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265 posts. Alias of moon glum (RPG Superstar 2015 Top 8).



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A class feat that gives Thaumaturges Trick Magic Item as a bonus skill feat and lets them use there Charisma bonus instead of their Wisdom or Intelligence bonus for any relevant skill checks would be a good low level class feat.

It would also be nice to have a class feat that let the Thaumaturge use some version of Implement's Empowerment with two handed weapons (or at least two handed weapon implements). Then I could make a halfling Thaumaturge with a staff sling and a filcher's fork as a backup weapon. Halfling nature seems perfect for a Thaumaturge.

I'd also like to see more pacts, even though they are uncommon.

One idea for a pact: a pact with a hag coven that curses creatures that bring you to 0 HP but requires you to, say, surrender a number of years from your lifespan for each such curse might also be cool.


One neat thing about PF2e is that equipment can be higher level. We have already see a couple of higher level weapons like the sword cane, but it the potential is that there could be all kinds of fancy "mundane" weapons. Perhaps we might see some in Guns and Gear.

Here are some examples:

Basket Hilted Rapier/Long/Short Sword: An elaborate basket hilt adds the parry trait to a rapier, longsword or short sword.

Mercurial Greatsword: These were probably inspired by Gene Wolf's Books of the New Sun. Severian is an executioner who has a greatsword with a hollow blade that contains mercury so that as it swings it gains the benefits of having a lot of weight at the end. I doubt it would actually be useful in real life, but in a fantasy RPG it must be awesome. Perhaps it adds the forceful trait to a greatsword.

Knightly Sword: a bastard sword with versatile (piercing), the way it should have been. In our world this would be the equivalent of an Oakshott type XVa, or XVIIIa-c longsword.

Dueling Greatsword: These are swords that requires two hands, do a d12 slashing versatile piercing and that have a new trait, free hand, that lets use feats like combat grab, dueling parry, or disarming stance that require you to have a hand free while wielding a single handed weapon. Weapons with the free hand trait can not be used if your have anything other than the weapon in either hand. So, you can't wield a free hand weapon in one hand, and a shield in the other, for example.

Mighty Composite Bows: these are bows that allow you to apply your full strength bonus at the first range increment.

Compound Bows: a fancy system of pulleys negates any strength penalty to damage on the bow.


The damage for simple muskets and flintlock pistols is small, but one assumes these are 1st level firearms.

I imagine that there will be higher level versions of the various firearms. For example, rifled muskets, double barrelled pistols, pepperboxes, heavier long barrelled pistols, dragon pistols, etc..

Since gunslingers will use these things, it would be good to playtest with some of them.

Also, higher level versions of firearms would let use judge the effectiveness of the simple flintlock and musket in context.


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I think it would be interesting if firearms had a 'point blank' trait, that gave them an extra damage die when they hit a target in their first range increment. That would mean the gunslinger (or other firearms user) would be encouraged not to fire until they saw the whites of their opponents eyes, so it speak.

Also, it would make firearms more useful to classes that don't have a fighter or gunslingers proficiency advancement. It's great that there are simple firearms, but there is little reason for a character to want to use something with such a bad range increment that also only does 1d4/1d6 (except on an unlikely critical hit).


If you are holding a two handed weapon, you can't use striking spell to cast a spell and attack in the same turn (as part of the 3 actions described in striking spell), because you will need a hand free to cast the spell's somatic component, and then an interact action to put that hand back on the weapon.

Either striking spell should say that you hold your weapon and use it to cast a spell's somatic component, or the sustaining steel synthesis should allow this.

Note: originally this referred to somatic components, but it should refer to material components and component substitutions. See below.


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That is just a terrible name for a witch feat. Silent screech, malevolent presence, wicked glare, telepathic cackle, etc. are all better than snicker.


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It seems like the investigator is basically a rogue that takes a few special feats. Take the case, with its +1 circumstance bonus, is not better than the rogue racket bonuses currently available, and observe expeditiously could be an investigator racket specific feat.

Rogues with alchemist powers are another matter, but it seems that the alchemist dedication archetype covers that option as well as the alchemical sciences investigator methodology does. In fact, alchemical abilities are not particularly associated with detectives. Wizards are perhaps more prevalent as detectives in fantasy fiction (e.g. Too Many Magicians, The Dresden Files).

I don't think that PF2e should convert all of their PF1e classes to 2e in such a literal manner, and I think that converting the investigator to a full class, rather than a rogue racket does this.


