Scud422's page

Scud422

Do you know anyone in the US Navy?

Ah.

Also: another interesting option is to take Evangelist and devote yourself to Lymneris. His 2nt boon, which you can get as early as level 11, is you can cast Greater Polymorph once per day on any creature with a duration of permanent until you cast it again. This would be the fastest way to get to BS IV, and can even be taken with nothing but Rogue or Brawler.
What's also cool is that you can use it on your familiar or animal companion to make them an even more bad-assed flanking buddy.
And another note for any build that gives a familiar: the Mauler archetype works well for having a flanking buddy.

@BadBird: Gargoyle is an interesting option. Especially as a possible replacement for Beast Shape I to give you a fly speed instead of pounce when flying might be more useful. At higher levels, I think BS II and III and high level spells may prove better than a bunch of monk levels. You get a bigger boost to your Str and your 8 or 10 tentacle attacks have no penalty.

@Ellioti: That's what Build 1 is, Druid with VMC Rogue and Accomplished Sneak. You can also get another 1d6 by having you and your animal companion take Precise Strike. This also goes for all builds that give you a flanking buddy that can take feats.
Sure, a dex based build can give you decent AC, but when BS III +6 Str, -4 Dex and -2 AC due to size, Str based will let you hit more often and much harder. Hopefully taking out the threat before it can hit you too much.
If anyone can find a tiny or smaller creature with lots of attacks to turn into, let me know. Because then a Dex based build would be so much better when you can grab an Agile Amulet of Mighty Fists.

@Imbicatus: If you can reliably get flanking (which you should be able to), I would say both options are about the same. Jabbing Style can only give +1d6. Jabbing Master changes that to +4d6, but at the cost of heavy feat investment: Jabbing Dancer (kinda neat), Dodge and Weapon Focus: Tentacle (very meh), mobility and feral combat training (almost worthless).
The other problem with Jabbing Style is it will only work with natural attacks that you took WF for. If you find a situation where turning into a Gorgimera might be better, you can't get your jabs in with it.

@Daw: Wut?

Note: I started to write this response a week ago and then got slammed with work.

The problem with Bane is that it can only be used for 1 weapon (or natural attack). It's not like Weapon Focus: Tentacle that gives you a bonus for all your tentacles.

Your suggestion is probably best compared to Build 2 from above.

= Studied target is less than half as good as Mutagen but can be used more often

= Beast Shape I and III at same levels

- No BS II or IV

= Same spellcasting progression, but much different spell list. Don't know which list is better. Probably mostly depends on the rest of the group.

- More feats need to be spent on extra sneak attack

+ Animal companion for flanking.

= Bane and Teamwork Feats instead of Discoveries.

Definitely works as another possible build, but I don't think it stands out as the best of the bunch.

A note on SAD: All the builds need 2 stats. Str primary and spellcasting stat secondary (Int or Wis). Build 4 also requires you to have some Cha, but not much.

Another note fore all the builds: Seems like you can only take Accomplished Sneak Attacker once, but you can still get extra sneak attack dice by "spending feats" on Variant Multiclassing: Rogue.

I have come up with 4 different ways to make a polymorphing sneak attacker and want to get some feedback on which one would be the best. The main idea is to have a char that turns into an animal with a large number of natural attacks to maximize the sneak attack damage output. The big ones at each level being:
Beast Shape I: Deinonychus, 4 attacks, pounce
Beast Shape II: Giant Octopus, 8 attacks, good reach, swim, jet
Beast Shape III: Giant Lake Octopus, Huge version of the above
Beast Shape IV: Sand Kraken, 10 attacks, good reach, constrict

Build 1
Druid (Crocodile Domain)
BS I at 4th lvl; BS II at 6th; BS III at 8th
Pros: Longest use of BS, after lvl 6 you can reliably have it for every fight. You get a familiar that can help you flank. Fastest access to BS.
Cons: No BS IV. Sneak attack doesn't start until 6th. Most of your feats have to be spent on Accomplished Sneak Attacker (you can retrain your old feats to this after 6th to stay full). Has to spend yet another feat on Natural Spell.

