Iron Dragon

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Organized Play Member. 140 posts. No reviews. No lists. No wishlists. 2 Organized Play characters. 1 alias.




I'm sure most of us know the feats in this chain, so let me cut to the core: What about things that effect the weapon itself?

The weapon melds into your natural attacks.

What if you have specific feats or abilities that apply to the fused weapon? Would you gain those as well?

I mean things like Weapon Focus/Specialization, Improved Critical, or even more specific things like an Inspired Blade Swashbuckler's specific version of finesse?

I've read them over multiple times, and my best takeaway is a strong "maybe."

Thoughts and/or Cited Things?

Thanks!


I've gotten myself into a bit of an argument about this combination, and am looking for other voices to chime in with thoughts.

There are essentially two interaction questions, and they both default back to: "would you get the 1d8 sneak attack, or the 1d4?"

Scenario 1:
Kinetic Blade. The ability says that the shape is strictly cosmetic, and doesn't use the weapon shapes anything. But there are two possible caveats here.

The first, is that Knife Master applies to a generally category of weapon forms. This argument is admittedly weak.

The second, is that Kinetic Blade works different for Aether kineticists. Hell, Aether kinetics work super different in lots of ways. An Aether kinetic does not make a form of energy. It specifically says it transfers the power to your held item. So what if that held item is a dagger? You wouldn't get the dagger's threat range or anything, but TK Kinetic Blade relies on the item.

I can't shake the feeling that this specific scenario would let you get your 1d8 instead of 1d4.

Scenario 2:
Throwing the dagger with TK Blast. You're attacking with a Kinetic Blast, but you have options when you TK blast.

You can hit for full blast damage.
Or you can "loosen the strands."

The latter let's you actually take advantage of the items properties, specifically, but you treat it as thrown (no blast damage but you can use CON instead of STR for the thrown damage).

I'm less washy here.
If you full blast damage, 1d4.
If you loosen, 1d8.

Is this wrong? Some people say yes.
Everything about the abilities imply no.

So really, the huge hangup is over how TK Blast interacts with Kinetic Blade, specifically.

Would it be 1d8, or 1d4 Sneak Attack?

TK does not behave like other blasts.
It even has special rules within KBlade.

Because of these, I'd say a KB when you're holding a dagger as the recepient, you're empowering, not forming, so you'd get the 1d8.

What does the greater community think?

Thanks in advance!


Hey all! Looking for some help with scouting and/or memory.

We're looking to do an in person game for the first time since the Panda, and I've been trying to find my character sheets to print out on Cardstock. (Old HDD died)

I was able to find HappyCampers sheets again (GM was hoping to use the class specific sheets), but I'm only finding the Core and APG classes, but we've got a Shaman and a Kineticist.

I feel like those (ACG & OA HappyCamper sheets) existed as well, but I'm not finding them anywhere.

Do they exist, or am I mistaken?
I swear there was one for Kineticist at the very least, because I remember tracking burn on one pre Panda.

Any help finding the others would be greatly appreciated!
(or a confirmation that they never existed could at least save me time. Heh.)


Good day, fellow Pathfinder's!

Had an idea that I believe works a certain way, but there's a seed of doubt, so I figured I should reach out to y'all!

Cavalier Challenge adds your Cavalier level to your melee damage rolls.

What if you had the ability to cast Spiritual Weapon through multiclassing or the like?

Would you add +Cavalier level to the Spiritual Weapon's damage?

I'm thinking yes because...
1 - It's a melee attack that you are rolling.
2 - It draws on you for it's bonuses.
3 - Challenge does not specify that they must be adjacent or within reach, only that it applies to attacks in melee, which Spiritual Weapon does.

I'm pretty sure you add challenge damage to it.
Weird as that may be. But I hesitate.

Super neat and very specific situation.
Thoughts?


Paralysis sucks for sure. You can do purely mental stuff.
So if you had Still and/or Silent Spell (as applicable), you're good.

But what I'm curious about...
Are there any spells that can be cast, as-is, while Paralyzed? (Other than Psychic spells obviously)

I know there are several rare and situational things. Was curious if there were any for this.

Show me what you got!
(Though honestly I'm expecting nothing)

Thanks!