Suppose you are a spell casting class such as a bard, cleric, druid, or wizard, and you take the sorcerer dedication feat with a bloodline that matches your spell casting tradition, and then start gaining sorcerer feats. Can you apply these feats to your bard/cleric/druid/wizard spells?

For example, I am a bard. I take sorcerer dedication with a hag bloodline. Then at 8th level, I take occult evolution. Do I get to use this with my bard repertoire? There is nothing in the feat that says I can't, as the feat doesn't specify that it must only apply to your sorcerer repertoire (see below).

If things like occult evolution don't apply to your bard repertoire, what about meta magic feats? If I take dangerous sorcerer, or widen spell via sorcerer dedication feats, can I use them on my class's spells?

OCCULT EVOLUTION FEAT 4
OCCULT SORCERER
Prerequisites: bloodline that grants occult spells

Glimpses of the obscure secrets of the universe loan you power. You become trained in one skill of your choice. Additionally, once per day, you can spend 1 minute to choose one mental occult spell you don’t know and add it to your spell repertoire. You lose this temporary spell the next time you make your daily preparations (though you can use this ability to add it again later).


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I can't find this in the rules. If someone is wielding a weapon with the 2-handed property (it has a 1h requirement, but does a larger damage die when wielded with 2 hands, for example a bastard sword or a dwarven waraxe), do they need to use an interact action to change their grip from two handed to one handed, or from one handed to two handed? The release action is free, so one might think that changing from two handed to one handed would just require a release action.


Alchemical bombs are technically martial ranged weapons, and so can have a 4 gp level 1 potency crystal talisman attached to them. This doubles their damage dice, right?

So, can one attached a potency crystal to, say, moderate alchemist's fire to do 4d8 damage + 2 persistent fire damage and 2 fire splash damage? That is about 2x damage for 2x cost (if you are not an alchemist using reagents to create the bomb). But at 11th level you get 2x (6d8) damage for about 1/80th the cost...


I added a bunch of flipmaps to my cart, and then shipped them via sidecart, to save shipping. But I wanted to apply the holiday19 code to them, and I did get a chance to enter it. I would like to apply the holiday19 code to that order (order 7604558) if possible.

Thanks!


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Of the 3 bard feats that first level bards receive from their muse, Versatile Performance is not very useful. A bard will typically have allocated skill training so that they have a Diplomacy, Deception, and Intimidate bonus equal to their Performance bonus.

In PF1e, this ability could be useful because you would not need to spend skill points on the skills covered by your versatile performance, but in PF2e, Versatile Performance only covers specific uses of the skills, so a bard will want to keep their Deception/Diplomacy/Intimiate trained up.

As it stands, the other two Muses offer options that are much more useful.

Some possible changes to fix this:

Allow versatile performance to also cover uses of Acrobatics (to balance and tumble) and Nature (to handle animals as though trained).

Make versatile performance a power, like linger composition, that lets you spend a spell point to substitute a performance check for any one skill check.

Or allow versatile performance to work with any use of Diplomacy, Deception, or Intimidate.


I am 'tee hee!' level of happy that goblins are in the core rules. My first thought was to make a goblin bard (jester). I soon realized that the play test document really didn't have any particularly cool ancestry feats for this character concept. I hope that the final document contains a wider variety of ancestry feats for goblins. I don't see a lot of useful feats for a goblin rogue, either.

I really like the razor teeth feat. It would be especially good with a goblin alchemist, as you could use them with certain mutagens for extra bite damage. But I have questions about how these improved natural weapons work.

The section on unarmed strikes on page 178 say, “Use the statistics for a fist even if you’re kicking, kneeing, or attacking with another part of your body. Some ancestry feats, class features, class feats, and spells give access to special, more powerful unarmed attacks.”

Do unarmed attacks, like those made with a goblins razor teeth ancestry feat, or the Feral Mutagen class feat have all of the traits of a fist, or just those traits mentioned in the feat description? If the latter, should either of these have the finesse trait? Should the goblin teeth have the agile trait? Should either have the unarmed or non-lethal traits?

The mechanics of razor teeth matter quite a bit to a goblin rogue, because if the teeth have the finesse trait, a goblin rogue does a lot more damage with them and can use them to sneak attack.


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Bastard Swords should be versatile. As written in the playtest, they do only piecing damage, but there is no justification for a sword with more sharpened edge length than a long sword not doing slashing damage. Yes, you do then need to re-balance vs. great swords, and long swords, but having bastard swords that do only piecing damage is a bit too out of touch with how 'realistic' the game world needs to feel. It would be like having hand axes that you couldn't throw. It would be irritating when it did come up in the game, and people would house rule it differently.

