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I'm here for a quick rules clarification.

If I choose the Armor Storm fighting style for a soldier, when I hit level 5 and get access to power armor, am I forced to use the hammer fist damage as opposed to the power armor's damage?

I worry that I'd be crippling my character's damage potential by restricting myself to that 1d4 cestus battle glove damage as opposed to the 1d10 Battle Harness damage.

At 5th level, the damage for each would be as follows:

Hammer Fist: 1d4+13 (4 from 18 STR, 2 from Melee Striker gear boost, 2 from Hammer Fist bonus for taking Melee Striker, 5 from Weapon Spec.)

Power Armor: 1d10+11 (4 from 18 STR, 2 from Melee Striker gear boost, 5 from Weapon Spec.)

Hello all! I previously posted this request here, but I'm worried that the name of the thread has put people off.

I'm soon beginning a campaign based strongly on the World's End volume of Neil Gaimen's Sandman. The party have been pulled from their different worlds and times to the safety of an extradimensional inn as reality quakes and shifts outside. Unlike in the comic, where patrons are expected to simply pass the time telling stories, the idea I'm going with is that two types of people are drawn to the inn: those with some relation to "fractures" which are preventing reality from settling and reasserting itself, and those who can help. The party is transported to the time and place of the fault and must resolve the fault.

Fractures can literally be anything. An out of place person, a broken law of nature or a time that should not exist.

So, I'm looking for ideas for fractures. Where they happen and how they can be resolved. The settings can be any genre and setting. I've already written a few, but I want the tone of each adventure to be significantly different, and I worry that anything I come up with would eventually feel too similar.

Thanks in advance! Please let me know if there's anything else that needs clarification!

I'm soon beginning a campaign based strongly on the World's End volume of Neil Gaimen's Sandman. The party have been pulled from their different worlds and times to the safety of an extradimensional inn as reality quakes and shifts outside. Unlike in the comic, where patrons are expected to simply pass the time telling stories, the idea I'm going with is that two types of people are drawn to the inn: those with some relation to "faults" which are preventing reality from settling and reasserting itself, and those who can help. The party is transported to the time and place of the fault and must resolve the fault.

Faults can literally be anything. An out of place person, a broken law of nature or a time that should not exist are some ideas I've had.

So, I'm looking for ideas for faults. Where they happen and how they can be resolved. The settings can be any genre and setting. I've already written a few, but I want the tone of each adventure to be signifigantly different, and I worry that anything I come up with would eventually feel too similar.

Thanks in advance!

I'm not sure if this is the right forum for this, but I'm looking for advice, so here it goes...

I'm currently playing in a campaign in which the GM has, what I feel, an absolutely horrible house rule on how critical fumbles are handled. The mechanic runs like this: after a natural one is rolled, roll the d20 again, with all of the same bonuses. If the result of the second roll hits your character, then you suffer an adverse effect.

As a melee character with a high strength, this means I'm scoring that adverse effect (usually dropping my weapon, but can be significant damage) on a roll of 9 or higher.

Everyone else at the table hates the rule, but he won't budge, and his only defense is "this is how I've always done it." Does anyone have any pointers on dealing with a stubborn GM with a cherished, but terrible, house rule?

So, since 2010, I've been playing in a Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play 2nd Edition game, and I've really fallen in love with the magic system. So, I've been working on applying the spirit of that magic system to Pathfinder. The following is a link to my current version. Please note that this is a prototype and has yet to be play-tested.

Dangerous Magic

I'd really appreciate any feedback! Thanks in advance!

Last night I played in a campaign where one of the other players is running an Incanter with the light sphere. During a boss fight, he imbued my character with Encompassing Light, which was pretty sweet. However, this kicked off a rules debate on how this effect actually increases my attack range.

You may create bright light that encompasses the glowing creature, allowing it to function as if it were larger than it is. The glowing creature deals damage and gains reach as if it were 1 size category larger than it is. This improves to 2 size categories at 10th caster level, and 3 size categories at 20th caster level.

