Sandslice's page

can a vampire Overwhelming Soul kineticist use Mental Prowess (Su) to gain negative levels to increase its power since it can't use burn??

Negative levels, in and of themselves, do not affect undead targets. Some methods of inflicting them DO have specific benefits for undead targets, such as the temporary HP "inflicted" by enervate and energy drain; but those are always called out.

When an Overwhelming Soul fails a concentrate check while gathering, the "cookoff" inflicts negative levels in lieu of burn. The OS cannot choose to accept burn, even as negative levels; they only result from this cookoff effect. These negative levels also don't have special properties if an undead suffers cookoff; they simply won't be inflicted.

Thus, the answer is no. Even if we suppose that a vampire OS can intentionally induce cookoff, there would be no effect at all. No drawback, no benefit.

Sorry - I'm prone to using "advantage" as shorthand for "roll twice keep better" nowadays >.<

That said, that's what I thought - but the other fellow was arguing that somehow you "succeeded" at initiative by having the highest roll. It felt like a strange argument when the initiative check doesn't call out success or failure in its definition, hence the question.

Thank you!

The feat Flumefire Rage strongly implies that Kinetic Blast should be treated as casting an evocation spell. If we allow that to work, then we have to allow Versatile Evocation to work as well.

Kinetic blast does not have a school.

So... a debate came up just recently.

The Haunted Heroes version of the Pact Wizard has an ability called Great Power, Greater Expense, with the following effects:

- At level 5, you gain an Oracle Curse as though you were an oracle of half your PW level. Any spells gained from this Curse are counted as wizard spells and added to your spellbook.

- At level 10, you gain a resource (3 + level/2 per day) which allows you to get advantage on a save, CL check, concentrate check, or initiative, declared as a free (out of turn OK) action at the time of the roll. At level 15, you also gain insight +Int to these advantaged rolls, and can reduce the cost of metamagic by 1 level total on your patron and Curse spells.

It's at level 20 that the debate happens.

At 20th level, whenever the pact wizard invokes his patron’s power to roll twice on a check and his result is a natural 20, he automatically succeeds, regardless of whether or not a check of that type would normally allow an automatic success.

What does it mean to "automatically succeed" on initiative checks?

For example, suppose Billy has a +20 bonus on his initiative, and rolls a nat 20, reaching 40. Pact Wizard Jimmy has a +16 even considering his insight bonus, and gets a nat 20, reaching 36 plus "automatic success."

Who goes first, and why?

Yeah, it was a meme from the Ultimate Intrigue playtests. Not sure if you can find the image on Mark's FB after so long though.

ErichAD wrote:

I'd probably ban barbarian,

My badger AC would object to that exclusion (it rages every time it is wounded).

At the same time, allowing it to be a barbarian would be unbalancing, as its rage hasn't a duration or a limit to the number of uses in a day.

Question on this. Does an AC badger get blood rage?

Starting Statistics: Size Small; Speed 30 ft., burrow 10 ft., climb 10 ft.; AC +2 natural armor; Attack bite (1d4), 2 claws (1d3); Ability Scores Str 10, Dex 17, Con 15, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 10; Special Attacks rage (as a barbarian for 6 rounds per day); Special Qualities low-light vision, scent.

4th-Level Advancement: Size Medium; Attack bite (1d6), 2 claws (1d4); Ability Scores Str +4, Dex -2, Con +2.

That says 6 rounds of regular barbarian rage, and doesn't say anything about blood rage.

I'm... going to bring up something else that will make things much easier for Mogaru's opponent.

The Synchrony Device cannot, in fact, "go off" every 24 hours. It explodes when used, creating either an instantaneous effect (earth or water), a 1d6 week long event (air), or a 1 day long event (fire, positive, or negative.)

Destruction

The Synchrony Device must be carefully disassembled and each ring destroyed individually before the following ring is removed until reaching the device’s abysium core, which must be contained and disposed of separately. Activating the device also destroys it.

Thus, any opponent (such as, for instance, the Oliphaunt) can simply wait a day.

Yes, the kineticist gets temp HP. Being at maximum HP is defined as having no difference between your current and maximum HP - and this is what Spirit Boost cares about.

Nonlethal damage is damage - and it even counts as HP damage for the purpose of effects that care about dealing damage. However, it doesn't create a difference between your current and max HP.

Ok, then, an exercise.

Druid 5 / ranger 5.

This is the character's druid level. The druid's class levels stack with levels of any other classes that are entitled to an animal companion for the purpose of determining the companion's statistics.

Is this companion 10th level?

No. The first three ranger levels count as zero for AC stacking, so 7th.

The same goes for familiars and archetype wizards. Those exploiter levels stack as zero.

It's tempting to throw everything into the lowest possible categories, of course. But this is my set of thoughts.