Shaman is a hybrid of Oracle and Witch.
Is there really no way to gain a spell from the Witch list as a Shaman? You can pull Cleric spells with heritage, but not Witch?

Trying to get a 1st Level Witch spell for something.
Any way I can make this happen?

(Lore Spirit won't work here)


Short and simple;

When using the spell Storm of Blades, do you provoke Attacks of Opportunity? I am in disagreement over this.

You make the rolls using your stats, but you yourself are not actually throwing or directing them like a ray or anything.

In fact, it says they are magically propelled.

Would you draw an AoO for the attacks made with this spell?
If so, would that be 1, or 1 per sword?

Based on the nature of the spell, I say nay.


Pretty straight-forward question with no obvious answer;
What is the actual range on Relentless Healing?

To recap the text,
"You can restore life to the recently dead. If a creature has died within 1 round, as a free action you can expend one use of mythic power to apply healing magic to that creature. This healing can be from a spell or effect you cause or from a magic item you wield. If this healing brings the creature's hit points above the threshold for death, it comes back to life and stabilizes at its new hit point total (similar to the way breath of life functions); otherwise, it remains dead.

Alternatively, you can expend two uses of mythic power on a dead creature that would have the ability to magically heal itself if it were alive (such as a dead cleric with a prepared cure light wounds spell) in order to trigger the most powerful healing magic it knows or has prepared. If this brings the creature's hit points above its death threshold, it returns to life."

I added a line break in there because the question comes in two parts. (Three actually)

First is - it says you can use healing from a spell or effect or item as a Free Action.
Does that mean you can just cast/use something AS a free action, or the healing up from death IS a free action taken while using something else to heal? I'd be leaning the second, however, Question Two (along with the lack of specificity) encourages me to think otherwise. It mentions that it can be from a "spell or effect you cause" - but also says it can also be from an item you wield. Would it be a rider for a spell or channel, but a free action to use an actual item?

The Second is - You can burn 2 Mythic to have them heal themselves with something. This clearly implies that the free action actually triggers the casting/healing/etc. Because you can't perform the free action while they cast something while dead. Literally impossible. That seems pretty straight forward, honestly, with one exception... What is the range at which you can trigger this? It doesn't list anything. Sight? Touch? Close? Long? This is a hugely important detail left missing.

The Third (bonus round) question is...
It doesn't seem to list the conditions under which the magic/ability/item is used.
Does this mean you could trigger a Mass Heal, painting multiple targets, so long as the dead one was included in the numbers? If we're going with "free action as part of another healing thing you do" this seems far less problematic. But what if the fallen ally actually has some sort of Mass Healing? Would they be able to cast the multi-target as part of ressing themselves? Further, you're spending the mythic points to trigger their healing. It uses their most powerful, but this seems to imply that YOU would choose targets for them. (What with being conscious and alive, that seems reasonable)

The biggest reason for which this is a hangup, would be the fact that it's clearly listed as a FREE action. Even if your own isn't Free (playing it as a rider on another Standard), that would be a Free action to possibly return multiple allies from the grave in a round... which is totally mythic bad-arse... but it strikes me as being stupid powerful (even for Mythic) as a thing you can take at Tier 1.


Beyond the basics...
Arcana, Any -- Throwing Magus (Returning)
Arcana, 9th -- Ghost Blade (Brilliant Energy, Ghost Touch)
Arcana, 9th -- Planar Hunter (Planar, Phase Locking)
Arcana, 15th -- Bane Blade (Bane)
Race -- Gnome -- (SEVERAL - through Favored Class options)

Are there any other ways to expand the list that a non-gnome Magus can draw from?

Particularly, I'm thinking Merciful, but things like Conductive could be great too.

If they had a feat equivalent to Expanded Metakinesis, that would be nice.


Standard choice: Evil Outsiders.

Do you just inflict the same damage as you would otherwise heal? Straight up? As if they were undead?

Further, what if you have a Variant Channeling?

Would this allow you to tactical nuke a specific type with the inflict effect debuff of an alternative channeling, without needing to actually channel negative energy?


I feel like this question would be a "hell no" for a standard feat, but mythic gets weird, and the wording leaves room for interpretation.

