Sandslice's page

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

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 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. (:

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.

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.

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.)

By RAW, it does. However, it's likely that the high level items you really care about are going to be out of reach due to the double CL requirement.

The only way for an Item to be permanently disjoined by MDJ is with a 1 roll on the item's Will Save-- RAW, there are no actual ways to reverse this -- the only thing that happens on a failed save (other than a critical failure) is that the item becomes suppressed for the duration.

That's... only true of the AoE option. There's also a single target option, wherein the targeted item must save at -5 or be destroyed outright.

You can also use this spell to target a single item. The item gets a Will save at a –5 penalty to avoid being permanently destroyed. Even artifacts are subject to mage's disjunction, though there is only a 1% chance per caster level of actually affecting such powerful items. If successful, the artifact's power unravels, and it is destroyed (with no save). If an artifact is destroyed, you must make a DC 25 Will save or permanently lose all spellcasting abilities. These abilities cannot be recovered by mortal magic, not even miracle or wish. Destroying artifacts is a dangerous business, and it is 95% likely to attract the attention of some powerful being who has an interest in or connection with the device.

But it is also very reasonable that you just get no deity characteristics in your divine spells.

I think it's something of a mechanical issue for the angelic, demonic, and diabolic sorcerers. Neutral-deity clerics, oracles, witches, and even undead and psychopomp sorcerers have the luxury of avoiding the spells if RAW doesn't allow them to function.

Angelic etc don't have that luxury, because they're bloodline spells.

As an update suggestion / house rule, I'd add a note to the bloodlines in order to avoid cluttering the spell:

"The spells marked with * normally require you to choose an alignment your deity has. If you are not true neutral, you may choose an alignment you have instead of one your deity has; the spells are otherwise unchanged."

I am having a really hard time following the conversation here but I am getting the feeling that a LOT more Athiest PCs are floating around out there than I had ever expected.

Are that many people (especially those who ACTUALLY use Divine powers) really skipping the select a Deity step? Do people just misunderstand the nature of "worship" in the system and think this decision is supposed to indicate that choosing something means they're a zealot of some kind?

Given the nature of the campaign setting choosing to NOT worship any Deities is, IMO, nihilism at its purest form and suggests that the character has some fundamental and deeply seated problem with religion, faith, and the goings-on of the many Deities

The campaign setting is a standard polytheism. As such, most characters are likely to fall into the common mode of worship in such societies. The gods won't be a significant part of your life, but you will likely petition or invoke them situationally (Iomedae or Gorum before a battle, Desna before a journey, Erastil while farming / gathering, etc.)

Specific devotion will tend to fall under one of a few modes of thought:
- The deity's area of concern resonates strongly with your life. Consider some frontiersman who settles with a handful of families on the edge of the wild. Such a person will naturally gravitate toward Erastil in preference to other deities. He could choose others, of course, but Erastil is just the most probable.
- You owe some debt, be it gratitude, contract, slavery, etc. Seelah, for example, became a paladin of Iomedae out of a desire to atone for causing a paladin's death.
- You were indoctrinated early, and never left.

Atheists don't deny the existence of the deities; they just tend to regard them as powerful Outsiders, rather than being worthy of veneration. It might arise out of a strong belief in free will and self-determination, or out of a rejection of religions (eg, the Laws of Mortality,) or perhaps out of a belief that mortals can become (Razmir) or overthrow (Tar-Baphon) gods with sufficient effort.

...I just don't see that being such a common trope that this would come up nearly as often as the debate here seems to suggest.

That said, again, Oracles might very well be one of the best concepts to start with for such a faithless or faith-lost PCs... similar for a Sorcerer but deciding not to choose a Deity when you know that you cannot use some of your Class Features is... an interesting decision.

So my sorcerer is having trouble deciding whether to worship Shyka, Sarenrae, or Desna - or to not necessarily commit to any of them. But it'd be one of those three if she does, for perfectly good in-campaign reasons.

If she were an angelic sorcerer, she'd be mechanically punished for choosing Shyka, since angelic sorcerers must take all three of the non-cantrips that are hindered by having a true neutral deity: "You can't cast this spell if you don't have a deity or your deity is true neutral."

So there is an arcanist build that considers the question of how much counterspelling actually sucks and strives to make it somewhat not-suck.

You might have a look for yerself, though.