In general, first, a reminder of what CRB and APG classes are in each group:

- Intuitive: barbarian, oracle, rogue, sorcerer.
- Self-taught: bard, cavalier, fighter, gunslinger, paladin, ranger, summoner, witch.
- Trained: alchemist, cleric, druid, inquisitor, magus, monk, wizard.

So, grouping the others should try to keep these in mind.

1. Occult classes:

- Kineticist: Intuitive. Reinforced by the iconic being an actual child.
- Medium: Self-taught. Contrast oracles, sorcerers, or spiritualists, with regard to how a medium gains power.
- Mesmerist: Self-taught. I draw an analogy with bards here, with how they learn to leverage natural charm into mental magic.
- Occultist: Self-taught. Also by analogy to bards, though this is more about their interest in esoteric lore.
- Spiritualist: Intuitive. It's literally in the class description.

2. Hybrid classes:

- Arcanist: Trained. They start from the magical grounding of a wizard.
- Bloodrager: Intuitive, for the same reason as both of its parent classes.
- Brawler: Self-taught. They're fighters with a preference for short-range combat and self-developed martial arts.
- Hunter: Self-taught. Their core feature - their strong pet bond and teamwork - is found in cavaliers which are in this group. The spellcasting is 6-level spontaneous, so compare to the bard or summoner.
- Investigator: Trained. There's definitely a lot of things pointing to high education.
- Shaman: Self-taught, for the same reason as witches.
- Skald: Self-taught, for the same reason as bards.
- Swashbuckler: Self-taught. They're fighters with a specific fighting style and showmanship - or gunslingers who'd rather sword instead of gun. Either way.
- Warpriest: Trained, for the same reason as inquisitors.

3. Other classes:

- Antipally: Self-taught, for the same reason as pallies.
- Ninja: Self-taught. It definitely requires more discipline than a rogue, but I don't think it crosses into fully trained.
- Samurai: Self-taught. It would be trained, but they can start as ronin.

4. Ambiguous, because they can arise out of trained or intuitive:

- Psychic: They could be trained (in Vudra, Jalmeray, or Hermea for example), or intuitive (irradiated Technic League agents, ratfolk of Akiton, Erutaki dream-wanderers, etc.)
- Shifter: The class description heavily implies trained (as druids), but then also suggests that it can be intuitive: "There are many paths to becoming a shifter; most are trained in that role by druidic circles and have their powers unlocked via rituals of initiation. Yet some stumble upon the gift naturally, as if their blood bore the secrets of shifter transformation."

It's not feasible to assume, since the retraining rules explicitly disallow it.

Retraining takes all your attention for 8 hours per day for a number of days based on what you’re retraining. You can’t perform any other strenuous activities while retraining, such as marching, adventuring, or crafting magic items. You can retrain only one thing at a time; you must complete or abandon a particular training goal before starting another one. Abandoning unfinished training means you lose all progress toward that training’s goal and all costs associated with that training.

Handle animal allows some other activities, provided that they aren't full-day activities; this is because animal training uses three-hour days:

For tasks with specific time frames noted above, you must spend half this time (at the rate of 3 hours per day per animal being handled) working toward completion of the task before you attempt the Handle Animal check.

So you could train one animal while "crafting while adventuring" a magic item, for example - or even train two and make a cheap scroll or potion. But you can't retrain while doing so, because retraining occupies the whole day.

No, because you cannot ready an action and then take another without losing the readied action.

Is your GM/campaign relatively generous with money and magic? If so, I'd recommend getting Heightened Awareness as a wand. You'll probably burn through it pretty quickly, but using the +4 initiative will take away from the per-level advantage of casting it from a spell slot. If purchasing magic items is difficult due to money or availability, Craft Wondrous Item is probably the way to go for your feat.

Consider Summon Monster III for the spell. You've already invested two feats into summoning so you can make the most of it.

With regard to heightened awareness, I can get that into my ring of spell knowledge quite easily (it's also a druid spell). Currently have expeditious construction there though. It'd leave me with a choice for 1st level spell (shield, vanish, unseen servant, or roll Diplomacy against the GM for stone shield, though he's fairly permissive.)

As for the GM's generosity with WBL... we've been running a bit on the low side, though I think we're not in that bad a spot right now. I think most of the others are into +2 weapons at this point, plus we have around 55k in communal resources (45k of which needs to be converted into wealth and then worked with.) I'm personally a bit behind, but that's due to lowering priority on myself.

And as for summon 3: while it's redundant (something sorcerers usually want to avoid,) I can swap out of summon 2 at 8th, so it's not too bad. Then I just hope the bard *does* take invisibility, and I can get the other L2s.

Create Pit (2nd) or Spiked Pit (3ed) are both quite good control spells and they are thematic.

I've been toying with that idea as well. Well, things to think about during my (short this time) work day.

Thanks to both of you! (:

L2 - Stone Call fits your theme, adds some control and a little bit of damage, or Frigid Touch. Do not overlook anything that lowers the number of actions an opponent can take. Frigid Touch's auto stagger is great on its own, but if you have anyone that can trip, grapple or otherwise make an opponent have to use their only action to get back to you, it's a great combo spell.