There are many options for re-balancing the bastard sword vs. the longsword, and the greatsword.

One is to make the bastard sword exotic (the PF1e way), which would let fighters who choose the appropriate weapon group use them.

Another is to add some trait to the greatsword. Adding forceful, charge, or backswing to greatswords are reasonable options.

A third option is to merge bastard sword and longsword into one sword, called a longsword, that does 1d8 S, and has the versatile (P), and twohand (d10) traits.


When a character gains a class ability such as an operative exploit, mechanic trick, or stellar revelation where there are various options that only become available at a particular level, can they delay choosing an option for several levels so as to choose a higher level option? For example, could an operative delay choosing their 4th level exploit until they are 6th level, and then choose an extra 6th level exploit?


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The rules for weapon fusions state the following:

"Each weapon fusion has an item level, and a fusion can't be placed on a weapon that has a lower level than the fusion's item level."

The rules for weapon fusion seals state the following:

"A weapon fusion seal only affects weapons of the given level or less, as noted in parentheses after the name of the fusion seal."

So, can weapon fusion seals only be placed on weapons of exactly the fusion's item level? For example, can a level 5 shock fusion seal only be placed on weapons whose item level is exactly 5?


Can dusts (e.g. dust of appearance) be thrown like, say, a tanglefoot bag? If so, what is the range increment.

If not, how is it dispersed, and from what point does it spread out?


The rules for the irradiate property of starship weapons state the following:

"A weapon with this special property creates a wave of harmful
radiation (see page 403) that penetrates shields and starship
hulls. Living creatures on a starship struck by an irradiating
weapon are subjected to the level of radiation noted in
parentheses for 1d4 rounds of starship combat."

Does personal armor protect against this? One would imagine that if a 200 point force field + 10 levels of armor + a bulk head doesn't protect you from the radiation, your level 1 light armor also wouldn't protect you.

And how does this really work? After the round of starship combat, an NPC ship is hit by a nuclear missile. What does the DM need to do? It would be good if there were a simple way to adjudicate multiple nuclear weapon strikes without rolling saves for every living thing on the ship multiple times, applying radiation rule each time.

For 5 PCs on a space ship, it is also fairly bothersome. Enough to make me want to put an old 'One Nuclear Bomb can Ruin Your Whole Day' bumper sticker on the slipcover to my core rule book.


1. Do stunts that use the text 'move up to your speed' or 'move up to half your speed' require you to move at least 1 hex? In particular, the evade stunt says that the ship can move up to its speed. Does it have to move at all to execute the evade stunt?

2. When a science officer successfully takes the balance shields action, can they increase a sides shields above the starting value. For example, a starship enters combat with shield points allocated as follows: Forward 10, Starboard 10, Port 10, Aft 10. During the helm phase, the pilot moves last and ends up facing an enemy starship head on. The science officer wants to balance shields so that they are Forward 28, Starboard 4, Port 4, Aft 4 (note that all of the sides must have at leas 10% of the total shield value). Can they do it?


During the gunnery phase, can undetonated tracking weapons that have moved toward but not yet reached their target be attacked by a ships gunner?

For example, the starship 'Frictionless Unicorn' and the starship 'Mudslinger' are engaged in combat. One the first round they are 30 hexes apart, and Mudslinger fires a missile at Frictionless Unicorn. During that gunner phase the missile moves 14 hexes toward Unicorn. During the next helm phase, the two ships maneuver so that Unicorn is 15 hexes away from the missile. During the subsequent gunnery phase the missile continues tracking Unicorn and moves 14 hexes closer, so that it is adjacent to Unicorn.

Can Frictionless Unicorn fire, say, a turbolaser, at the missile? If so, at what range would it fire? At the starting range of the missile, or the final range (recall that during the gunnery phase, weapons fire is assumed to take place simultaneously)? What AC would it use? Would it use the 10+speed AC that weapons with the point special property use? Can tracking weapons be fired at other tracking weapons? If so, what range and AC would they use, and which tracking weapon would move first?

RPG Superstar 2015 Top 8

I don't think there is a rule anywhere for this. Can you glob multiple charges of cylex together to create a massive bomb?