Mythic Vital Strike reads;
"Benefit: Whenever you use Vital Strike, Improved Vital Strike, or Greater Vital Strike, multiply the Strength bonus, magic bonus, and other bonuses that would normally be multiplied on a critical hit by the number of weapon damage dice you roll for that feat."

Let's say it's just Vital Strike (basic), and your total base +damage is +10 for math's sake.

Normal Greatsword would be 2d6+10.
But Vital Strike makes it 4d6+10.

Mythic says you multiply the total bonus by the dice.
Standard logic says 4d6+20...
But the wording seems to say it could be 4d6+40.

Again, I'd argue that's a Case A. ...if it weren't Mythic.
It could be sloppy wording, but I do have my doubts.

Thoughts? ...and with what to back it?
(Link's if able would be great)


Pretty straight forward.
Thought I had the answer bookmarked from WAY back. No luck.

If you have a CON of 15, you're dead at -15, obviously.
If some effects make that CONx2, or dead at -30.
If you have two different "CONx2" effects, is that dead at -45, or -60?

Thanks in advance!


I'm having a lot of trouble finding something I swear I had read before.

Psychic magic. In particular, the Emotion descriptor.

I remember reading in some clarification that if your character was not in control of themselves, could not think or act on their own, that you could not cast. But upon re-reading the rules, they seem to be SPECIFICALLY about the Emotion descriptor spells.

How the hell would a Shaken effect shut you down, but not a DOMINATE effect? That has to, right? Despite not being an "Emotion Descriptor Spell" - it's still a Mind Effect that denies you control. I swear this was clarified somewhere, and cannot for the life of me find it now.

Any clarification (or help finding said clarification) would be greatly appreciated!


So, I know Pathbuilder isn't official software or anything, but I did notice something interesting that I wanted to confirm.

Shaman class progression indicates that they get the major effect from their spirit at 20. However, the effect is actually under the Spirit itself (making the Level 20 note redundant/confusing). According to the app... you can just choose a capstone and lose nothing as a Shaman - just like a Wizard or Cleric - as the only actual thing gained at 20 is actually a byproduct of (and contained within) an earlier scaling ability.

Is that correct? Most people think Shaman need all the help they can get, and it looks like this is how it works, so I'm cautiously optimistic.


Everything mechanically says it should. People might argue that it does not, as it functions "as if" you had cast Breath of Life.

Examples.

Channeled Revival says:
"As a full-round action that provokes attacks of opportunity, you can expend three uses of your channel energy class feature to restore a dead creature to life as if you had cast the breath of life spell."

Reviving Channel says:
"When you use channel energy, you can focus on one creature within range that would be healed by your channel energy whose hit points are below 0. When you do so, no other creatures are healed, but the target creature is restored to 0 hit points before the normal healing takes effect."

If the ally that's dead is say, at -50 HP, would they be put at zero before the Breath of Life equivalent effect? It is still healing caused by your Channel Energy ability, after all, regardless of what spell function it replicates, and it will only alter one target. Everything is laid out in a way that I think the answer is "Yes" - but there's always room for debate, and I've found nothing to support either direction.

Followup Question:
Do you heal them 6d6, or do you heal them 5d8+(???) ?

This is important, because while it says "like Breath of Life" - it makes zero mention of you using your actual level as the Caster Level of Breath of Life, thus failing to define what the actual healing bonus would be (inclining me to believe you would only heal what is normal for your Channel, making the combo of these two far more reasonable/valuable)

Thanks for humoring me!


So here's a weird question.
Totally random thought about unlikely setup.

Presuming a Kitsune would go 9-tails as a Magus... Is there a way, should they for some reason want to, for them to use their racial SLA as part of Spell Combat?

I'm thinking no. BUT!

There are Arcana for using staves of wands with it. So maybe?

Also, there's Broad Study...
Could you take that and choose your Creature Type?

Weird weird thoughts.


Good afternoon my fellows!

I have a few questions about the spell Shadowfade (from the Heroes of the Darklands supplement).

The spell is "Illusion (Shadow)"
It says that, in areas of darkness, the target of Shadowfade is invisible to creatures using darkvision to see it. In dim light, you instead have concealment against them.

