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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?

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.

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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!

So the title should be enough for the question, but here's a specific example that actually came up.

1. Our party has a wand of spiritual weapon.
2. On init 23, I (a sorcerer) have a turn, and successfully UMD the wand to cast it. I don't drop the wand, so it is still in hand at the end of my turn.
3. On init 15 in the same round, the rogue has a turn, takes the wand from me as a move action, and successfully UMD the wand to cast it.

Is #3 a legal turn? If not, what should actually happen?

Quotable / cyan elk version: Does fabricate require one set of "raw materials" or two?

So I was looking over the fabricate spell, and saw this. CRB:

So ALMOST everything about this is clear to me. I get the following.

1. It targets anything other than minerals (eg, stone or metals) at 10 ft^3 (and minerals at 1 ft^3) per level, and has a variable casting time of 1 round per 10 ft^3 regardless of material involved.

2. It turns raw material into mundane Crafted material - and if that material is (per CRB FAQ) subject to a Craft check of 15+, such a check must be made and adjudicated by normal Craft check rules.

3. Fabrication of composite material items is possible (despite a strict reading of "one sort", the FAQ describes a mithral chain shirt and how you supply "mithral and other materials" for the casting).

So there is one thing I'm not sure about: the spell is described (as it was in 3.5) as having a material component. However, it then goes on to describe the material component as though it were really the target material.

SO A QUESTION.

Suppose I want to make a masterwork falchion (375 gold). Do I need only the 125 gold in raw material for conversion, or do I also need another equal amount to burn as a material component? My gut says just 125, but I want to be sure.

In short.

So when we started the 6p game, no one was initially going to play an arcane caster. The GM believes in the archaic paradigm of party balance, so this was important enough to where I decided to fill that gap, and started to roll a gnome earth elemental sorcerer with a ranged touch bias. If I had it to do over again, I would have gone arcanist with the sorcerer bloodline archetype and still chosen earth elemental, because I had a background in mind for it.

While I was doing do, one of the players, who had declared for Swashbuckler, switched to bard in order to "free up my options." However, this didn't help because of two factors:

- The party definitely didn't want me to play a cleric because we have a druid;
- I interpreted "arcane caster" as being full, not 2/3, so bard didn't actually free me up at all.

But I stuck to my guns and built my character.

Level 3 just rolled around, and the bard and druid both took point-blank shot, going straight into my character's design space. Neither has shown any signs of playing a buff/support playstyle (and the other three, being martials, literally can't do so.) In fact, the bard explicitly ignored a battery of support options for his Level 3 L1 spell gain, and took chord of shards so that he could be "more useful in combat." He's got CLW, summon 1, and hideous laughter otherwise.)

So now I'm feeling extra redundant.

Still, I like my character - her mild naivete, her epic pillow punches (seriously, 1d2-3, folks,) her amazing ability to come up with short-sighted plans with the best intentions, and her ongoing search for the mysteries of her bloodline's past and a lifetime of stories to repay her adventurous parents for a wonder-filled childhood. (Yeah, she's got parents who are alive, and occasionally drink potions of minor dream for short, usually irrelevant messages. Or maybe that's just wishful dreaming.)

I'm just not sure that the ray-mage build is the way I should be building her out mechanically. So in a party where you have three martials, a druid and bard who don't want to support, and a sorcerer played by someone who actually likes the support role... what would you do?

(Note that the GM is not using the metagame artifacts, either from being unwilling or unaware.)

Heading off the build question:

So after a failed sanity check on my part concerning the special attacks / spells that target abilities, I ran into a bit of confusion.

Ability drain reduces a stat, essentially forcing a rebuild of the character to account for it, in contrast to the ability damage (which stacks upward like nonlethal damage or negative levels) and ability penalty (a variety of untyped debuffs which work like ability damage.)

So let's suppose I'm a sorcerer, 16th level, 18 Charisma. LOW, I KNOW, but just by way of example. I know summon monster 8.