L3 - few spells of that level can change a battle like Slow can, but it's not very "flashy". If anybody can apply debuffs, before you throw this (dazzling display, bane or prayer, sickened, etc...) do that to make sure this lands and it's pretty much over especially after you haste your party.

I'd need Reach Spell to make use of Frigid Touch - auto-stagger is indeed great, but melee touches are for... other characters. On the other hand, an alternative element would be quite welcome - and it's a spell I hadn't even considered. Thanks for that!

And yeah, I know the quiet power of Slow quite well. (:

This will be a combination of rules questions and just trying to untangle some analysis paralysis.

So, after a year, we've finally reached 7th level - which, for my earth elemental sorcerer, means an influx of spells plus two feats.

The party:

- Aasimar paladin of Iomedae, weapon bond, generally mounted build.
- Elf druid, AC bond (wolf). For some unknown reason, has a special ability that appears to be the bloodline arcana of Stormborn (+1 DC with electric and sonic).
- Human barbarian.
- Half-elf cleric of Sarenrae (domains: fire/good)
- Grippli bard 5 / mysterious stranger gunslinger 2. Princely alternate racial. ...better to not ask.

----

And now for my current build.

Gnome earth sorcerer
Feats: Improved initiative, spell focus conjuration, augment summoning
Spells known:
L0 | Acid splash, detect magic, light, mage hand, message, read magic, spark
L1 | {Burning hands}, grease, magic missile, mount, protection from evil.
L2 | {Scorching ray}, glitterdust, summon monster 2
L3 | {Protection from energy}, haste

So for what I'm thinking.

- Bloodline feat: Great fortitude.
- General feat: I'm not sure whether I want to go into item creation, or pick up Toughness.
- Spells:
--- L1: Heightened awareness. +2 perception (and trained Knowledge) for tens of minutes, which can be discharged as needed for another +4 to initiative.
--- L2: I'm leaning toward invisibility, and hoping the bard/slinger doesn't take it.

As for L3, I want something attack-ish, but trying to decide from one of these:

- Shifting sand (Ref-based control. Also thematic for earth.)
- Slow (Will-based debuff)
- Aqueous orb (Ref-based control, and conjuration so extra DC. Not particularly thematic because water, but a fun spell otherwise.)
- Sleet storm (no save; Acrobatics-based control. Would this apply a +5 to the Acrobatics DC for icy terrain? Or is the DC 10 assumed to include that?)

Any advice would be peachy-keen.

Thanks!

The CRB rule only covered wizard/sorcerer at the time of writing, since witch was added later. The shaman's spirit animal rules even restate the general rule outright, adding clarifications that give priority to the spirit animal (and, if necessary, the witch's familiar) rules when resolving the stack.

We also know from the animal companion rules that "any" isn't an absolute - this is the druid/cavalier case.

"The druid's class levels stack with levels of any other classes that are entitled to an animal companion for the purpose of determining the companion's statistics"; yet, a druid 5 / cavalier 5 has a 10th level companion if and only if that companion is a mount. Otherwise, she has one 5th level non-mount companion, and one 5th level mount.

Similarly, if the druid/cavalier archetypes out of nature's bond or chooses a domain or herbalism, she'd only have a 5th level mount from cavalier (not 10th, as such a druid isn't entitled to a companion.)

And thus, similarly, the arcane sorcerer and tattooed sorcerer would not stack familiar levels with a wizard that archetypes out of arcane bond. (And, by rule, wouldn't even get a familiar if the wizard already has an item bond.)

I have a question regarding Arcane Tattoos: it offers innate spells to any character who chooses it, but some of these spells needs to know the main incantation caracteristic of the character. Which one should be used then?

For example, if I choose Arcane Tattoos for a Barbarian, I really don't know if I should use Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma for his innate spells. I guess Charisma would make more sense as it's historically what was used for innate magic but I'm not fully convinced.

Charisma, by general rule, unless something tells you otherwise; the spell tradition does not matter.

1. If entranced, the character is considered helpless, so the hit would be automatic. And it's 1d4 Int damage.

2. There are dozens of tendrils, so simply grappling the creeper to pull them off won't work. Only the death of the creeper or target will resolve that attack.

So this is a bit of walk.

I'm playing an neutral evil Champion with the Blessed One archetype (the deity has heal/harm). We pulled two encounters and being the sort of player who can do math after a few hits, I tell the party we can't win and they need to run. I'm mostly surrounded and on the wrong side of both groups, but I'm able to at least buy a few rounds. End of the fight comes, my character is unconscious but made recovery saves so is alive. The post-session discussion turns to what to do.

In my opinion, I broke Code. Take Divine Ally and the Focus Pool. General consensus is that's the case.