My question is, how does this interact with other spells? A few in particular.

1&2) SEE INVISIBILITY & INVISIBILITY PURGE
This seems pretty straight forward, but I am convinced it does not work.
You are not ever actually invisible. You are invisible specifically to darkvision.
It doesn't render you invisible... it screws with darkvision, per the direct description.

If either of those worked against Shadowfade, why would it even exist vs. reg Invisibility?
It would be categorically inferior in just about every single way.

Both are 1min/Lv, both are broken by hostile actions.
One makes you outright invisible. "...becomes invisible."
The other makes you invisible only to a specific subset "...is invisible to..."

3) TRUE SEEING
This I feel is entirely straight forward. You see everything as it is.
This totally busts Shadowfade just as easily as actual Invisiblity.

My takeaway: Invisibility requires See Invis, Invis Purge and/or True Seeing to pierce. Shadowfade cannot be beaten by See Invis or Invis Purge, but even the cantrip Light or a simple torch can screw it up, let alone some stronger light producing spell or effect.

How do you all feel about this?
This spell, so many years later, CAN'T be outright useless in comparison.


I'm surprised my searches haven't seemed to yield (in the first several Google pages) amnanswer to a thought I had - and the ability entry doesn't really cover it.

Slinger lets you fire the gun OR cast a spell THROUGH the gun. Pretty straight forward.

Spell gains weapon's enhance to hit. Cool.
Spell gets weapon's enhance to Save DC. Cool.

Mage Bullets let's you burn a spell to boost that enhancement, or add special qualities.

This is where my question enters.

If you give the gun a special property, say, Shock... Would the spell cast/fired _through_ the gun gain that +1d6 Electric?

The firearm boosts your crit multiplier (if one gun), and uses it's +hit for this to-hit. Stands to reason the spell would gain it too, right?

At least, I believe the spell would IF the spell cast through it requires an attack roll, considering a ranged weapon imparts its bonus on anything fired out of it.

I don't think it would apply to burning hands or fireball (no attack roll), but Scorching Ray perhaps?

I find it odd that the text does not specifically cover this as an absolute yes or no. I as a long-time GM have been bouncing this idea in my head all day. I feel it's reasonable and plausible, but it bugs me to not have an official yes or no.

Thoughts?


As the title says... Is this power actually useless?

I love the class, but once I re-read this entry, I face-palmed.

Based on invested mental focus, it increases your effective caster level for Conjuration Spells measure in rounds-per-level, for the purposes of duration only.

At a glance, that sounds great!
What's that? Mage Armor can be 2 hours at 1st level? Sweet!
Wait. ROUNDS per level spells only... OK, so which ones are there?

There... aren't any?

Correction. By level 10, there's ONE: Major Creation.
Even then, that's only for rare metal items.

Literally everything else I'm seeing before that.is measure in 1-minute, 10-minute, 1-hour, or 2-hour increments.

What am I missing here? I have to be missing something here.


Good day, Pathfinders!

I've got a few ideas rolling around my head, but I'm having trouble gluing them together, so-to-say.
My knowledge of Pathfinder things is by no means shallow, but I know there are plenty here far greater than my own, so I turn to the collective.

Rather than detail the would-be character, let me layout my goal.

Trying to access Sacred Weapon & Domain Spells - in a non-3P way.

Ideally, I'd love to stay Full20 on the Warpriest, so if anyone knows of a way to access Domain Spells as one, that would be great! Their blessings are nice, but Greater Status can only be obtained via the Community domain (as far as I know), and that spell is PERFECT for the concept. I know that most GM would be willing to let you take it anyway, considering how isolated it is, but I'm trying to find a BTB way.

I know that Fighters can get Sacred Weapon damage scaling through alternate Weapon Training options, but that wouldn't kick in until 9th, and even with an Eldritch Knight-eque option for Divine Caster, access to the magic would take a long time.

That got me thinking of other options/combinations that may fit the character well, so as a bonus inquiry: Anyone have a summary of classes/archetypes that can take a Domain?


OK, so this might seem weird to some people, but quite often a character concept will hit me while I'm listening to music.
Sometimes the words have something to do with it (though not often) and sometimes it's just my mind playing a mini-movie with the concept.
Either way, I've had some fantastic character concepts via this method, both for those I've played and NPCs.