I have been waffling between not allowing it, maxing the damage out at 24d6 fire + 24d6 bludgeoning (with 4 charges), or increasing the damage by +2d6 fire + 2d6 bludgeoning, the save DC by +1, and the radius by +5 feet per additional charge (10 charges would be DC 26, 85 foot radius, 24d6 fire + 24d6 bludgeoning at a cost of 36,000 gp retail).

What do you all think?

RPG Superstar 2015 Top 8

If a creature has reach and they cast a spell with, say, an area of effect that is a line or a cone, can the point of origin of the spell be any square within the creature's reach, or must it originate from a space that they occupy? For example, if an ogre mage with a 10' reach uses a cone of cold, can they choose as a point of origin for the cone of cold any point within 10' of the 10'x10' square that they occupy?

Similarly, can monsters with reach choose as a point of origin any point within the reach of the appropriate member? For example, can a dragon whose bite has a 15' reach choose as a point of origin for their breath weapon any point within the reach of their bite?

RPG Superstar 2015 Top 8

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Oh why, oh why must my beautiful box the glistening delightful minis be surrounded by diminutive, statically charged, demons of agonizing torment! Why do condemn your customers to the carpet soiling, choking doom of Styrofoam peanuts!?!?!?! Like vampiric albino leeches they cling to my flesh, and drain my life energy!

RPG Superstar 2015 Top 8 , Dedicated Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 8 aka moon glum

The Lost Entrance to the Crystal Labyrinth
==========
The Crystal Labyrinth stretches from Nar-Voth near the Long Walk north of the Court of Ether, down to Sekamina near Giratayn. It is doubtful that the maze is a natural phenomena, for the few records left by explorers report of crystalline formations that distort sound, light, time, and space. Tales speak of a crystal that contains a whole city preserved like an ancient insect in amber, of shining cathedral chambers whose walls sing the story of the world before there were gods, and of a number of weird prisms that serve both as gates to other dimensions, and as eyes by which things in those dimensions peer out.

The Pathfinder Society has no complete maps of the Crystal Labyrinth. No explorers have successfully traveled the maze all the way from Nar-Voth into Sekamina. What is known of the labyrinth comes mostly from drow who have ventured through the Sekamina entrances in search of exotic materials that can be fashioned into weapons or used to weave dark magics.

There once were two Nar-Voth entryways to the Crystal Labyrinth known to the Pathfinders: Raelath and Borroughs, each named after its discover. The adventurers of old that ventured through these portals provided only a few rough maps and brief passages in the Chronicles, for most did not return. In 1325 an underground earthquake of mysterious origin collapsed both entrances, and for over a century attempts to explore the Crystal Labyrinth ceased. Until recently, the only account of an explorer returning from what may be a newly discovered Nar-Voth entrance is that of Fineous Drot from 1463-- a sketchy account more than 50 years old. Since that time, the location of that entrance has been lost. Adventurers seeking it have found numerous false entrances leading to collapsing chambers, purple worm and gloom wasp nests, radiated poison gas pockets, and other such dooms. However, a month ago a wild-eyed dwarven woman named Gawlda Twicehewn has come to the attention of the Pathfinder Society. She had escaped from enslavement by the druegar, and while pushing her way up to the surface she fought a group of derro. She slew all but one. Upon interrogation, that one survivor betrayed that it knew of a shaft descending to a cavern bedecked with strange, shimmering, undoubtedly valuable crystalline deposits. Before she executed the derro, she forced it to draw her a map, and now she offers that map for sale. If this is in fact an entrance to the Crystal Labyrinth, the prestige to its discoverers would be immense, and a significant amount of wealth might be obtained from the many valuable crystals those adventurers could harvest.

The Maw of the Crystal Labyrinth (CR 8)

The passage widens into a vaulting cavern whose earthen surfaces are decorated by a dazzling variety of crystals. To the left, a fifteen foot wide shaft breaks into the room from the ceiling, and continues down through the floor, descending as far as you can see. A narrow ledge winds to the right of the shaft and leads beyond to where the cavern widens and the earthen floor shimmers with crystalline structures-- some very sharp. At about head height, the northern wall of the cavern splits open into a three foot wide fissure lined with pink gem-like crystals.

The illusory shafts are created by supernaturally reflective crystal on the floors and ceiling. The shafts appear real with only a cursory examination, and seem to extend beyond one's line of sight. Although they are a supernatural effect, they otherwise function as a hallucinatory terrain spell (CL 12, DC 20). The illusions mask a surface composed of a shimmering silvery mineral that is smooth, hard, and even. It is treated as normal terrain.