UnArcaneElection wrote:

^Also, you can (if you don't honk off your deity or other patron) potentially keep on casting Miracles, whereas if you keep on casting Wishes, no matter how well you word them, pretty soon you're going to go broke.

"I wish to be able to use, though not limited only to, this diamond repeatedly for every wish spell I cast without it needing replacing or requiring further monetary material."

*laughs as he awaits repercussions*

WIsh-granter: "What diamond?" *poofs*

Just then, you realize that you played yourself. As it turns out, you destroy the material component DURING casting, and a wish's outcome is not determined until you've FINISHED casting:

Material (M): A material component consists of one or more physical substances or objects that are annihilated by the spell energies in the casting process. Unless a cost is given for a material component, the cost is negligible. Don’t bother to keep track of material components with negligible cost. Assume you have all you need as long as you have your spell component pouch.

As far as the Empower Spell metamagic feat is involved, we have to look specifically at the variable, numerical aspects of the spell (and the kinetic blast). This is not variable OR numeric, but both, of the DICE rolls.

https://paizo.com/paizo/faq/v5748nruor1fm#v5748eaic9o71

Empower Spell: If I use Empower Spell on a spell that has a die roll with a numerical bonus (such as cure moderate wounds), does the feat affect the numerical bonus?

Yes. For example, if you empower cure moderate wounds, the +50% from the feat applies to the 2d8 and to the level-based bonus.

2d8 is variable, numeric.

The Constitution modifier does not affect the variable nature of the dice rolls, only the overall damage of the effect. The same goes for the Deadly Aim feat. These things might be variable on one level, and I do not argue against that fact. I only state that they are not variable to the individual dice rolls. They don't change the result of each die, only the total sum of the effect.

I hope that explanation helps.

https://paizo.com/threads/rzs2ueey?empower-spell-kineticist-metakines is-and-burn#3

2. An empowered infusion multiplies the total damage by 50% on the blast, not the actual damage die (Your blast does not go up to 4d6). You would roll 3d6+8 (Or whatever your actual total is, see #1) and add half of that total again to get the final result.

Now, to be fair, there are old dev quotes from when the matter was in debate. The FAQ settled those in favour of empowering the whole result, not just the pips.

How about the combined efforts of Expeditious Construction and Expeditious Excavation? With a few castings of each, even at low levels, you could create a permanent dugout shelter with a 5'deep pit surrounded by walls that rise another 3' around it, then earthen ramps acting like a sod roof, supported by the side walls and a crossbeam you'd have to manually supply.

You know... I was actually thinking about that a few weeks ago. "I can ask the druid for one of them - with take 10 on Spellcraft, I can easily teach it to the ring of spell knowledge by observing it - then pick up the other one as a spell known." Then the druid missed the session and I didn't get a chance yet.

To topic, though: a big one on Kollanie's wishlist.

Gloves of shaping.

With them, you gain the ability to easily work materials - if the hardness is 8 (hard as stone) or lower, you can work with that material as though it were putty. Harder materials are treated as though only half as hard; steel can be worked using woodworking tools, and even mithril can be carved like stone.

Really handy for a low-Strength crafter who can't be lugging a 50-lb "portable" anvil around everywhere.

Quixote wrote:

Ring of Sustenance, hands down. I no longer need to eat? Awesome. 2 hours of sleep and I'm good?

With that kind of extra time, I could be Batman.

Does ring of sustenance prevent you from eating, or just remove the need?

I'm too much of a foodie to voluntarily miss out on all the wonderful dishes out there. If it's just the option to skip though, that is nice.

Removes the need. It's kinda like how non-native Outsiders don't need any food or sleep (but can choose to do either for reasons of etiquette or fitting in or whatever.)

Player intends to have Magical Lineage to reduce metamagic penalty. Throughout her career the spell selected for this reduction will change. I note that traits cannot be retrained and the trait itself doesn't have text that allows for it to be revised to work with a new spell.

It's a once-you-pick-it-you're-stuck-with-it sort of thing.

Player says, "But I'm not retraining a trait. I got Magical Lineage via the Additional Traits feat, so I'm retraining that feat using the normal rules for retraining feats." During retraining, her idea is to drop the feat, then repick the same feat with the same traits but with a different spell selected for Magical Lineage.

Seems to me that it's... by the rules at that point. Am I wrong? Is there something I'm missing?

The rules of retraining technically allow it.