Today's offender? -- "The Pretender" by Infected Mushroom (a Foo Fighters cover), off their 2012 album Army of Mushrooms. (check it on YouTube if curious)
They've got a weird name, but are my newest music addiction, and I think they're fantastic - but that's not the point.

Just doing other stuff, this song rolls onto my playlist. ...and into my mind, rolls a BA Magma Kineticist. Very tanky. Very up-close-and-personal.
The kind of person that, when the party decides to try and run, insists on staying behind to delay the foe for their safety. "I'll make them pay for every gods-forsaken step they take."

OK brain - Challenge Accepted! But how to do it?
(Please Note: When I think like this, optimization isn't really the goal - more making the concept at least slightly viable)

So considering the character, let's assume stats 14/14/16/10/10/10 (20pt buy) BEFORE racial anything.

Human seems like the understandably standard choice. Stats 14/14/18/10/10/10.
Hobgoblin... Could be both Stat advantageous, and provide interesting story flavor. Stats 14/16/18/10/10/10.

Figure 8th Level for the full initial effect.

Feats/Talents Etc by Level:
1st) Weapon Focus: Blast, Element (Earth), Talent: Kinetic Blade
2nd) Talent: Extended Range
3rd) Toughness
4th) CON +1, Talent: Kinetic Cover
5th) Point Blank Shot, Infusion Spec: Form, Metakinesis: Empower
6th) Talent: Impale
7th) Extra Talent: Entangle, Talent: Expanded Element (Fire)
8th) CON +1, Infusion Spec: Substance, Talent: Expanded Defense (Fire)(with intent to get Ride the Blast for crazy gap close)

Humoring a Hobgoblin named "Shard" with, with Intimidate alternate racial, and average WBL...
Belt of Physical Perfection +2 (16k), Menacing AOMF (4k - Thanks Mark!), Chain Shirt +3 (9k), Ring of Protection +1 (2k), Cloak of Resistance +1 (2k) = 33k and the exact WBL total.

Shard, the Hobgoblin Geothermal Kineticist:
HP: 107 (8 from 1st level, 35 Lv 2-8, 8 Toughness, 48 Con, 8 favored class)
STR: 16 -- DEX: 18 -- CON: 22 -- INT: 10 -- WIS: 10 -- CHA: 10
FORT: +13 -- REF: +11 -- WILL: +3 (ouch - might want Iron Will and/or a trait bonus)

Blast/Blade Breakdown:
Earth Blast: Up to 120ft (0 Burn), +11[+13] (4d6+10[+12])
Earth Blade: Melee only (0 Burn), +10/+5[+12/+7] (4d6+10[+12]) with an extra +4 hit if flanking.
Fire Blast: Up to 120ft (0 Burn), +11[+13] vs. Touch (4d6+3[+5])
Fire Blade: Melee only (0 Burn), +10/+5[+12/+7] (4d6+3[+5]) with an extra +4 hit if flanking.
Magma Blast: Up to 120ft (2 Burn), +11[+13] (8d6+14[+16])
Magma Blade (How cool is that?!): Melee Only (2 Burn), +10/+5[+12/+7] (8d6+14[+16]) with an extra +4 hit if flanking.
([]s are with Feel the Burn +2. None of these account for Point Blank.)

Impale: +12[+14] to hit a 30ft line for 4d6+10[12]. Costs 1 burn (0 with Gather)

Earth Blast can entangle for 0 burn with a gather, Magma can entangle for 2 burn with a gather.
Magma Blade can single attack for 1 burn with Gather.
Earth/Fire blade can get +50% damage on both attacks for 1 burn, or on one attack for no burn with gather.

A (melee type) with 18 STR up to 20 with a belt, a +2 Greatsword, and both Weapon Focus feats as well as weapon spec, would have +18/+13 to hit for 2d6+12 or +15/+10 to hit for 2d6+21 with Power Attack.

Considering the semi-morphic nature of the Kineticist's options, I feel like these are acceptable differences.