Now I take some attack that deals 1 Charisma drain, forcing me to rebuild to apply the effects of an actually reduced stat. While I'd say "luckily, it's Charisma, only need to adjust skills," some of us heretics actually cast from Charisma. Heresy, I know.

- Since I'm not allowed to know SM8 at my current Cha score, do I suddenly forget it?
- If I get restorated later on and regain my ability to know 8th level spells, do I "get SM8 back" or am I making a fresh pick, which could include picking SM8 again?

Also, related questions for if a similar thing happened to Intelligence:

- If I get restorated, will the lost skill points go back to where they were lost from, or can they be allocated again?
- Would I lose "knowledge" of the 8th level spells in my spellbook?
- If I get restorated, will I have to go through the spell-learning process in order to regain those spells? And also, would I have to transcribe them into my spellbook?

The sanity check, of course, would be to treat ability drain like permanent negative levels; but that's departing from RAW, and the previous battery of questions is about RAW.

So... while trying to give hopeful advice to someone asking whether infernal challenger should have a would-be Hellknight fighting TWO barbed devils instead of one, my advice was countermanded by a "specific overrides general." So I'm looking for clarification now.

The spell

School conjuration (calling) [lawful]

Casting Time 1 round
Components V, S, F/DF (an iron badge or medallion)
Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Effect one called bearded devil and testing ground; see text
Duration 1 minute/level
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance no

This spell summons a bearded devil, causing it to appear where you designate. The area within a 50-foot radius of where the devil appears is ringed with a smoldering, red glow. This area is the testing ground. To successfully cast this spell, no creature other than the devil’s challenger (see below) can be within this area while the spell is being cast.

On the round it appears, the devil identifies itself (typically by name and with a brief recitation of honors) and states it is prepared to do battle with a sole mortal champion. In the same round, either you or a creature you designate while casting the spell must identify the devil’s challenger. For the duration of the spell, the devil does everything in its power to kill the challenger. You do not control the devil or have any influence over how it conducts itself in battle, but the devil cannot leave the testing ground. Unlike with summon monster and similar spells, you cannot dismiss the devil. Rather, the conjured devil remains until any one of the following criteria is met: it is reduced below 0 hit points or otherwise defeated, its challenger is slain, its challenger leaves the testing ground, or it takes damage from any source other than its challenger. Upon any of these occurrences, the devil vanishes.

Conjuring a devil is typically an evil act. If cast for any purpose besides the administering of a Hellknight test, this spell has the evil descriptor.

The confusion is this.

1. Is the devil considered to be summoned or called?
This matters because bearded devils have a summon ability that can bring forth another of their kind. If the infernal challenger is summoned, then the rule that summoned monsters can't summon should(?) apply; if called, however, it's a different story.

2. Is the spell supposed to be (calling) or (summoning)?
Everything about the description, from having a duration (calls are usually instant) to abjuring the creature at 0 hp (universally true of summons, but definitely not of calls) indicates a summon spell.

Thanks all.

So our GM went for dice rolls (4d6k3) for character generation. The results were, obviously, varied:

- Halfling rogue (10/19/10/18/12/18) - 44(!!) PB equivalent
- Elf druid (10/14/13/18/18/13) - 39 PB
- Human barbarian (18/16/15/12/12/10) - 31 PB
- Grippli bard (8/16/10/12/13/16) - 18 PB
- Gnome earth-elem sorcerer (4/18/12/14/9/16) - 20? PB. The closest PB-legal build would be 22. (Yes, I considered 18->20 in either Con or Cha. High initiative and ranged-touch / crossbow options seemed better.)

That's the rest of the party.

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Our heroine - not my character, I'm the sorcerer - is this:

- Aasimar paladin of Iomedae (11/10/11/12/15/15) - 10 PB.

Blessed with faith and determination, she's bravely faced down our foes with a stout shield and a stout heart... but as you can see, precious little in the way of martial competency. Having survived Assassins, a Ghoul, some Kobolds, a few wild animals, a mighty Hydra, and a gang of vicious Bounty Hunters, we've somehow managed to make it to level 2.