Build 2
Alchemist (Vivisectionist, Beastmorph)
BS I at 7th lvl; BS II at 10th; BS III at 13th; BS IV at 16th
Pros: Mutagen for making you super bad-ass for 1 or 2 fights. Mutagen can give your tentacled form flying and pounce without any magic items or extra spells. Access to cool discoveries. Doesn't need to spend a single feat on Accomplished Sneak Attacker like the others.
Cons: Worst spellcasting of the bunch. Very slow to get BS II and up.

Build 3
Brawler 1 (Snakebite Striker, Strangler), Wizard 3 (Transumation: Shapechange), Arcane Trickster for the rest
BS I at 6th lvl; BS II at 8th; BS III at 10th; BS IV at 12th
Pros: Best spell list. You get a familiar that can help you flank. +1 natural attack on top of normal. Cool stuff from Arcane Trickster. Get automatic sneak attack on all grappled targets.
Cons: Worst hit points and BAB. Sneak attack progresses at 1 lvl later unless you spend a 2nt feat on ASA. Can't cast while transformed until you get Tricky Spells at 9th.

Build 4
Brawler 1 (Snakebite Striker, Strangler), Arcanist 4, Arcane Trickster for the rest
BS I at 7th lvl; BS II at 9th; BS III at 11th; BS IV at 13th
Pros: Best spell list with the best way to prepare and cast spells (IMO). Shift Caster lets you cast while polymorphed. 1 extra Exploit and can get more with feats (best ones being Familiar, Dimensional Slide, Quick Study, and School Understanding for Shapechange). Cool stuff from Arcane Trickster. Get automatic sneak attack on all grappled targets.
Cons: Worst hit points and BAB. 2 feats spent on ASA. Everything comes 1 level later than Build 3.

Notes for Builds 3 and 4: They can also get Trapfinding (for Ranged Legerdemain) with Variant Multiclassing: Rogue. Chill Touch and Calcific Touch can also make your natural attacks more effective.

For Infernal Cabalist, I would suggest you either make it require 5 ranks in Knowledge (religion) or grant the boons at 1/4/7 to make it in-line with the other prestige classes.

For Weaver of the Tapestry, I would recommend that you give a type to the attribute bonuses. Probably Enhancement or Moral. You could also add Grapple to the CM list for the tentacles.

I would like to see this as an archetype change to challenge or perhaps a tactic that adds this effect to the challenge:

Challenge – At 1st level, 2 times per day, the fighter can mark an opponent with a Challenge. As a swift action, the fighter can mark an enemy within 30ft. This mark lasts for 1 hour or until the enemy is slain. While marked, the enemy has -4 to attack and -2 to damage when attacking anyone except the fighter. If the enemy moves more than 60ft away from him, the mark is lost. At 6th, 11th, and 16th level, the fighter gains an extra use per day of this ability. At 11th level, the ranges which the mark can be made and which the mark is sustained and lost are doubled.

Also, a note: you changed Bravery to Battle Focus but many tactics in the doc still mention Bravery.

1) I would remove this one. The size modifiers and restrictions make a lot of sense mechanically. A gnome shouldn't be able to grapple a kraken.

2) Sounds fine for the free Greater. If you want the bonus to scale, I would have it start at +2, then increase by 1 at lvl 4 and every 4 after (like power attack), but remove the additional +2 from Greater.

3) I would add "*within reason"

4) I prefer "only provoke on a failed attempt without feat", but this one works too.

5) This is just making rule 2 work for monsters as well.

Shadow Strike

I've been playing a rogue for years, and I never knew that you couldn't sneak attack something with concealment until just now after reading that feat.

Take a look at this thread that was created a couple days ago: http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2tmsb?The-Obedience-Project

Scud422, that seems way more generous than the Commoner class I read (D20pfsrd). Assuming you were only a 1st-level character you would become a 2nd-level Commoner. Definitely not Full BAB, only +1 every even level. Saves are more like 1/3rd HD, so not even a +1 base until 3rd level.

The commoner has 1/2 BAB and 1/3 saves per level. But for every hero level you give up, you get 2 levels of commoner...