Fighter Max, Power Attack: +15/+10 for 23-33 (1 hit) or 46-66 (2 hits)
Kinetic with Earth Blast: +10 for 14-34 or 22-52 with Empower, no burn.
Kinetic with Fire Blast: +10 vs. Touch for 7-27 or 9-39 with Empower, no burn.
Kinetic with Magma Blast: +10 for 26-66 (1 burn) or 34-94 with Empower(2 burn).

Doesn't sound super impressive, but does sound good enough, and when you take into account the defenses...

While it would be pretty awesome to have hybrid elemental forms (such as magma), and/or the ability to treat the "form" as basically an boosted sense of Feel the Burn's visual rather than turning into an elemental (such as with Bracers of Falcon's Aim), I'm digging the Earth/Fire defense together.

Far as I can tell, there's nothing saying you can't have both defenses up at once - they just take their respective actions, so two turns.
Round 1) Move up, blast as appropriate, trigger Earth Defense for DR 4/Adamantine.
Round 2) Close gap (can you trigger Kinetic Blade on a charge?), Blast/Swing as appropriate, trigger Fire Defense for 1d8 backlash.

Thematically, you'd look like you were rocking Magma Armor.

I don't think this character is optimal at all... but damn do I love the feel!

This is the part where I ask for feedback on the thought.
I'd prefer to avoid negative stats - so with that in mind, any thoughts on how to make it more effective without taking too much (if any) away?
For a while, I was toying with the idea of of a few levels in a martial class for some bonus armor and combat tricks.

What would you change? What would you add?
Would you consider dipping a full BAB class, and if so, what and why?


So, here's a situation. A player loves the feel of the "Magical Tails" feats for Kitsune.
Playing into the whole "Mythical Enlightened Fox Spirit" idea, just a lot of feel and flavor.
The problem is, however, that it's painful to take the feats.

The cost (8/10 feats over 20 levels) is steep for, at best, Dominate Person 2/day. Not even Monster.
I can feel the player's pain... They're neat, but feats are usually to mechanically fine-tune your class.

So I ask this to other GMs:

Would you allow the player, as a Kitsune, to earn the feats as they level, through role playing and/or character development?
Considering the feats really don't add much power, beyond at best a magical item or two, I'm not sure I mind.
Would give the GM some interesting flavor control over their story too, and allow them to focus more on their party role.

So. Would you allow them to keep their feats, and earn Magical Tail up to 8 times via story?
If so, would you charge some unspoken tax, perhaps from their loot shares, as if to compensate for a magic item of some sort?

I'm inclined to say yes, but I'm interested in the opinion of others on this one.
The feats are neat, but they really seem like a painful investment.


Now, generally, I try to avoid multi-classing in most cases.
But for me, Alchemist has been a very tempting mistress indeed.

Trading 4-7 levels, a main of Gunslinger and Ninja are the two biggest offenders for me.
Gunslinger: "There's a lot of them... How about THIS? (volley of bombs)"
Ninja: "It appears I have been discovered. Sucks to be you! (BOOM)"

Despite my general inclination towards mono-classing in pathfinder, every once in a while a splash of one class draws my imagination and runs with it.
The flavor makes me grin so much, I can't help but consider it further.

I ask you, fellow Pathfinders:
If you were going to flavor a class with a few levels of another, which one, with what, and why?
Alternatively, I'll accept Prestige Class targets that don't typically match up. (Such as Witch into Eldritch Knight - also on my list)

Please Note:
This is not an optimization question - this should be more organic, and less number-crunchy.
I'm wondering, from a purely style point of view, what SOUNDS fun to you!
(Whether or not it actually is fun, in practice, is a whole different topic)


So browsing through my Ultimate Equipment guide last night, I found a pair of goggles for a rogue that made me grin.

"You can Sneak Attack at any distance" they said.
"If you ranged Sneak Attack within 30ft, you get +2 damage per Sneak Attack die" they said.
Then there were a greater pair, that gave the +2/die damage with ANY distance ranged Sneak Attack. Dude.

That +2 per die of damage is INSANE after a certain point.
Coupled with the talents to treat Sneak 1's as 2's, then 1's and 2's as 3's...
Suddenly, 5d6 Sneak Attack becomes a MINIMUM of 25 damage. (40 max)

I started to wonder, though.
This gives a crazy good advantage to a ranged Rogue, but what about Melee?
Are there any items out there that give +#/die to Melee Sneak Attack damage?