The rules of retraining technically allow me to retrain my sorcerer from earth elemental bloodline to impossible... or, in fact, from a sorcerer to an eldritch scoundrel unrogue -> arcane trickster. (But not in PFS, of course.)

The rules of retraining allow you to say "if no trainer, then no training" wherever trainers are called out:

Some retraining options require you to work with a trainer. If no suitable trainer is available, the GM might allow you to retrain yourself by spending twice the normal time. Even if you train yourself, you must still pay the cost for training (though you don’t double the cost as you do the time). Any option that requires a trainer also requires some kind of training facility for that activity (such as a Dojo—see Rooms).

Feats are of this sort. If you don't allow self-training for feats, then your player will have to find a trainer who has Additional Traits. NPCs can take this (in fact, they generally can't start with traits, so this feat is usually the only way for them to have traits,) so a trainer could be available.

There's a reason why you might also require that trainer to have Magical Lineage, maybe even for the spell the player wants to swap to. Consider an AM TROO KELRICK OF GORUM! barbarian who helps the party's sorcerer to retrain into Additional Traits... and she chooses something that gives a bonus to craft (artsy stuff) and a religion trait of Shelyn. That... wouldn't make a lick of sense, no matter what RAW technically allows!

----

You also have discretion to be nice. Sure, Magical Lineage has no business being a mere trait; but nothing stops you from allowing the player's Magical Lineage to be "evolved" via retraining.

----

But to the question of the rules as written: as munch as it sucks, if you allow self-training for feats, then your player can in fact self-retrain Additional Traits. He might need to train out of it to something arbitrary (skill focus appraise?) and then back in order to avoid "you can't just retrain X into itself, unless you could take X in multiple variants like Weapon Focus," but RAW would be on his side here.

Sandslice wrote:

If you managed to draw Fates,

I was thinking of whether it would work more than whether it would be worthwhile.

If the item were disjoined while in the character's possession, arguably yes:

"Avoid any situation you choose, once... This card enables the character to avoid even an instantaneous occurrence if so desired, for the fabric of reality is unraveled and respun. Note that it does not enable something to happen. It can only stop something from happening or reverse a past occurrence. The reversal is only for the character who drew the card; other party members may have to endure the situation."

On the other hand, it might be ruled to not extend to one's possessions where it says "the reversal is only for the character." So the argument for no can be made as well.

The card from the Deck of Many Things that allows a situation to be undone could manage it.

If you managed to draw Fates, you'd really prefer to use it as a "get out of being exodiated free" card, not to retrieve some mere possession. Unless it was an artifact. Then the disjoiner is probably headed for Not Nice Places.

Make use of Lingering Auras.

If the Senior Priest of Puppy-Kick Funslayer has passed through the area some time this week, his divinely evil stank will remain as a Lingering Aura. Because the Lingering Aura is always of the lowest tier of intensity, however, the pally will have no way of knowing what left the aura; without that knowledge, he also can't know how long ago it was left.

There could be lingering auras caused minutes ago by a conjurer using Summon Monster II to summon a fiendish animal (2 hd Evil Outsider = moderate aura) to perform some task. (:

I have a PC who in turn has a War Bull Animal Companion; both are level 5. The bull wears masterwork leather barding. This means that it has a Trample attack, as a Full Round action that automatically delivers 1d6 +10 damage against any Medium or smaller creature.

So he's got a really big side of beef that just squishifies everyone. Let's consider the squishifying part first. Just gonna put on my hat of explicating things like an Outsider:

1. Attacking the full-round action.
A War Bull as a 5th level AC has a Will save of +1 (unless the 4th level stat boost was put into Wisdom, which I doubt.) Slow targets Will, and inflicts stagger condition and other penalties.
Yes, the party can defeat this with Haste; but that means using Haste specifically to defeat Slow, not to haste the party (or to not prepare Haste and instead bring another Fireball on line or somesuch.)

2. ACs can be one-hit "killed" humanely.
Intelligence-damage poison can take them right out of commission. There's the Fort save +7 to worry about, but there are plenty of reasons why bandits and "savages" might not want to kill their targets.
Really, many forms of SoS that attack Will can function similarly, taking the beast right out of the encounter. Don't overdo it, of course. But do keep your Pokemon trainer honest.

3. Attacking mobility.
Fatigue, exhaustion, and battlefield control can make those killer approaches harder to make.

4. Defensive positioning.
Not always feasible, but you can't trample what you can't reach.

It's ok to fudge things, even in a published AP, to tailor them to your party. If the ratfolk is the only one likely to have a use for tech guns, then the party finds a Small weapon where it would have been Medium.