The question comes down the archetype. Breaking Code says you lose Focus Pool. I'm of the opinion that I lose it all, including from the archetype. There's some discussion as to if that's the case. I can't find rules saying otherwise, but figured I'd through it out there in case there was any clarification.

This should help.

In particular, this box:

Focus Points from Multiple Sources

It’s possible, especially through archetypes, to gain focus spells and Focus Points from more than one source. If this happens, you have just one focus pool, adding all the Focus Points together to determine the total size of your pool. (Remember that the maximum number of Focus Points a pool can have is 3.) If you have multiple abilities that give you a focus pool, each one adds 1 Focus Point to your pool. For instance, if you were a cleric with the Domain Initiate feat, you would have a pool with 1 Focus Point. Let’s say you then took the champion multiclass archetype and the Healing Touch feat. Normally, this feat would give you a focus pool. Since you already have one, it instead increases your existing pool’s capacity by 1.

Focus Points are not differentiated by source; you can spend any of your Focus Points on any of your focus spells. Likewise, when you Refocus, you get back a point as long as you follow the guidelines of any abilities that granted you focus spells. Having Focus Points from multiple sources doesn’t change the tradition of your spells; if you had both cleric domain spells and druid order spells, your domain spells would remain divine and the order spells primal. This could mean that you need to keep track of a different proficiency and ability modifier with the spell DC and spell attack roll of different focus spells.

Thus, if an anathema effect causes you to lose access to your focus pool, you lose access for all purposes. A sorcerer/champion loses the ability to use sorcerer focus spells, and the same goes for a champion/blessed one.

If I cast Elemental Betrayal (https://2e.aonprd.com/Spells.aspx?ID=797) and choose the Fire trait, the spell can now deal fire damage. Does that cause the spell itself to gain the Fire trait?

For example, after using Elemental Betrayal (fire) could I then use the Conduct Energy ability (https://2e.aonprd.com/Actions.aspx?ID=704), which requires me to have just cast a spell with an elemental trait to it?

No. Your spell only has a choice's trait if it says it does.

You call upon the elements to undermine your foe. When you Cast this Spell, choose air, earth, fire, or water. Each time the target takes damage from a spell or effect with the chosen trait, it takes an additional 2 damage of one damage type dealt by the spell or effect. If you chose fire or water, the target also takes this additional damage when taking fire or cold damage, respectively, from effects or spells without the chosen trait.

Contrast protection:

You ward a creature against a specified alignment. Choose chaotic, evil, good, or lawful when you cast this spell. The target gains a +1 status bonus to Armor Class and saving throws against creatures and effects of the chosen alignment. This bonus increases to +3 against effects from such creatures that would directly control the target and against attacks made by summoned creatures of the chosen alignment.

This spell gains the trait that opposes the alignment you chose—if you choose chaos, this spell gains the lawful trait, and vice versa; if you choose evil, this spell gains the good trait, and vice versa.

I'd argue that even the most clever of animals still only have an Intelligence of 1 or 2. In Pathfinder, the event of hitting Intelligence of 3 essentially turns animals into Magical Beasts and makes them a part of the alignment system as active participants.

Well... not always.

For example, paladin mounts are still animals despite having their Int increased to 6; at 11th level, they gain the celestial template and are treated as magical beasts for spell-targeting purposes.

ACs generally can have their Int boosted to 3, which lets them break out of the AC feat list; but it doesn't change their type.

But yeah, if you were to take the base animal and increase its Int to 3, it would cease to be an animal because, as the animal type is defined, they can't have Int of 3 or higher.

Yes, because Apex Companion cares about whether the creature is an animal companion, and the Arboreal Sapling is an animal companion even though it's not an animal.

Your companion is a walking tree, a cousin of the great arboreal wardens and regents. An arboreal sapling has the plant trait instead of the animal trait, but it otherwise functions normally as an animal companion. They are typically only selected by animal order druids who are also members of the leaf order.

Anyhoo, boons. So I've decided what the boons will be for both players. It's not exactly balanced, but then this is a fast and loose casual sandbox game anyway. While this is based on homebrew, everything should be familiar.

The cleric worships... let's say a cross between Erastil and Mielikki (more like the original Finnish version than the FR adaptation.) Due to campaign events and reaching 10th level, these are her custom boons.

- Resilience of Mother Bear:
You gain a +4 inherent bonus to Constitution. Once per day, when you would be brought below 0 hp by any attack, you may reduce that damage by half as an immediate action. If you would still be brought below 1 hp, you are left at 1 hp and staggered on your next turn.

- Sword Art of the Knight-Errant:
While you do not have a Spiritual Ally active, or when you are flanking with a Spiritual Ally, your proficiency with critical hits improves. If you would fail to confirm a crit and did not roll a natural 1, you instead confirm. If you would normally confirm, you may cast one standard-action (or faster) spell targeting you or your target as a free action that does not provoke. If your confirm roll is a natural 20, all damage dealt by your critical hit is increased by 50%.
(A way to encourage the cleric to explore more spells; she strongly favours Ally in combat.)