Furthermore, what other items out there (that I either missed or haven't found yet), work specifically with Sneak Attack?

I have a Rogue (possibly Ninja) on my palette of "Things I hope to play", and I'm on the: "What can I do with Sneak Attack?" part of thought.


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So I have an idea for a character I want to try.
In my mind, the story, the feel, everything is awesome.
But now comes the hard part - building the individual.

Essentially, it's a samurai of sorts, decisive, with a mystical flair.

On one hand, a Fighter going the weapon-master route would be a great choice, due to the brutal certainty of their weapon strikes. One swing could do a massive amount of damage, and end the fight in a single blow, which is great for what I have in mind.

On the other hand, the Samurai alternate for Cavalier, with the Sword Saint archetype seems almost perfect for it. Not to mention the feel of granting Shaken or Deafened by striking off a quick-draw is pretty awesome, and the challenge ability adds a lot of flavor to the mix.

The first is brute-force with more options (feats), whereas the second is more flavor with fewer options. Both are really good, and I'm bouncing back and forth between them, but there's still one issue:

Both of them provide armor proficiencies.
For the image in my mind, this is bothersome.

Dipping back to 3.5, I can find a number of options that trade out armor proficiencies for other benefits, essentially getting some other type of AC bonus without wearing armor (Int to AC, Wis to AC, Natural Armor, etc).

I'm hoping there is some trade-out available in a strictly Pathfinder sense to achieve the same thing. I just can't see the character wearing armor, but for a melee sort, losing the AC entirely would be a terrible decision.

Is there a trade-out, officially, for up to heavy armor?
(Without multi-classing)


Hello again, Paizo forums!
It's been a long while since I've posted.

I'm in a position where I'm building story characters, and I'm looking to fill a certain feel, but I don't want to simply BS it. The character needs to have Damage Reduction (doesn't need to be a fancy #/-), but I'm trying to find means to achieve that.

I know the Stalwart feats can, but I need it to be constant and passive.
I know adamantine armor can, but the character uses no armor.
I know Stoneskin can provide it, but I need it without a spell cast.

So basically, I'm looking for anything that jumps to your mind:
I need either a feat (2 at most), template (must not change appearance much), or magical item that provide constant DR (any type will do).

I can think of a few, but I'd love to expand my arsenal for the story purposes. I don't just want them to have it... I want it to fit, y'know? Also, it needs to stay 100% Paizo official, I should mention.

So forums... Whatcha got?


This may be a silly question, and it'll point out a total miss on my part as a GM, but here goes:
Today (seriously) I realized that Spell Like Abilities draw an Attack of Opportunity, unless cast defensively. I always assumed (that dangerous word) that due to their lack of somatic components, they wouldn't, but turns out I'm wrong. Huh.

I've technically found the answer to the below in a d20 SRD for 3.5ed, but I'm wondering if there was specifically a Pathfinder answer that I could reference when called upon to do so.

The real question I have though, is this:
If you take damage while casting a spell, such as from an AoO, it's Concentration or lose the spell.
So...
If you take damage while using an SLA, is it Concentration vs Fizzle as well?

I've checked all the core books, and they imply that it would. They make the point to reference time and again, that it behaves in almost all ways as spells, except the general lack of verbal/somatic/material, and the "Does it Provoke" chart in the core book confirms that they do in fact draw attacks. But among all the pages, there's nothing (that I've noticed - may have missed something) that clearly states a SLA can be lost to damage.

This would be very good knowledge to have, especially tonight. :)


One of the games I'm involved with right now has a Vanara Monk, who is looking to trail the "Monkey King Legend" closely - in fact, worships the entity as a God and aspires to be like him, so they can feast in the beyond. Pretty neat, considering he went straight for the original legend, and not one of the anime spinoffs... Heh.

ANYWAY - the complication.

The player wants a magic weapon that basically does the Monkey King's extending trick. This would essentially be a staff that can threaten up to 10ft away instead of only 5ft. For the purpose of the character (and considering the party's on the cusp of 8th level), it doesn't seem like it would be too bad a thing to allow. I'm just not sure such an enchantment option already exists. Does it?