Also, it's tech. Perhaps a variant of option 3 allows the weapon to have modular components that, when swapped out (by, say, a Gunsmith with Technologist,) allows the weapon to change form slightly, becoming optimized for either Medium or Small wielders depending on its setup.

There is a FAQ that covers that; fortunately, the answer to your question is YES.

Pirates of the Inner Sea, Freebooter: A freebooter ranger has quarry but not favored enemy. How does a freebooter use quarry?

A freebooter’s quarry must be the target of the freebooter’s freebooter’s bane ability, rather than a favored enemy.

And given how much stuff Guards and Wards packs into a 6th level spell, you can feel justified in creating all sorts of abjurations of similar but lesser effect :D

New Arcana says to specifically add Sorcerer/Wizard spells... Dandy Rangers cast Bard Spells at a Medium's spell progression. And I get to add Sorcerer/Wizard to this list... like Animate Dead.

I'll admit being wrong as to which spells a Dandy gets to cast - but this is where I point out that bards don't have Animate Dead either. As such, New Arcana still doesn't work, per this FAQ:

New spells known

Also, Arcane Apothesis replaces Metamagic Adept, and you treat your total character level as your Sorcerer level for your VMC Bloodline Powers... thus level 20 character means you are a level 20 Sorcerer for the purpose of Metamagic Adept/Arcane Apothesis. Yay! Fun with VMC...

So then, a semi-related question:

If a non-arcane sorcerer trades their capstone for Unique Bloodline (arcane), would they suddenly have Arcane Apotheosis? Unique Bloodline replaces your capstone with the arcana, 1, 3, and 9 powers of another bloodline, with the powers operating at 20th - so it runs into the same question as with Eldritch Heritage and VMC.

But yes, Diverse Obedience with Fiendish Obedience probably doesn't work. But it's an NPC, and I was going for a specific flavor... I want Evangelist and Sentinel boons, which is not an option with Damned Disciple or Damned Soldier... so I said screw it and gave him Diverse Obedience, and quit beating myself up over it.

Yeah, the Damned feats split them. And yeah, if it's an NPC, you can just house-rule that all Obedience feats (deific, fey, fiendish, demonic, etc) can be used to qualify for Diverse, so that gets around that one nicely :D

It's a frog vampire that is also a Ranger Necromancer. It's hilarious.

That part, I absolutely love. (:

A few problems:

1. SHOW STOPPER:

New Arcana does not allow you to use a spell that isn't on your spell list; and Mediums do not have animate dead on their list. This means that you aren't qualifying for your prestige class.

New Spells Known: If I gain the ability to add a spell that is not on my spell list to my list of spells known, without adding it to my spell list, can I cast it?

No. Adding a spell to your list of spells known does not add it to the spell list of that class unless they are added by a class feature of that same class. For example, sorcerers add their bloodline spells to their sorcerer spell list and oracles add their mystery spells to their oracle spell list. The spell slots of a class can only be used to cast spells that appear on the spell list of that class.

2. Slight error: You don't get arcane apotheosis; VMC doesn't give the sub-class's capstone, just the five features listed.

I could also wax pedantic about Diverse Obedience requiring Deific Obedience (but not allowing the requirement of other Obedience feats), but Damned Disciple is an alternate route into the build. (It just wouldn't accelerate your boons.)

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Potential fixes, from Obediences that actually give animate dead SLAs and therefore no problem with qualifying for your PrC:

Fiendish / demonic obedience (Orcus) has 1x/day animate dead SLA as an Evangelist first boon. (You can also get Power Word Kill this way - and it counts as a necromancy (death) spell, not an enchantment (mind-affecting compulsion).)

Deific obedience (Urgathoa) causes no pedantic problem for Diverse Obedience, and gives you 1x/day animate dead SLA as an Exalted first boon.

Both of these are particularly thematic for a vampire character seeking to become an agent of the Whispering Way.

Praise your new deity, Shivaska, the Chained Maiden, or Yhidothrus, the Ravage Worm! Obey, focus and be rewarded with time stop as SLA at character level 16. Laugh at the wizard who doesn't get the spell yet, laugh at them because you don't have to deal with pathetic verbal or somatic components, laugh at them since they are nothing compared to the glory of your deity! I will now go and collect my agency fees...

