Robert Young's page

Build

The actual character is 26 point buy, the numbers quoted are from after converting it to 20 point buy. The character is still at WBL for that level.

Buffs are: Shield, Haste, Heroism, False Life, Bear's Endurance, Monstrous Physic II(yeti)

Next level I can wear fullplate, which will be nice.

Thank you! I've become very interested in alternate magus builds lately (esp Int builds), and you've brought a lot of things to the table that I hadn't really considered.

Wow, I can't imagine a full progression, prep caster ever passing this up.

This works as long as you are living down by the river.

The hive mind of the swarm causes it to condense and hold the dead husks of the fallen together as an outer layer to shield its living constituents against the effects of the poisonous cloud. For as long as it can.

It seems that the free action to release the grapple could come into play here. There are some free actions allowed when it isn't your turn, but the gm may have to decide. Remember, even an immediate action "represents a larger expenditure of effort and energy than a free action".

Also, I'm pretty sure that bear was shaved.

Actually AoOs are neither Actions nor are they Not Actions. Let me explain.

Please refer to this link: Actions in Combat Table

As you can see AoOs are not listed as either Actions or Not Actions.

I agree with James' assertion that drawing ammunition would not be allowed outside of your turn, as you could not do other free actions (quickdraw, prone, drop an item, etc).

It seems it needs a more refined wording to be viable.

Drawing ammunition doesn't appear to be the equivalent to the 'other free actions' that you listed because:

Not an Action
Some activities are so minor that they are not even considered free actions. They literally don't take any time at all to do and are considered an inherent part of doing something else, such as nocking an arrow as part of an attack with a bow.

hi, i was wondering, the best creatures (sometimes the only ones) you can summon with a SM spell are demon/devils, that is considered an evil act? because if it is so, an evil summoner is way more powerful than a good one

Bah, alignment is a tool. It's what you do with the summoned creatures that defines the act of summoning. In a vacuum, if you simply summon evil critters for conversation, tea, and advice, yeah, not such a good thing. If you summon evil creatures to save the orphanage, not such a bad thing, no?

From the way i am reading this metamagic rods only give you access to the feat a certain number of times per day you still take the level and cast time increase. Am i correct in this?

Nope. There is no level increase associated with a metamagic rod, and the casting time increase only applies to the Sorcerer (not sure about other spontaneous caster types in this regard, however).

one of my favorite spells is an immediate action. emergency force sphere from the cheliax companion

And it is eminently cheesy!

You missed some stuff -- Resilient Sphere is the spell emergency force sphere is based off of.

Resilient sphere protects you from gas and attacks from below -- emergency force sphere doesn't. Resilient Sphere is cast at range, and can be used on your allies in addition to being bigger and lasting longer.

EFS beats the stuffing out of Resilient Sphere (and I like RS) due to its action economy. Archers drawing bows, spellcasters casting, giants hoisting boulders, charging hordes, it practically doesn't matter, because this little gem will stop all of it with an immediate action and a 4th level slot. It's too good because it's an immediate action spell.

Yes, but I think wands are capped at...3rd level spells? So, no stoneskin wand. A popular trick though is to have a ranger use a clw wand before they gain their spells.

From D20PFSRD:

TriOmegaZero wrote:

Yes, it is a bonus to attack rolls, and when using Combat Maneuvers you add all bonuses to your attack rolls to the check.

Where do you get that from? All I find in the RAW is that CMB is based on BAB+STR+SIZE... some feats and abilities as well, but not anything else.

From D20PFSRD - Performing a Combat Maneuver:

There is another very simple and elegant solution if you don't want to employ such tactics on your players and don't want them to derail your plot by doing it to you. Simply enter into a Locke-ian social contract with your players telling them that if they don't do that then you won't either. My GM did that with us in 3.5 with Disjunction, and trust me it proved to be effective, I know that I didn't want all of my magical gear made inert!!!

Some less out of game and more in game solutions to this tactic as lightly touched upon earlier exist too, such as Nondetection, Mind Blank (I think that it protects you from scrying, but I could be wrong), and a favorite of ours in high level play Dimensional Lock or Dimensional Anchor.

Good approach!

How does Dimensional Anchor help here though?

I don't like scry-and-die. It's implications in a game world are incredibly negative, making all famous, powerful, successful individuals paranoid or dead. Ugly world. Dead generals everywhere. 'Congratulations! You've just been promoted!' Uhhh, no thanks, you don't know me, wrong number, wrong number!

I'd not allow UMD to Activate Blindly any item that has its own listing under UMD, i.e., Scrolls, Wands, and Staves. The specific use overrides the general use of the skill.

And at this point in time, you essentially dismantle your own argument by neatly framing the topic within the realm of opinion.

:p

And whereas my opinion is of paramount importance and yours is, oh look, something shiny....

Page 562, description of the Darkvision ability:

"Darkvision is the extraordinary ability to see with no
light source at all, out to a range specified for the creature.
Darkvision is black-and-white only (colors cannot be
discerned). It does not allow characters to see anything
that they could not see otherwise—invisible objects are
still invisible, and illusions are still visible as what they
seem to be.

"It does not allow characters to see anything that they could not see otherwise" - seems to be of relevance to the discussion at hand.

Not being able to see in the dark is only 1 instance of an effect that causes circumstantial blindness. There are others that are more encompassing, and the blindness spell causes the blinded condition (rather than a 'you are in the dark' type of blindness). The use of Darkvision to circumvent Blindness is certainly within the specific wording of the Darkvision spell verbiage, but there are other game effects which interact here beyond the language of just the Darkvision spell. To wit: the definitions of Darkvision and the Blinded condition are also in play in this circumstance.