The real shaft to the east of the cavern has sheer rough edges and descends 140 feet to a rocky bottom. If an adventurer slides into this shaft because of the slip crystal, they may attempt a Reflex save (DC 15) to cling to the edge. Climbing the rocky sides of the shaft requires DC 5 climb check.

The earthen ledges that exit the cavern to the northwest are each 5 feet in height.

The areas of slip crystal appear to be rough, rock and crystal strewn difficult terrain unless they are carefully examined. See the traps section below.

Creatures: A Geomaw exploits the hazards of this cavern in its ravenous pursuit of blood and flesh. It has taken up residence at the place along the northern wall indicated on the map. Using its freeze ability, it waits with its mouth open, hoping to lure prey onto the slip crystal and into the illusion-covered pit (Perception DC 35 to notice the hidden Geomaw). If someone does fall into the pit, it burrows in after them and attacks. If it swallows such a victim, it will gorge at the bottom of the pit, relying on its blood lantern ability to keep those that can see through the illusion fascinated. If the Geomaw is discovered and attacked by a foe that it can sense, it will roar and burrow forth, plowing under the blade crystal and slip crystal to erupt from either the ground or a wall to attack any available foe. However, if it is attacked from beyond the range of its senses, it will burrow into the open space to the north and wait in ambush for the adventurers. Enraged, it will then fight to the death.

Geomaw CR 7
XP 3200 each
hp 85 each

Hazard: Blade crystals are fragile, incredibly sharp formations of crystal that vary from 6 inches to two feet in length. A number these protrude from the earth in the area near the center of the cavern. These squares are treated as difficult terrain, but each square a creature enters deals 1d4 points of damage and one point of bleed damage to that creature. A creature moving at half speed, or that succeeds at a DC 15 Acrobatics check as a free action when first moving into a region of blade crystal can avoid the damaging affects for the round but not the difficult terrain effect.

Trap: An area of slip crystal covers the floor around the center of the cavern as indicated on the map. Slip crystal is a white, reflective, supernaturally slippery crystal. Each five foot square is treated as a separate trap. It is difficult to detect because adopts an illusion duplicating the texture of the ceiling above it. Disabling it typically involves marring the crystal, or striking it with a tanglefoot bag.

Slip Crystal Floor CR 1
Type mechanical; Perception DC 20; Disable Device DC 20
----- Effects -----
Trigger location; Reset automatic
Effect Treat as though the area is covered in a grease spell (DC 15). In addition, a creature that falls has a 50% chance of sliding into a random, adjacent square. Creatures that slide from a slip crystal trap square into another slip crystal trap square have a 50% chance of continuing to slide into the adjacent square that is opposite the square they entered from.

Trap: An illusion covered spiked pit trap sits in the midst of the slip crystal. The illusion is a supernatural effect created by a crystal at the bottom of the pit. The crystal is specific to this pit and loses its power if removed. Disabling this trap does not remove the hazard of the open pit, but does make the illusionary covering disappear. Although it is a supernatural effect, the illusion is otherwise treated as a hallucinatory terrain spell (CL 12, DC 20).

Illusion-Covered Spiked Pit CR 4
Type mechanical; Perception DC 20; Disable Device DC 20
----- Effects -----
Trigger location; Reset automatic
Effect 20-ft.-deep pit (2d6 falling damage); pit spikes (Atk +10 melee, 1d4 spikes per target for 1d4+3 damage each); DC 20 Reflex avoids; multiple targets (all targets in a 15-ft.-square area).

RPG Superstar 2015 Top 16 , Dedicated Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 8 aka moon glum

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Hundreds of levitating eyes, each trailing a tail of nerves, swarm in a cloud of dripping gore. The eyelids form mouths lined with tiny, jagged teeth that clack together hungrily with every blink.