Things will, of course, get rougher. So is there anything we can do to help this noble soul out? Besides confusing her relatively new player with thoughts of (variant) multiclassing or retraining to a more stat-appropriate class, that is. Archetypes, feats, etc?

Or, alternately, is there anything I can do with spell selection etc to help "big sis" thrive and perhaps survive?

Just a couple.

1. When you display Abyssal Rift (or similar flip locations, not that we have any yet) using Planar Tuning Fork, do you get to choose which side is displayed? Or do you use the side designated as the starting side?

2. Does the Fork's power remain in effect if the underlying location is re-opened?

3. If the underlying location has a closed At This Location power, does it remain in effect during the Fork's effect, or is it suppressed by the Fork's effect?

(My thought as to the answers is:
1. The designated starting side.
2. Yes, because nothing says the location card is banished by such an event.
3. Yes, because there's no "instead" used.)

I obtained this product through subscription order; while a great product, it turns out that it's missing a piece.

The card I'm missing is the location Celestial Beacon.

The scenario card lists "Celestial Beacon" as the 2p location; but there was no card by that name in my box. Am I missing a card, or is the scenario card in error?

WotR's second adventure, "Sword of Valor," introduces a unique new Item card, called the Planar Tuning Fork. What it does is weird:

"While at a permanently closed location, bury this card to choose and display a location from the box next to your location; that card does not count as a location. While displayed, treat the closed location as having the displayed card's 'At This Location' power; at the end of the turn, banish the displayed card."

In other words, you bridge the nilspace between where you are and somewhere you'd like to be for a moment. Pretty cool, right? But which locations are useful for this, considering that you need to be at a closed location to use it?

Well, that's what this guide is for: to identify the locations that COULD be useful.

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This is based on an open offer that I made in the blog post, which was responded to by Ilpalazo, to take an arbitrary party through Wrath of the Righteous as a data point for Wrath's difficulty.

The party consists of all WotR set characters: Harsk, Alain, Enora, Balazar, Seoni, and Shardra. Size clearly matters not for this band of heroes. (This is my turn order.)

I am using starter decks out of the book, rather than optimising (eg, taking the Stalking Armours, replacing Poison spells with Acid, etc.) This is from an assumption that new players wouldn't think to optimise and would instead take the book decks as a canon start point.

Without further ado... I do have an AAR for the first scenario already.

Short form: Easy scenario. Seoni and Balazar fared worst on health, due to more aggressive discard use. Blessings deck ran down to 3 due to some late bosses.

Magic armours have this:

"If proficient with [type] armour, you may recharge this card when you reset your hand."

Does this count as playing the armour? This matters for Ghoul Hide, for example, as "if this card has the Corrupted trait, bury a random card from your discard pile or you may not play this card."

Blessing of Pharasma adds 2 dice if a spell is played during the check. Does this apply to powers (eg, Sea Singer Lem) that count as playing a spell, or only to actual spells?

What has me unsure is that in the RPG, spell-like abilities and actual spells have a... complicated relationship.

This has come up a few times for Enora, so I thought I'd just look at the various elemental traits.

Short form:

In the intro, COLD(!) > Force > Fire > Acid >>> Electric >>> Poison.

Long form:

This also represents an apparent contradiction in rulebook instructions, so here goes.

WotR Rulebook p14, on dying:
"The other characters may use the dead character's cards when they rebuild their decks after the scenario; any cards they don't keep are then banished."

p17, on cleanup after a scenario:
"Once you've played a scenario, whether you've won or lost, rebuild your character deck (...) Put all other cards in the box."

p18, Between Games:
"If you have cards left over after rebuilding all of the surviving characters' decks, put them back in the box."

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So if Balazar dies and isn't raised by scenario end, is Padrig "banished" or returned to the box?

(My guess: returned to the box.)

Watching a certain video series and seeing Ranzak in action for the first time, I have an odd question.

Suppose Ranzak and Jirelle are somewhere, and Ranzak explores and pulls an Ambush (or other bane that lets you explore if defeated.) Ranzak evades it onto Jirelle, who defeats it.