- Kindness of the Ruby Light:
Your healing is more efficient. Whenever you cast a single target heal and would overheal, you may apply the excess healing to another living creature within 30 feet. When you channel energy to heal, you may select one target to receive twice the healing.

----

The evoker's boons are somewhat simpler:

- Boon of the Animal Friend:
Your friendship with the animals has granted you a magical gift. Each time you would gain new spells in your spellbook, you may also add one Druid spell. This must be of a level below your highest spell level unless it is also a Wizard spell; either way, it cannot be of one of your opposed schools : divination and necromancy. This effect is retroactive.
In addition, you gain Yuelral's Blessing as a bonus arcane discovery.

- Ward of the Death-Touched:
Your nasty encounter with the Beyond has left you less than eager to return there. Once per day, when you would take more than 40 damage from a single attack, you may reduce that damage by 50% as an immediate action. If this would reduce you below 1 hp, you are left with 1 hp and staggered on your next turn.

Let's have a look.

Invisible layers of solid force surround and protect the target, granting that target a +2 armor bonus to AC. Additionally, the first 5 points of lethal damage the target takes from each attack are converted into nonlethal damage. Against attacks that already deal nonlethal damage, the target gains DR 5/—. Once this spell has converted 5 points of damage to nonlethal damage per caster level (maximum 50 points), the spell is discharged.

Add half your tier to the spell’s armor bonus. Add half your tier to the amount of lethal damage from each attack that is converted to nonlethal damage and to the DR against nonlethal damage. Add half your tier to your caster level when determining how much damage the spell converts before it’s discharged.

Effects of Mythic Spells: Unless otherwise specified, a mythic spell works just like the non-mythic version of the spell. For example, zombies created by both animate dead and mythic animate dead count toward the spell’s HD limit of how many undead you can control at one time, and a chaotic creature is immune to mythic chaos hammer in the same way it’s immune to chaos hammer.

Unless a mythic spell’s description says it improves, replaces, or upgrades an effect of the non-mythic spell, or says that it creates an effect instead of the non-mythic spell’s effect, it retains all the effects of the non-mythic spell in addition to the effects of the mythic version. For example, the mythic blasphemy spell has penalties for creatures that fail their saves; because the description doesn’t indicate that these penalties replace those of non-mythic blasphemy, the penalties are in addition to the non-mythic spell’s effects.

The mythic upgrade changes by adding half your tier to:

- The armour bonus granted by the spell.
- The conversion of damage to non-lethal.
- The damage reduction against already non-lethal attacks.
- Your effective level for calculating the bubble's ability to convert damage.

It does not change:

- The cap of 50 points of conversion potential.

Came across these in an unrelated search and just wanted to throw up the Form Retention and Infinite Possibilities feats as precedent for casting lower level spells in higher level slots while still using the spell's original, non-heightened effects.

Both of those come with some caveats against calling them precedent, though.

Form Retention works by explicitly replacing the normal benefits of heighten with the duration increase - basically how First Edition's Extend Spell metamagic works.

Infinite Possibilities, for want of a better description, turns the used spell slot into a lesser wish spell: you can cast anything out of your spellbook up to level n-2 - and it's treated as though you used an n-2 slot for all purposes (including heightening, if necessary.)

Or it is a free attack you get as a consequence of the standard action, like the ones you get from spell with a range of touch and vital strike doesn't apply.

That touch attack is explicitly called a free action, and can be separated from the casting by your entire move action (but not by another round, as you'd then be holding the charge):

Touch Spells in Combat: Many spells have a range of touch. To use these spells, you cast the spell and then touch the subject. In the same round that you cast the spell, you may also touch (or attempt to touch) as a free action. You may take your move before casting the spell, after touching the target, or between casting the spell and touching the target. You can automatically touch one friend or use the spell on yourself, but to touch an opponent, you must succeed on an attack roll.

Spellstrike falls under this, as it allows you to use a melee attack in lieu of the touch attack when using this free action. Sword Against Injustice does not say that the melee attack is a free action; therefore we can't simply assume that it works in a similar manner.

In fact, it can't be a "free attack that you get," since the pronouncement only defines the attack roll for the attack (implicitly, instead of rolling 1d20, you're rolling 1d Iomedae's verdict.) If you didn't make the attack, the pronouncement would literally be just yelling some words that invoke Iomedae as a standard action - something 1st level commoners can do as a free action.

The attack is the central element of the ability. Yes, it hits or misses based on the parameters set by the pronouncement (again, 1d Iomedae's verdict) - but it's a melee attack as a standard action. It's just that the action also has a verbal component.

I first encountered Pathfinder through the card game of Rise of the Runelords, filling in for someone else who'd lost interest. (Kyra in a 6-player run.) If not for that, then who knows; it might have been last year when our current campaign started, or not at all.