Occularictus CR 7 XP 3,200
CE diminutive aberration (swarm)
Init +9; Senses darkvision 120 ft, true seeing; Perception +28

----- Defense -----
AC 19, touch 19, flat-footed 14 (+5 Dex, +4 size)
hp 78 (12d8+24)
Fort +6, Ref +11, Will +13
Immune swarm traits, weapon damage;
Weaknesses light blindness

----- Offense -----
Speed 10 ft., fly 40 ft. (perfect)
Melee swarm (3d6 plus distraction and unavoidable gaze)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 0 ft.
Special Attacks distraction (DC 18), eye possession, gaze, multigaze, unavoidable gaze

----- Statistics -----
Str 4, Dex 20, Con 14, Int 14, Wis 16, Cha 16
Base Atk +9; CMB -- CMD --
Feats Flyby Attack, Improved Initiative, Iron Will, Improved Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Improved Lightning Reflexes
Skills Bluff +10, Diplomacy +10, Fly +29, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +14, Knowledge (local) +14, Linguistics +6, Perception +28, Stealth +17, Survival +14 (+24 when following tracks); Racial Modifiers +10 Perception, +10 Survival when following tracks
Languages Aklo, Common, Draconic, Dwarven, Orc, Undercommon
SQ hive mind

----- Ecology -----
Environment any underground
Organization solitary, surveillance (2-5), panopticon (3-12)
Treasure double

----- Special Abilities -----
Gaze (Su) As hold monster, 30 feet, Will DC 19 negates. The save DC is Charisma-based.
Multigaze (Su) The occularictus may use an attack action to actively gaze at up to 6 creatures within 30 feet.
Unavoidable gaze (Su) A creature in the occularictus's space can not avert its eyes to avoid the occularictus's gaze attack and receives a -4 penalty on saving throws against the gaze attack.
Eye Possession (Su) An occularictus that spends a round in the space of a helpless creature with eyes may insert its tendrils into that creature's eye sockets. At the start of the occularictus's next turn it blinds the victim by removing their eyes. The occularictus incorporates these new eyes into itself. If the blinded victim remains within the occularictus's space for another round, the occularictus may place one of its own eyes in each of the empty eye sockets. This restores the victim's sight, and allows the occularictus to both communicate telepathically with the victim at any distance, and experience anything the victim experiences. The occularictus uses the victim's senses, and does not suffer from light blindness when the victim is exposed to bright light. The victim gains none of the occularictus's special senses. The occularictus may simultaneously experience the world through its own senses and the senses of any number of its victims. If the occularictus is killed, all eye-possessed victims are blinded.
True Seeing (Ex) An occularictus has true seeing, as the spell of the same name. This effect cannot be dispelled.

Beyond even their hunger for the blood and flesh of sighted creatures, or their urge to propagate their kind, occularicti are motivated by their desire to see all things, particularly that which is denied them. This drives some of them to establish networks of eye-possessed spies. Many are desirous of the sights that the sunlit world has to offer, and dwell near the openings to Nar-Voth, where they can venture forth at night to possess the eyes of surface dwellers. Occularicti often forego doing their swarm damage to paralyzed victims they have marked for eye-possession.

An occularictus reproduces by division, a process that requires it to incorporate thousands of eyes from other creatures into its swarm.

RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32 , Dedicated Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 8 aka moon glum

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The Haunted Dinosaur Graveyard of Mediogalti Island

RPG Superstar 2015 Top 8

UPS left the cardboard envelope containing 'The Palace of Fallenstarns' on my front porch, in the rain. It is basically a palace of soggy, limp, dripping stars that is ready to disintigrate. I don't know what your policy is on this kind of thing (its obviously more UPS's fault than yours), but could you send me a new copy of this module?

Thanks much,

Ben

RPG Superstar 2015 Top 8 , Dedicated Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 8 aka moon glum

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Fool's Scepter
Aura strong divination and enchantment; CL 12th
Slot none; Price 50,000 gp; Weight 3 lbs.
Description
This wooden marotte is topped with a jester's head whose comical face by default takes on the likeness of the wielder. A fool's scepter grants its wielder the following powers.

Jesting: As a free action the wielder can speak through the jester's head and imitate voices and sounds with a volume of up that of a dragon's roar. They can also cause the jester's face to transform into the comic likeness of any creature they can visualize. Using the fool's scepter in this manner grants a +5 circumstance bonus to perform (comedy) checks.

Mockery: Once per day, as a standard action, the wielder can cause the jester head to take on the likeness of an individual creature within 60 feet and then harangue that creature with magically honed mockery. If the creature possesses an intelligence of 3 or higher, they are dazed with humiliation for 1d6 rounds and shaken for 10 minutes. This is a mind-affecting fear effect that is negated by a DC 18 Will save.

Fool's Wisdom: Once per week the wielder may as a standard action query the jester's head for information regarding an individual creature. The head transforms into the likeness of that creature and recites a number of jocular stories that provide information as though the wielder had completed casting the spell legend lore. If the subject of the wielder’s query is present and within 60 feet, the head also provides information regarding the subject's thoughts, desires, personality, and motivations, but in this circumstance the head always answers in a voice that is loud enough to be audible to the subject of the query.