Who gets the extra explore?
a) Ranzak because it's his turn;
b) Jirelle because she defeated the bane;
c) Neither (the extra explore fizzles) because Jirelle would gain it but can't use it out of turn.

I *think* it's (c) per this faq; question is mainly to make sure it's not (a).

This came up while considering the metamagic SLA feats - which run into an apparent problem when I realise how Summon Monster scales.

The question is this. Suppose I'm 12th level. Normally, I use the class ability as Summon VI. Can I use the ability as Summon I-V instead of VI for a given usage? Or do I only have VI?

Just pondering this. First, the crazy level 20 blacksmith (or any other craft) build. (Mwk = masterwork.)

Race: Human (note that a gnome gets a +2 racial, BUT...)
-Heart of the Fields racial swap / +10
-Artisan social trait / +2
-Patient Calm faith trait (get 12 on take 10)
-Skill Focus: Craft / +6
-Prodigy / +4
-Master Craftsman / +2
-Mwk tools / +2
-Skill ranks / +23
-34 Int / +12 (17 base, 5 level up, 6 enhancement, 6 inherent)

=+61. I'm sure there are other things we can do with this.

Mundane crafting is a function of the item's DC. While there are some extremes (traps can get as high as DC 45 for example, as can composite bows rated for +15,) most difficult tasks fall into the 20-25 range. A 25 task accelerated to 35 = 2555 (73 x 35) sp worth of work per week.

For armour, it's 10+AC, so it won't even reach 20. Full plate is 2117 sp / wk, requiring the better part of six weeks to craft. The cute irony is that the mwk is easier at 2190, and can be done in a single week since mwk armour is only +150 gold.

While ordinary weapons can practically be mass-produced (1825 sp / wk for martial weapons and crossbows / bolts,) a mwk weapon takes about a week and a half - and basically three weeks for a double weapon.

So the best we can do under ordinary circumstances is 255 gold / wk.

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Magical crafting, at this level... 73 means that we can take an item of CL 18, miss TEN requisites (for +50,) accelerate, and still be assured of success; and our crafting rate is 2000 gold / DAY.

The number of days in a week is defined as seven (cf: downtime rules in UC,) though two of those are defined as "weekend" days and assumed to not be worked.

----

Conclusion:

Common "hard" crafting: 255 gold per week, at a rather high plateau of skill and not reaching for crazy-hard tasks.
Magical crafting: 10k (or perhaps 14k if you push it) gold per week, even for neophyte crafters.

Why is this discrepancy even a thing; and why is it so ridiculously large?

A couple topics have come up about Task-trait barriers, and it got me thinking about what-ifs.

Suppose you have a task (eg, Bucket Brigade) face-up on your location deck. You fail it, then explore again, and find another task (eg, Lookout Duty.) You manage to fail this one too.

1. Both tasks want to be face-up on top of the same location deck. Which one, the oldest or newest, is actually on top of the other?

2. Do subsequent explores in the same turn encounter the other "on top" tasks?

3. If this stack of tasks has multiple start-of-turn effects, do they all resolve, or just the one that's actually on top?

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Simply put: if you get more than one face-up task on the same location, how do you resolve it all?

Short form: Tidepool Dragon says to recharge to add to a check, then roll 1d12; on a 1, banish this card. Since the card is not in hand (having been recharged,) how can it be banished?

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I'm just scouting ahead because the S&S group I'm helping run is about to go into Wormwood Mutiny, and this is bound to come up. I know what the RAI is, but I'm a bit less clear about the RAW after a couple discussions that seem that they might be similar.

Tidepool Dragon's use power reads as such: "Recharge this card to add 2 and the Fire trait to any combat or Perception check. Then roll 1d12; on a 1, banish this card and each character at your location takes 1 Fire damage."

The RAW confusion: how does this banish ever happen?

1. You recharge before resolving Dragon's effects.
2. Then you apply the bonus to your check.
3. Then you roll d12.
3a. On 2-12, you're fine.
3b. On 1, this card is no longer in your hand to be banished, and so can't be banished? Asbestos shields are still required, of course.

Am I missing something?