bit much.

I know I could run a Rogue or Barbarian to screw up a Rogue's day but what about spells, feats, or anything else that can negate or reduce the threat of a Sneak Attack?

Terrible Remorse, a spell from Ultimate Magic, was used for the first time ever in my games last night. But after the second fire giant got caught in a trap between either spending your action killing yourself if you fail a save, and doing nothing if you make the save, I had to question it. It seems like a terrible spell that will kill monsters automatically because even with a successful saving throw you are no better off than if you failed.

Is there any errata for this spell?

I have a question about this feat...

Suppose I have a monster with a bite/claw/claw routine of 1d6/1d4/1d4 damage.

I want to raise my claw damage dice. Does it make the damage stats look like this:

1d6/1d6/1d6

or like this?

1d6/1d6/1d4

Essentially what I'm asking is does the feat raies the damage dice of a form of attacks (ie all claws) or just one of them (my right claw)?

I'm wondering if their is any article or rule regarding the number of spells a 'average' higher level wizard would have? If for instance we rolled up 7th level characters for a quickie one night game...how many spells known per level could you expect a 7th level wizard or witch to have?

PS: I vaguely recall that WotC had something like this way back in 3e days on their boards. That would work very well if anybody had a copy.

One of my players busted this out on me last night. I was a bit startled by the feat's power. My question is can you actually keep functioning as disabled until you reach your Con limit? Or it this meant to be a oneshot deal like a half-orc's Ferocity?

We did play it like it lasted until you reached Con limit and it gave the character's barbarian a rather epic feel since he was in negatives multiple times during a big battle. But it really makes the half-orc's abiilty kind of second rate.