Before that, my only interactions with TTRPG had been AD&D - and let's just say that there were a couple of specific instances (my first two sessions, and some rough times in mid-'97) that almost turned me off to the hobby altogether. Also WEG Star Wars.

I did play a tiny amount of 3.0 though - but then didn't have any groups for the longest time.

Yes, those two stack. You can also stack those with enlarge person and get another 5' of reach, going up to 20 even without a reach weapon.

Sure, you're going to become a Lovecraftian horror in the process, but that's a small price to pay for getting your Dhalsim Stretchy Arm Attacks on.

Your sustained walking / marching movement is your speed rating in 6 seconds.

You multiply by 10 to get your feet per minute, then 60 to get your feet per hour, then divide by 5280 to get your miles per hour.

Thus, you divide by (5280/600) = 8.8 to get from ft/round to mph.

We could take the word of author about similar things.

In this case, the question was about several feats that say "as a standard action, make a melee attack" - and the author's response was that Mighty Strike applies to all of them except Double Strike (which is making a dual-wielding pair of attacks with one standard action.) {My comment on this: And even in Double Strike's case, it could be resolved like Surprise Spells Magic Missile, where only one of the strikes gets the bonus.}

The reason Spellstrike is called out as not working is that when casting touch spells, the delivery is a separate free action.

SAI doesn't have that distinction. It makes a melee attack as a standard action, with the effect of that attack (auto-hit if guilty, auto-miss if innocent, and auto-miss with a telltale interaction if the target is divination-shielded) based on whether the target has performed some specified act of injustice / deception / crime.

While it seems strange to imagine a high-level devotee of Iomedae (the combo can't come online before 14th) going full-tilt with an attack that could hit a wall if the the target is innocent or shielded, RAW does seem to allow this interaction.

Mighty Strike's condition (a melee attack as a standard action) is being satisfied.

Sandslice wrote:

First off, its association with druids is something that is attested in antiquity, with sources slightly before Julius Caesar, as well as Caesar himself, noting that the druids held such beliefs. Some contemporaries identified the druidic belief in reincarnation as Pythagorean in origin.

So while the more magical aspects of the druid (shapeshifting, nature magic) may owe much to Merlin and paganism, reincarnation was something that was definitely attested as being part of their belief-set from way back then.

Which method, though? Instant or more like current religious of, “next time you are born...” type of thing.

Pythagreus seems an odd place for reincarnation (unless I’m misunderstanding what you’re saying), though I admit I’ve forgotten most of his religious teachings. (It’s been a hot decade since I read up on his stuff.)

Let's let the Rubicon-crosser describe it. Gallic Wars:

With regard to their actual course of studies, the main object of all education is, in their opinion, to imbue their scholars with a firm belief in the indestructibility of the human soul, which, according to their belief, merely passes at death from one tenement to another; for by such doctrine alone, they say, which robs death of all its terrors, can the highest form of human courage be developed. Subsidiary to the teachings of this main principle, they hold various lectures and discussions on the stars and their movement, on the extent and geographical distribution of the earth, on the different branches of natural philosophy, and on many problems connected with religion.

So yeah, the "die and come back in another body" type. Other sources, such as Polyhistor and Diodorus, mention it being "after some number of years," so it's not instant like the spell.

But then, a reincarnate spell in line with the actual philosophy wouldn't exactly be playable. "Yeah, your character is dead. The druid casts reincarnate. So, you'll be born as rolls 1d100 that after rolls 1d6+1 that many years."

At the end of the day, did we all agree or not? Hahaha. So vital strike won't work with this correct?

Vital Strike will not work with this. However, the issue isn't the whole Mirror Image thing, but action economy.

As a standard action he may announce he is bringing Iomedae’s judgment upon a target who is accused of a crime, lie, or other affront to justice; the crusader makes a melee attack with his sword against the target as part of this judgment.

This ability is a standard action that incorporates a melee attack, the way casting a touch spell incorporates a melee touch attack (or, for magi using Spellstrike, a melee attack.)

When you use the attack action, you can make one attack at your highest base attack bonus that deals additional damage. Roll the weapon's damage dice for the attack twice and add the results together before adding bonuses from Strength, weapon abilities (such as flaming), precision based damage, and other damage bonuses. These extra weapon damage dice are not multiplied on a critical hit, but are added to the total.

Vital Strike is an attack action. You can't attach it to other types of action even if they incorporate melee attacks.

First off, its association with druids is something that is attested in antiquity, with sources slightly before Julius Caesar, as well as Caesar himself, noting that the druids held such beliefs. Some contemporaries identified the druidic belief in reincarnation as Pythagorean in origin.

So while the more magical aspects of the druid (shapeshifting, nature magic) may owe much to Merlin and paganism, reincarnation was something that was definitely attested as being part of their belief-set from way back then.