Elixir of the Peasantry

When willingly imbibed by any creature with class levels, all non-Commoner class levels are converted into twice as many Commoner levels (max 20). Any levels above this are wasted unless the character already possesses over 20 levels.

The imbiber loses all class skills, features, favored class bonuses, and anything else deriving from their previous classes but may select a new favored class (probably Commoner) and may automatically retrain all skill points and any feats gained from levels, including level 1 (but not any racial feats they may have, including a human's bonus feat).

For any who are curious like me, this is what your new "class levels" would look like in relation to normal class levels.

HD: 2d6 +Con x2
Skills: Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Handle Animal (Cha), Perception (Wis), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), and Swim (Str).
Ranks: 4 +Int x2
Full BAB
All saves are +2/3rds per level

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: The commoner is proficient with one simple weapon. He is not proficient with any other weapons, nor is he proficient with any type of armor or shield.

Special Features:
Gain an additional skill point or hit point per level.
Your HD count as double for all abilities, skill levels and effects.
Gain a bonus feat at 2nt level and every 2 levels thereafter.
Gain a permanent +1 bonus to any attribute at 2nt level and every 4 levels thereafter.

I was also wondering what it would cost to make a similar item, a slotted item that let you polymorph into a Giant Octopus per beast shape II with a command. I don't agree that it should be cost the same as just beast shape 2 on command, as you lose out on a lot of versatility because you can't turn into something small, stealthy and flying.

There's a big difference between "only a panther, and not a bear" and "only a panther, not a bat or shark."

There has to be some sort of discount, otherwise you might as well have it just be Beast Shape II twice per day.

Excuse me while I plug a relevent thread I made a couple months back.

The only way that this makes sense is if it's combined with several house rules that give feats automatically (like power attach, combat expertise, weapon finesse, etc.), or removes feat pre-reqs, and combines feats and feat chains into single feats. (Like I have done for my house rules.)

If that is the only house rule, then it is really harsh and unbalancing.

You will die with a smile on your face.
Sounds nice until you get hit with Hideous Laughter while underwater.

I like it. You could also award them a Hero Point, even if this is the only way they would be able to get them.

I also should have mentioned in my justification for the 25k/12.5k price of the sword that I was going by the rule: "The correct way to price an item is by comparing its abilities to similar items"
+3 magic weapon: 18k, +3k Impervious, +4k Glamered. It's hard to say if the sword is better or worse than a normal Impervious and Glamered weapon, but it's probably on par.

The whole slotless thing is hard to determine. I'm pretty sure that any item that doesn't take a specific spot on the body is considered slotless.
The item slots are: Armor, Belts, Body, Chest, Eyes, Feet, Hands (gloves), Head, Headband, Neck, Ring (up to two), Shield, Shoulders, and Wrists.

Unfortunately, you have the price of the sword wrong:

"Use-activated or continuous: Spell level x caster level x 2,000 gp"
"If the duration of the spell is 1 minute/level, multiply the cost by 2"
"An item that does not take up one of the spaces on a body costs double."

So your crafting cost would be 4 times as much, which would make it cost more than a +10 weapon.

That being said, I could see a +3 Force Sword/lightsaber just costing around 25k base, maybe less.
I wouldn't say that this sword can't be sundered, just very difficult to sunder because you have to target the handle. This is almost equivalent to the Impervious enhancement. This weapon is much more easily concealed, the closest equivalent I can find is Glamored. The downside it has is that it is more prone to Dispel Magic effects as a normal magical longsword would still be a masterwork longsword afterwards.

As far as adding Weaponwand to it goes, that would probably be 8000/4000.

If the main thing you want is for players to be able to use the gates to explore different worlds, than this can be done in many different ways.

Have it be a completely different galaxy that had it's own ancient civilization that set up a gate network.

Have it be a galaxy where some of the seed ships have peppered gates throughout it. This gives the possibility of Destiny eventually showing up.

Have it be the Milky Way, but thousands or millions of years from now. Then it's up to you if the known races are even still around, even humans, and whether or not Earth is accessible as it could be after our Sun goes red giant. Even if Earth and Humanity is dead, Cthulhu would still live :)

With all of the above options, you would have complete control over what technology, if any, they come across and exactly how said technology would function.