Construction
Requirements Craft Rod, hideous laughter, legend lore, ventriloquism; Cost 25,000 gp

RPG Superstar 2015 Top 8

A character with the technologist can identify tech items, but what happens when a character without this feat tries to experiment and figure out how one works. For example, suppose a character tries to figure out a laser pistol.

You could try to roleplay this, but its hard because players will bring some background knowledge to the task, and describing the item in a appropriately naive yet sufficiently descriptive manner can be difficult.

I was thinking of an intelligence check and a chart of some kind.

Check Intelligence with DC equal to the craft DC of the item. Retries allowed, and each retry receives a +1 on the check since you know more about how it works as you experiment more.

It would be cool to have a timework glitches like chart to roll on when people fail their checks, but there are so many possibilities. Depending on the item. So, I was thinking of a quick n' easy chart that I could ad lib off of. This is what I came up with off the top of my head. Suggestions welcome!

Fail by 20: horrifically disastrous results. The item is destroyed/you critical yourself and/or allies/all charges are expended

Fail by 15: disastrous results but not horrifically disasterous. Hit multiple allies and self, item is broken, for example

Fail by 10: bad results. Hit self or ally. expend all charges, temporarily break item requiring a check not to fail by 10 or more to fix, etc.

Fail by 5: attempt to hit self or ally, make an appropriate save or skill check (DC 20) to avoid a Fail by 10 result.

RPG Superstar 2015 Top 8

fires of creation spoiler:

After the fight in the warehouse with Garmen Ulreth, what happens to silverdisk hall? What with all of the gambling proceeds, it has got to be worth a lot-- more than 4th level characters should have, probably. How have people handled this? My players will definitely clue in to to the potential for the quick accumulation of riches that Garmen's demise creates.

So, is it taken over by an only slightly more scrupulous 2nd in command? Do I let the players try to manage a gambling hall? What have other DMs done?

RPG Superstar 2015 Top 8

I am used to constructs with DR/adamantine, or DR/-, but not constructs with hardness.

Does this work just like an object's hardness, in that it is essentially DR/-, that is doubled against energy damage and ranged weapons that are not siege weapons (or rocket launchers)?

Robots are vulnerable to electricity and critical hits. This normally would mean that they take 150% damage from electricity, and are subject to the special effect described when a critical hit is scored against them. How does this interact with the hardness? I would say that electricity and critical hits bypass the hardness. Do you all think that's correct?

RPG Superstar 2015 Top 8

Does anyone have any recommendations for a website to use to post campaign info to? I want to be able to create webpages that contains house rules, world info, inspiring images, downloadable files, and the like.

RPG Superstar 2015 Top 8

Are there rules anywhere for fighting on the deck of a ship during a severe storm? I want some rules that take the severe winds, heavy rain, rocking deck, and giant waves that splash over the bow and threaten to wash people overboard all into account. I could make some up using the weather rules, but I thought that there might be some rules in, say the Skull and Shackles adventure path, or the like.

Thanks!

RPG Superstar 2015 Top 8

I loved the gugs miniatures from shattered star. But now I am wondering when there will be a gargantuan shoggoth. That would be so cool. Tekili-li!

RPG Superstar 2015 Top 8

There are a number of monsters that have a saving throw DC listed next to their ability drain. How is this save handled? Is it a save to recover the lost point(s) after resting, or is it a save to negate the initial drain?

Here is an example (the dread wraith):

Melee incorporeal touch +20 (3d6 negative energy plus 1d8 Con drain [Fort DC 23])

Do victims get a DC 23 save to negate the con drain?

RPG Superstar 2015 Top 8

It does not make sense that crossbows can't also be mighty and provide a strength bonus to damage. In real life, you can have crossbows with an extremely high draw weight, such that it would take a strong person to load them in the normal manner. Of course, you could also have tools like the prod goats foot that would let anyone load a mighty crossbow, but it would take longer-- say 2 full rounds.

Unleash the might of the crossbow!

RPG Superstar 2015 Top 8

I read in a "lesser known rules" thread that creatures that are immune to fire are automatically also vulnerable to cold and visa versa. I can't find a reference for this in the actual rules, however. Does anyone know where in the rules this comes from? It's not under universal monster rules, nor is it under special abilities. Is it even really a rule? It seems dumb to me and impossible to me. If it where a rule, there would be exceptions to it, but I have never seen a monster that was written with "immune fire, cold affects normally"

RPG Superstar 2015 Top 8

6 people marked this as FAQ candidate.