I know your question has been answered, but you wanted a low level build so let me point out something, by RAW perception difficulties increase by 1 per 10 feet. Someone following the party at even a quarter of a mile distant has over 130 added to the difficulty to spot them.

Which to be fair, is because the perception rules are pretty bad. But the rules are the rules. 130 DC is more than high enough to make parties pretty much auto fail at spotting your dude. That enables him to run from a much lower distance, allowing the build to be used at lower levels.

A quarter mile would also be far more reasonable for TK Charge as well.

x2 reach -> long (400 + 40/CL. 920/40 = 23.)
+ Enlarged -> double long (800 + 80/CL. 520/80 = 6.5; thus, CL 7th.)

So you have the gods tiddly-winking random... complications for the god-meddled oracle from up to a quarter mile around. No need to build The Speedrunner from the South Coast Revengers or anysuch to provide danger and amusement.

I agree, we should get max HP per HD every level.

20 point buy would be fine if it was an actual 20 point buy. What I mean is you get 20 stat points to distribute as you wish, 1 point is 1 stat point(16 base max). So you could start with 16, 16, 16, 12, 10, 10 before racial and level mods.

I can understand people who want to roll, but I rarely every have luck with rolling;)

Any one let the players have the benefits of both their base class and a NPC class like aristocrat, expert, etc.? Basically you get the better of each in HD, BA, skill points, weapon and armor prof. class skills. Maybe if you choose commoner you a +2 con bonus since it gets nothing otherwise.

I would totally gestalt sorcerer with expert in that case. Any 10 skills as class, 6 skill points, d8 HD, and 3/4 BA? I might not use light armour, but sign me right the heck up for the rest of that.

Even have the background for it. (:

I couldn't find a vigilante talent called "swift as shadows," only a halfling racial. Shadow's speed may be your talent, though.

Yes, those materials are physical reinforcements. The extra spells are included in the ritual to improve the programming. (Fluff to justify following conclusion):

The 10000 is being applied to the body cost directly. No change is made to the ritual cost.

Can you link the blog post where PFS leadership clarified that?

Yep: the Year 2 conversion / update blog.

So... let's consider what PFS does. While this doesn't necessarily dictate what happens at your individual tables...

Yes. Clerics, druids, and wizards are initially hindered compared to other classes.

"Learning Spells - Some members of the community raised questions about how their cleric and druid characters could use the new spells from the Advanced Player’s Guide. We’re happy to provide a solution! Any prepared spellcaster can use the Learn a Spell activity to learn any common spells they have access to from tutors at the Grand Lodge. This adds no additional material cost beyond the standard cost for the Learn a Spell activity."

Note that the question is raised specifically for clerics and druids - and the answer is that all prep casters have access to trainers with whom they can use Learn a Spell.

Thus, at least in PFS, "in this book" is interpreted as a clear rule.

Yes, you absolutely can. Rules cannot stop you.

To clarify, can't without departing from the rules and what most would consider the social contract.

The way that is being presented, a 25 on sense motive = any number of advices and warnings about why that might not be the best wish to make; but a 30 = skip all that and deliver instant death.

You can. But it speaks chapters if you do.

Then you are negating the trait's explicit function and acting in bad faith.

Nothing stops you from ruling that the wish can't be made (ie, can't possibly be worded;) but if you do grant it, you can't do anything like instantly kill the character.

2x reach enlarged telekinetic charge lets you move an ally anywhere within a radius of 800+80/lv feet, which gives a possible 4k move across a full diameter. This reaches a mile at CL 23rd. But only half a mile if moving to or from the caster.

Sandslice wrote:

the GM is not allowed to twist the wish

HA! That would never happen in my campaigns. There has never been, nor ever will be a rule that has power over the GM.

I'm not exaggerating when I describe the trait as "the GM is not allowed."

You are well acquainted with the many ways words can be twisted. You gain a +2 trait bonus on Sense Motive checks. Furthermore, if you succeed at a DC 25 Sense Motive check prior to making any wish granted by an outsider, you become aware of your wish’s potential pitfalls. If you succeed at this check by 5 or more, you figure out how to word your wish in such a way that your words are not twisted.

It's fine to house-rule anything to below RAW levels; but your players should be made aware of such changes before opting in.

Can you make iterative attacks with thrown weapons as long as you can get them into your hand as a free action, or is Quick Draw absolutely necessary?

The thrown weapon rules state:

Thrown Weapons: wrote:

The wielder applies his Strength modifier to damage dealt by thrown weapons (except for splash weapons). It is possible to throw a weapon that isn’t designed to be thrown (that is, a melee weapon that doesn’t have a numeric entry in the Range column on Table: Weapons), and a character who does so takes a –4 penalty on the attack roll. Throwing a light or one-handed weapon is a standard action, while throwing a two-handed weapon is a full-round action. Regardless of the type of weapon, such an attack scores a threat only on a natural 20 and deals double damage on a critical hit. Such a weapon has a range increment of 10 feet.