Over on Giant in the Playground, we get the following explanation from Adam Meyers when asked how EL changes the damage and range:

My understanding is that encompassing light provides a 'virtual' size increase, while alteration gives an actual size increase. Thus they stack with each other. Alteration wouldn't stack with enlarge person, light wouldn't stack with an impact weapon or primal warrior stance, etc.

While useful to know that they stack, it still doesn't explain how the fact that my character is glowing brightly increases his damage and range. How we played it off at the table was sort of a Blue Dragon ripoff: the light coalesced into a large sized construct of my character which surrounded him and it was the construct's weapon that was doing the damage.

While a neat image and it kept the game running, I'm still curious if anyone has a more codified explanation of how this is supposed to work. Are there any other abilities from Paizo or other 3rd party companies that provide a similar effect with a better explanation?

I'm finally getting my first opportunity to play a character using the SoP system!

However, I've come across a nagging question that I just can't find an answer to. In Chapter 2: Basic Magic, under Magic Talents (page 8), the book says "Magic talents, like feats, may be spent to allow a caster to gain new powers and abilities."

Does this mean that feats can be used to buy more spheres and talents? The quote seems to suggest so, but I can't find a solid rule in the book, with the exception of the incanter being able to use their bonus feats on spheres and talents.

UPDATE
As Your Benevolent Dictator comments below, feats can be used by purchasing the Extra Magic Talent feat (SoP pg 151).

DISCLAIMER The following is a super rough first draft of an idea I came up with at work, and wrote really quickly during a short break.

Alright, so I'm trying to get away from expendable resources in the game (spells per day, for example). In exchange, I'm trying to create additional mechanics that allow for the chance of a good or bad roll of the dice to create similar limits to player ability. The following is an idea I've had to replace HP.

Obviously, the following mechanic will require a massive retooling of how much damage certain creatures, abilities and spells cause. For now, let's assume 1st level.

Injury Resistance

Whenever a creature takes damage, they need to roll an Injury Resistance roll with a DC of the damage taken + 1 per previous successful attack made against that creature this combat (Successful attacks are those that exceeded the character's AC, not just those that cause an injury). The roll for this save is 1d20 + CON bonus (if any) + BAB + any DR the creature possesses.

If the creature fails the IR roll, the creature takes an injury. Roll a second d20 to determine the location and effect of the injury. Severity of the effects increases by 1 for every 5 the result of the IR roll was below the DR.

01-03 - Head -1 penalty to all mental stats
04-11 - Arms -1 penalty to Str & Dex
12-16 - Body -1 penalty to Con & Str
17-20 - Legs -1 penalty to Str and lose .5 squares of movement (only count each whole square of penalty)

Penalties remain until the character can rest for 8 hours.

So, I've gotten into a bit of an argument over in the Homebrew forums, and I wanted to get the advice of all the rule gurus. The actual argument can be found here

The argument is whether craft (food) is a valid skill.

For ease, here are the RAW for Craft:

You are skilled in the creation of a specific group of items, such as armor or weapons.

A Craft skill is specifically focused on creating something. If nothing is created by the endeavor, it probably falls under the heading of a Profession skill.

My view

Aelryinth's view

Preparation of food is a profession.

Craft (food) might be a presentation skill (like a Shrimp platter), or chopping up onions really well, or perhaps carving a turnip into a lamp. All craft skills are about making enduring items out of other items. You'd know how to manipulate food items and turn them into non-food items.

So, Craft (food) you actually have to create an enduring object left behind that's materially different from what you put into it. there's a big difference between an iron bar and a sword. Between food and...food, not so much.

Any input would be appreciated

In order to tone down magic in an upcoming campaign, I've been toying with the idea of cutting down magic that deals damage based on a 1dx/caster level progression to a 1dx/spell level, and allow casters to cast spells at different levels in order to increase their damage.

I realize that this is a serious nerf to casters, but does anyone see any other balance issues, or any issues at all that would arise from this house rule?

Sorry for the repost, as I originally posted this in Advice, then discovered the homebrew forum after the delete window had closed

In an attempt to offer my players some greater character customization without having to jump into a pile of supplement books (though that is fun), I've decided to try seperating the races into species and culture.