Damn, and a Feysworn to Shyka only gets one round of time stop at 14th level, not 1d4+1 rounds at 16. >.<

Why can't two separate schools of magic accomplish roughly the same thing with slight differences?

Slight differences? One respects SR and has no added effects. The other bypasses SR and forces a save against one of the game's more useful conditions (staggered.) Now, if the benefits (SR-bypass, and stagger proc) were split between them, it'd be a different story.

TriOmegaZero wrote:

I can say from experience that the party very much enjoyed encountering the ambushing archers that got away a few levels later when the bard could dimension door the fighters behind them...

I try to have some evidence of the benefits of leveling up at least once per level.

Normally in the form of a bestiary creature that used to be a challenge now just being a minor hindrance to the actual intent of the encounter, or even being come across on it's own and getting stomped into oblivion.

Lets the players feel they're accomplishing things and that they're powerful.

It's also funny when those speed bumps can manage to become serious threats in their own right. A pair of Dire Ferrets would seem to be no obstacle to level 9 heroes, but can outright kill one if it gets a surprise round. It helps when the party has to worry about three and a half tons of fur-duel happening on top of one of their armoured wagons while a blood bramble is trying to eat everything in sight.

(No allied rangers were actually slain in the making of this battle, though she would have been if the ferret had gotten one more turn.)

So let's consider a few of the questions.

1. An exploration of what Racial Heritage does, and a discovery that demands an admission.

It's clear that mythic Racial Heritage allows it. at the cost of an additional feat. As for standard Racial Heritage:

https://paizo.com/threads/rzs429qr?Racial-Heritage#1 - No.
https://paizo.com/threads/rzs2l8ur?APG-Feat-Racial-Heritage#1 - No.
https://paizo.com/threads/rzs2ocwu?Racial-Heritage-Feat#1 - No.
https://paizo.com/threads/rzs2obzt?Racial-Heritage-and-Archetypes - For everything the feat is understood TO do, it is understood to *not* apply to racial traits.

There is an interesting citation which, I will admit, settles the matter on allowing chain-swaps:

Racial subtypes, racial archetypes, and favored class bonuses:

...
Alternate racial traits have the additional requirement of the trait that they are listed as replacing. This means that to choose an alternate racial trait, you must have and give up the listed trait to get the new alternate. This means that in most cases, a half-elf will not qualify for human or elf alternate racial traits.
(There are exceptions to this, however: A half-orc who takes the Skilled alternate racial trait then qualifies for any human racial trait that replaces the Skilled human racial trait.)

An explicit example of a chain swap exists, in the rules.

By the way, half-elves can't take racial heritage (half-orc) because half-orcs count as human and racial heritage requires you to choose a non-human humanoid. Even allowing it, however, you would only end up with a two-feat solution: RH (gnome) to get darkvision, and then RH (half-orc) to be allowed to trade it for skilled. The cost is low light vision and keen senses.

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2. That said, why wouldn't Drow-Blooded or Round Ears allow this?

Because you don't actually have the "darkvision" RT (drow-blooded) or the "skilled" RT (round ears.) You have drow-blooded or round ears.

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3. What about poison minion?

Leaving aside the narrative problem of retraining out of it, each race has a specific path into poison minion. I see nothing that allows you to ignore a step in the process. The retraining rule allows you to do a retrain if what you're going from and what you're going into have a common ground. In the half-orc's case, for example, darkvision and heart of the fields both replace skilled.

But the important distinction here is that the half-orc actually can get skilled; there's no break in the chain from darkvision to HotF. There is a break in the chain from poison minion to inspire imitation if a half-elf attempts it: the half-elf can't actually get the "skilled" racial trait.

You might decide that this doesn't matter, and that "both replace skilled" is enough to justify the move. You might even decide that because the bootstrap is possible, it isn't necessary (and thus, at your table, inspire imitation *actually* replaces keen senses and elven immunities, instead of adaptability as PFS does it.)

I'd sooner keep it simple.

So whenever anything is rolled, and I mean anything, it gets rolled twice, and the higher of the two results is chosen, if playing with simulated good luck, or the lower of the two results is chosen, if playing with simulated bad luck. The chosen type of simulated luck is applied universally, so if the players have simulated bad luck, so does their opposition.

How would you feel about playing in such a game? Assume the type of luck stays the same for the whole adventure, and point buy is used for Ability Scores.