So, half orcs and half elves count as orcs and elves, respectively, with regards to racial class archetypes and feats?

RPG Superstar 2015 Top 8

I run an 11th level conjurer in a weekly pathfinder campaing. She kicks but-- especially with summon monster 6.

But the whole experience (coming from the topic both as a DM, and a player) has made me think that the summon monster spell is a big mistake.

At a level when the monsters are good, summon monster is pretty much better than any other spell, because it is so flexible, and because it attacks the action economy of your foe (the monster means extra actions for you, but actions that the foe must devout to defeating your monster).

Instead, one should have to first create a bargain with their monster for each summon monster spell. A spell caster can have 1 bargain per spell level + 1 per point of charisma modifier. The spell caster would choose one creature and make a diplomacy roll (other skills might substitute). The duration, allowed requests (attack, use spell like abilities, fight onto death) would be based on the results of the roll, as would the duration of the summons.

Then, cooler creatures could be included in some of the lackluster charts, and the spell would be balanced.

RPG Superstar 2015 Top 8

It seems legal, because its range is better than touch (it's 10 feet), and since its an emanation, its centered on a point in space (which happens to be the point occupied by the caster).

So, my guess is that the image winks out and the anti-magic field remains for 10 minutes/level.

That would be a good way to put an anti-magic field onto an area.

RPG Superstar 2015 Top 8

1 person marked this as a favorite.

It says under the familiar rules that the familiar uses its masters level for all level dependent effects.

Several improved familiars have abilities that are based on their hit dice, for example, the caster level of most of their spell like abilities is equal to the hit dice of the familiar. Is the caster level a level dependent effect?

For example, if a spell caster has a Silvanshee Agathion as a familiar, is the caster level of the Silvanshee equal to the master's caster level?

Likewise, the Silvanshee can lay on hands as a 2nd level paladin (the Silvanshee has 2 hit dice). As a familiar can it lay on hands as a paladin of its master's level?

RPG Superstar 2015 Top 8

I have an alchemist that has received the ability to cast, once per day, a single 1st level spell from any class. What spell do you think I should pick?

RPG Superstar 2015 Top 8

If you fire a scatter weapon into an area of fog or darkness or the like, should the people in that area benefit from concealment? Note that a scatter weapon is not an area of affect spell, it just allows an attack roll against each creature in its cone. RAW, it seems that the targets get concealment, but that doesn't make sense, since the attacker doesn't really aim for each target with its pellets.

What do you all think?

RPG Superstar 2015 Top 8

Here is an idea for an alternate set of firearm misfire rules that is more aligned with the pathfinder rules for breaking and destroying objects. I have not tried them yet (I use a set of misfire rules in my game that are aligned with the RAW for pathfinder firearm misfires).

When a firearm attack roll is equal to or less than its misfire value, the firearm misfires and takes damage. The damage taken is equal to 1d6 for 1 handed fire arms, and 2d6 for 2 handed firearms. (Alternately equal to the base damage of the firearm, so a musket takes 1d12, and a pistol takes 1d8.) Non-magical one handed firearms have 5 hit points, and non-magical two handed firearms have 10 hit points. They also have hardness 5, but hardness is ignored for damage taken from a misfire.

If a firearm is reduced to 1/2 its hit points or fewer, it gains the broken condition. The misfire chance for firearms with the broken condition increases by 4.

If a firearm is reduced to 0 or fewer hit points it explodes. Non-magical firearms are destroyed, and magic firearms are wrecked (as per the rules for breaking objects).

This way, magical firearms can misfire more often, and not become broken. Also its easy to figure out what happens to partially sundered firearms that misfire.

Finally it adds a little extra excitement to using a non-magical firearm, in that if you are unlucky, a single misfire can cause an explosion.

RPG Superstar 2015 Top 8

So, what characters from fantasy fiction (books, movies, tv, whatever) the best rogues ever.

I admit to being way old school, and so my top 3 are:

1. Cugel the Clever (The Eyes of the Overworld, etc. by Jack Vance)
2. The Gray Mouser (Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, Fritz Leiber)
3. Fafrd

Also in the running were Bilbo Baggins (but he only really stole 1 cup from Smaug, unless you don't believe his story about the riddle contest. I mean, if he pick pocketed the one ring of power, *and* stole a cup from one of the last great flying dragons...)

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