Is there a magical property that already exists (preferably 1st party Pathfinder), or will I need to roll with a custom ability to compensate?

If there isn't an existing option, here's what I propose:
* Weapon must be +1 first (of course)
* Use system for continuous spell effect, with a modified function. In this case, Enlarge Person, though the spell would be applied effectively to the weapon provide no other bonus than the reach effect.
* Total cost being about 4,000gp for the constant effect, or 6,300gp for a +1 "Extending" quarterstaff. Probably double the 4,000 for cause of purpose.
* Or 22,300 for a +1 Ki Focus, ???, Extending Quarterstaff.
(Note: The ??? are because I can't remember the weapon mod... It was a +1 that allowed use of Wisdom in place of STR for Attack and Damage rolls - it was from a 2008 Pathfinder resource, but I can't for the life of me remember what it was called or where it was from).

So to reiterate: Is there an already existing ability to fulfill this need?
If there is no such thing, do you feel my compromise is a reasonable one?

Edit: The weapon property was called "Guided", for a +1 it let you use Wisdom in place of strength (though not x1.5 with a 2h), and imposed a -2 on attacks with it relying on Strength instead. It's technically non-core, but as from "Pathfinder 10: History of Ashes"


Without giving away all that it does, here's the summary:
- Fighter'esque, leaning more towards Paladin in an ability sense, but Arcane in nature.
- Specialist in dealing with Magic and SLA opponents
- Not really packing any bonus feats that aren't granted by class.

I have the class all written up, and for all purposes it seems balanced enough.

Problem is, I need a name that I like.
I can think of a few that are two words, but the thing with Pathfinder is that they prefer all base20 classes to have a single word for the name, so I'm trying to keep it in line with that standard, with limited luck.

Magus (even if they didn't use it already) doesn't really fit the class.

I was considering "Archon" - like the sound of that.
I'd like a few other suggestions though from people willing to offer.

So, what do you think would be a good single word name for a fighter-type class that's good at dealing with magical threats?


4 sessions into a game I'm playing in (I joined late), I find out I should have selected a single trait at character creation, and now I'm looking at my options.

My source for trait selection is limited - APG & Armory.

I'm trying to find a trait that gives Acrobatics as a class skill...
Does a trait like this actually exist (if so where), or am I wasting time?

I have 2 fall-back traits I'll decide on if there isn't one, but for the character, having Acrobatics as a class skill would be absolutely perfect, considering I was sad it wasn't class for him in the first place.

Pre-thanks for any help that could be spared on this one.


1 person marked this as FAQ candidate.

I did a little searching on 2h weapons to try and find the answers, but technically didn't find one, so here goes.

I've been reading a lot of feedback on the Magus play test, where what I thought an old question keeps surfacing - the concept of having a hand free for casting a spell.

I'll start by admitting that I haven't combed entirely through the PF Core book, because enough of the mechanics remain the same to 3x, though likewise I haven't really gone over the rules for that in a while. I did once, and I usually run games, and everything seems to be working out.

Now here's the real question:

If you're wielding a 1h weapon and have a hand free, you can cast, right?

It seems though (through post conversations) that you're not allowed to cast while using a 2h weapon. Is this true, and if so, why?

Let me explain my thought process.
As far as I'm concerned about it, releasing the handle of a weapon with one hand takes pretty much no effort. My searches returned the general idea that loosing a hand from a 2h weapon (or re-grasping one) would essentially be free actions. Clearly you can't cast a spell in the middle of a full-attack-action, but what about before or after?

Let's say you're wielding a greatsword, and somehow you have the ability to cast a spell in the same round as a full-attack. What's preventing you from letting go of the handle to cast your spell, then grasping it again and hacking them up (or the reverse for casting after)? I personally think it's totally reasonable to hold a 2h weapon in one hand, especially for such a short period of time, but you'd need both to use it properly still.

Is there some rules law that I'm missing here that would prevent this? Does it actually state somewhere that this can't be done? Is there even really anything stopping you from wielding a 2h weapon and casting at the same time, or is this a wide-spread phantom fear without substance?

Thanks in advance for any answers I can get.