As for me, I'd be down for a universal good luck game. Too often some player has a majority of actual bad luck (sometimes including myself), preventing them from doing anything, so now they can feel like they are making a difference. But I would loathe a universal bad luck game, for the same reasons.

I don't know if I'd want to run an entire campaign with universal advantage or disadvantage, especially on ALL rolls (you're literally doubling the dice-rolling load of every single action). While some might point out that *on average,* advantage on a d20 = +3.325 (based on charting out every possibility and averaging the 400 permutations' outcomes,) we can illustrate the problem a different way.

With a simple d20 roll, each of the 20 outcomes is equiprobable (1/20 = 20/400 = 5%) assuming that the die or RNG is fair. With advantage, each outcome "n" has a (2n-1)/400 chance of occurring.

Let's look at some new probabilities that arise out of this.

- Nat 20: 9.75%.
- 19-20: 19%
- 18-20: 27.75%
- 17-20: 36%
- 16-20: 43.75%
- 15-20: 51%

Every combatant now has Improved Critical, in effect, except that it stacks with Improved Critical. And because the luck isn't limited to d20 rolls, all of those extra crits are now dealing significantly more damage on average, seriously upping the ante on combat.

Mages don't have it very good here. Rerolling 10d6 doesn't produce a dramatic shift (on average) in your fireball damage, which is just gonna get halved because people are rolling much better on their Ref saves. Meanwhile, your save-or-screwball spells are simply failing more often.

That all said, though, having some wild / chaotic location shift periodically between:

- "Good luck" (roll twice keep high)
- "Bad luck" (roll twice keep low)
- "Sleepy luck" (roll THRICE keep middle or majority)

That could be interesting if set up or done right.

Do your PCs ever leave foes dying on the battle map? If so, what do you do, if anything, with these creatures? I personally don't always keep such monsters around but once in a while this is a good way to explain recurring villains or reinforcements or something.

In the game I've been running, no. They do one of two things:

- Kill and burn;
- Surround with an alpha strike readied, revive, and cast Diplomancy. This most typically occurs with animals, and often regardless of what the animal did during the fight.

They don't even allow enemies to be put to flight, because they might simply be going to summon reinforcements. Even if the enemies have limited intelligence and were only attacking for food - the evoker does insist on bringing his predator buffet table... err... wagon of show animals - it can't be that the predator is retreating because the risk (being elemental blasted, spiritual-kukri'd, sworded, or arrowed to death) outweighed the reward (tasty eats.)

You COULD have four hundred arms and seventeen legs, but it doesn't change how you operate. As a Medium elemental with dragon bloodline claws, you have one slam and two claw strikes.

For all the rules care, you could slam with the same arm you use to claw. Rake your opponent with the claw, then come back with a back fist punch for the slam. The slam could also be a kick, headbutt, elbow, shoulder tackle, pretty much anything that isn't a tentacle, wing buffet, or tail slap.

Now, there is a rule that says that a natural weapon can't be used if its limb is wielding a weapon:

Creatures with natural attacks and attacks made with weapons can use both as part of a full attack action (although a creature must forgo one natural attack, be it a claw, slam, or tentacle attack, for each weapon clutched in a limb that would otherwise make a natural attack). Such creatures attack with their weapons normally but treat all of their natural attacks as secondary attacks during that attack, regardless of their type.

But yeah. If your earth elemental form is just a dirty animated statue version of you, you still get a slam and two claws. So you may want to keep it simple :P

Convince your local gnomish gunsmith to build a gatling gun that fires daggers.

Strap daggers to your pauldrons and pretend you're a World of Warcraft character.

Mythic Champions can choose "Fistful of daggers" as a 6th tier ability. As a full attack, you can throw daggers at everything within 30' of you with a single attack roll. Perhaps you won't embarrass yourself with a nat 1 when you do so! (Caveat: this can get expensive, since the attack counts as though from the WORST dagger used.)

I can't think of any off-hand.

Paladins.

- Lantern Archons have 6 Int, even if they gestalt (as Large Air Elementals also have 6 Int.)
- Foo dogs and foo lions also have 6 Int.
- Hiracapaths (from Hell's Vengeance) have 3 Int.

That's just a quick poke of some creatures with the Good descriptor.

Creatures that can gain Celestial template from Summon Monster technically count if the caster is good-aligned; such creatures' alignment is forced to match that of the caster, regardless of Intelligence.