Your bolded text applies when you are throwing a zero-range weapon; either that, or it's... not the greatest text editing ever.

While Quick Draw states that it allows you to make iterative attacks with thrown weapons:

Because without Quick Draw, drawing a weapon (other than ammo or shuriken) is a move action. Iterative attacks require the Full Attack, which is a full-round action; as such, you can't normally attempt it.

Drawing ammo or shuriken is already a free action. This is why bows (which load as a free action) and shuriken can do iterative attacks with no feat investment at all, while other thrown weapons need Quick Draw, and other ranged weapons need Rapid Reload and other time-savers.

Coin Toss behaves like shuriken, and therefore can also make iterative attacks without Quick Draw.

To be sure, I simply don't allow wish-lawyering - but then again, the only player who's had a chance to use a wish has, in both times, wished for custom magic items with harmless environmental effects because, well, the imagination of youth.

In exchange, if you're getting a wish from an Outsider, your outcome (even for safe wishes) is going to reflect the Outsider's personality, adjusted for any reaction adjustments you've attempted beforehand (bribing the Shaitan with gems, defeating the Marid in an impromptu round of Dance Dance Revolution, etc.)

Let's take an example. The party finds itself on the wrong end of a fight against a Blue Dragon and really needs to hit the panic button, so they pull out the Genie Bottle. (I know these are normally only for efreet, but I allow them to exist for all four genie types.) Assuming they get the option to use wishes, they wish for the mass teleport option: "We need to get out of here now! I wish for us to be in Windy Hill!" Just like that. All four genies will grant the wish, but...

- The djinni will be ostentatious. The party will arrive with an illusion grand enough to make the "Prince Ali" entrance seem tame by comparison.

- The marid will be capricious. The party will arrive on random roofs in the village; their wagons will be stood on end, dressed and arranged like gossiping milkmaids, with the wagons' contents stored safely inside temporary bags of holding the wagon-maids are wearing as fanny packs.

- The efreeti will be malicious. The party will arrive just fine. The wagons will arrive 20' above random citizens.

- The shaitan will be expeditious and just get the party there.

I think this counts: the evoker in my campaign (who seriously should have rolled a druid, given how much he begs for druid spell access) has earned access to Speak with Animals.

At 10th level, depending on which side he takes in an upcoming encounter, he'll gain one of two high level boons.

- If he sides with the rabbit, he'll gain a valet rabbit as a second familiar.
- If he sides with the fox, he'll gain Halcyon Magic (as the ability from the Magaambyan arcanist PrC.)

----

In the other game, the druid has run into a quite interesting situation. As the child of a pure-line Sovyrian elf druid and a more "ordinary" elf ranger, she had latent powers due to the mingling of different natures; those had been sealed away, at least until her recent visit to the Isle of Arenway.

After the Wildwoods performed a ritual, it weakened the seal; the boon she's gained from this is the bloodline arcana of the Stormborn bloodline. Whether she has a Stormborn bloodline or not remains to be seen.

In our game where I'm a player, diplomacy is rolled so often that you wonder how 1st level commoner societies don't collapse into anarchy. Like seriously, the last session, I had to roll to get the sheriff's current location... in my home village.

Something I thought of: Should a player casting wish be able to make a linguistics (or bluff, or something) check to see if they say it right? After all, the player doesn't really have 30 cha even if their sorcerer does.

There's a trait for that, though it's regional for the Plane of Fire: Thoughtful Wish-Maker.

You get +2 on Sense Motive; and when making a wish from an Outsider, you can roll Sense Motive DC 25. Basically, if you succeed but not by 5 or more, the GM has to tell you what twists are being applied to the wish. If you succeed BY 5 or more, the GM is not allowed to twist the wish.

Can't be recovered is the caster if an artifact is destroyed.

I'll take the position that the Impressive Mount feat, by itself, creates the most specific situation, and allows the mount to take a Stride or Strike even if not commanded.

You can ride some creatures into combat. As noted in the Mount specialty basic action (page 472), your mount needs to be at least one size larger than you and willing. Your mount acts on your initiative. You must use the Command an Animal action to get your mount to spend its actions. If you don’t, the animal wastes its actions. If you have the Ride general feat, you succeed automatically when you Command an Animal that’s your mount.

Other than tying the mount's initiative (and MAP, in nearby sections) to your own, this is just the general rule of using animals: you must successfully spend an action to Command, after which the animal can take the desired action. (Minion trait is a specific rule that lets you issue two Commands with the same action.)

Now for Impressive Mount:

You've trained your mount to become a powerful force on the battlefield. The mount you gained through the Cavalier Dedication feat becomes a mature animal companion, granting it additional capabilities. During an encounter, even if you don't use the Command an Animal action, your animal companion can still use 1 action on your turn to Stride or Strike.

It's pretty clear to me.

(Note: Sprites that take Corgi Familiar and assign the independent familiar ability get to do the same thing, for the same line of reasoning.)