Making the species has been easy. I've simply taken the races, stripped away everything except stat adjustments, resistances and perception traits (dark vision, keen senses, etc). I've monkied with them a bit to maintain balance between them all. Right now, the core races look like this:

Dwarf - +2 Con, +2 Wis, -2 Dex. Darkvision 60'. +2 Fort. Slow & Steady (20' base speed, never decreased by armor)

Elf - +2 Dex, +2 Int, -2 Con, Low-light vision, Keen Senses, +2 Will, 30' base speed

Gnome - +2 Con, +2 Cha, -2 Str, Low light vision, Keen Senses, +2 Will, Small, 20' base speed

Half-Elf - +2 to one stat, Low Light vision, Keen Senses, +2 to one save, or +1 to two. 30' base speed

Half-Orc - +2 to one stat, Darkvision 60', +2 to one save, or +1 to two. 30' base speed. Orc Ferocity.

Halfling - +2 Dex, +2 Cha, -2 Str, Low Light vision, Keen Senses, +1 to all saves, small, 20' base speed.

Human -+2 to one stat, +2 to one save, or +1 to two, skilled (+1 skill point each level) 30' base speed.

The problem comes in when trying to codify culture. There are so many factors to consider. Social rank & structure. Location. Religion. Government. etc. etc.

The simplest way I can think is to grant each character a human "Heart of the ..." alternate racial trait two additional "cultural" skills that get a +2 bonus, two traits and a feat that reflect the nature of the culture (e.g. a militant culture gets weapon proficiencies and some benefits to combat).

Has anyone else attempted this or made rules for this kind of system?

In an attempt to offer my players some greater character customization without having to jump into a pile of supplement books (though that is fun), I've decided to try seperating the races into species and culture.

Making the species has been easy. I've simply taken the races, stripped away everything except stat adjustments, resistances and perception traits (dark vision, keen senses, etc). I've monkied with them a bit to maintain balance between them all. Right now, the core races look like this:
Dwarf - +2 Con, +2 Wis, -2 Dex. Darkvision 60'. +2 Fort. Slow & Steady (20' base speed, never decreased by armor)

Elf - +2 Dex, +2 Int, -2 Con, Low-light vision, Keen Senses, +2 Will, 30' base speed

Gnome - +2 Con, +2 Cha, -2 Str, Low light vision, Keen Senses, +2 Will, Small, 20' base speed

Half-Elf - +2 to one stat, Low Light vision, Keen Senses, +2 to one save, or +1 to two. 30' base speed

Half-Orc - +2 to one stat, Darkvision 60', +2 to one save, or +1 to two. 30' base speed. Orc Ferocity.

Halfling - +2 to one stat, Low Light vision, Keen Senses, +1 to all saves, small, 20' base speed.

Human - +2 to one stat, +2 to one save, or +1 to two, skilled (+1 skill point each level) 30' base speed.

The problem comes in when trying to codify culture. There are so many factors to consider. Social rank & structure. Location. Religion. Government. etc. etc.

The simplest way I can think is to grant each character a human "Heart of the ..." alternate racial trait two additional "cultural" skills that get a +2 bonus, two traits and a feat that reflect the nature of the culture (e.g. a militant culture gets weapon proficiencies and some benefits to combat).

Has anyone else attempted this or made attempts to make rules for this kind of system?

Alright, so, I'm attempting my first real venture into the world of game mastering. Building dungeons, check. creating worlds and maps, got it. Populating towns with interesting npcs, easy. The issue I'm having is with encounters. Now, a single encounter is easy enough to design, what with Pathfinder's xp budget guide and whatnot. The problem is the amount and frequency of encounters I should be throwing at a party. For example, Let's say I want to have my level 1 players engage a warren of Kobolds. Does the whole warren count as one encounter, or does each separate cluster of the tiny, yipping pests count as one encounter? If each group is an encounter, how many separate encounters are too many? So far, I can't seem to find a good answer in the core rulebook, and some advice would be awesome. Also, how do traps factor into the cr of an encounter? As it's not always the case that a trap will be triggered.