43. Sky Jellies: These airborn creatures live their entire lives in the sky and prefer humid areas that have near-constant cloud cover. These gargantuan jellyfish are almost indistinguishable from clouds in their appearance and their mesenchyma is filled with methane gas to keep them aloft. Their sticky tentacles are only strong enough to hold onto insects and small birds as they have difficulty digesting anything larger. Even so, dragons, flying adventurers, and other such creatures have learned to avoid these troublesome creatures as getting entangled in their tentacles can sometimes cause both parties to tumble dangerously towards the ground.

I did something similar in a Starwars Saga game I was running. While exploring the outer regions, I had them come across Destiny while everyone was still in stasis and slow-rolled what the ship was as much as possible. It was pretty fun watching them freak out about how the ship was heading straight towards a very close star and trying to explain that to the one awake crew member (Eli Wallace) without a common language.

I always liked the idea that Earth and Golarion are in the Milky Way because we know that Cthulu and the other great old ones are in the Pathfinder universe. However, keeping Golarion completely separated from the rest of SG cannon would be very infeasible. So here's my suggestion:

Use SGU after the series finale. The ship eventually reaches a new galaxy. After it refuels on Golarion's star, it wakes up the crew from stasis. That's when the crew notices the sensors going nuts as it scans a nearby planet in the system. Not finding any gates on the planet, they decide to park Destiny in orbit and send an expedition crew in a dropship.
This puts 2 needed limits on the technology. The limit on technological devices themselves as the only stuff that exists is what came on Destiny. And a limit on how long devices last because everything would probably have to be recharged from either Destiny or the dropship itself.

From here, you have several possible options. The game starts some amount of time after the above events, after the crew has made relations with one of the countries.

Alternately, you have the party encounter the dropship as if a random encounter, or you could start the game with the dropship encountering a group of heroes (that way you could have a player play as an Earthling). King Maker might be a good campaign for this as it would have the players' actions determine the relationship between the crew and Golarion.

If you want some inspiration on how to have high technology act with fantasy, I would recommend checking out the Galactic Mage book series.

For the ability swapping thing, I have a house rule for the Adopted trait. Instead of getting a racial trait of your adopted parent's race, you can choose this:
"Choose one of your +2 or -2 racial ability score adjustments, swap it for an adjustment of the same value that is granted by your parent's race. This does not allow you to get a +4 to a score, but this can allow score adjustments to cancel out.
For example: a Gnome raised by Dwarves could have -2 str, +2 con, +2 wis / -2 str, +2 wis, +2 cha / or just +2 con."

Tetori monk who wears a robe, carries a bag of books, crossbow and staff. Talks to his pet cat, laughs like hell when people rush the "wizard" and grab him so he doesn't cast.

For extra fun, add 2 levels of Aberrant Aegis for Surprise Tentactles!

32. Tree Octopus
The Tree Octopus (Octopus paxarbolis) can be found in temperate rainforests. These solitary cephalopods reach an average size (measured from arm-tip to mantle-tip,) of 30-33 cm. Unlike most other cephalopods, tree octopuses are amphibious, spending only their early life and the period of their mating season in their ancestral aquatic environment. Because of the moistness of the rainforests and specialized skin adaptations, they are able to keep from becoming desiccated for prolonged periods of time, but given the chance they would prefer resting in pooled water.

An intelligent and inquisitive being (it has the largest brain-to-body ratio for any mollusk), the tree octopus explores its arboreal world by both touch and sight. Adaptations its ancestors originally evolved in the three dimensional environment of the sea have been put to good use in the spatially complex maze of the coniferous Olympic rainforests. The challenges and richness of this environment (and the intimate way in which it interacts with it,) may account for the tree octopus's advanced behavioral development.

Reaching out with one of her eight arms, each covered in sensitive suckers, a tree octopus might grab a branch to pull herself along in a form of locomotion called tentaculation; or she might be preparing to strike at an insect or small vertebrate, such as a frog or rodent, or steal an egg from a bird's nest; or she might even be examining some object that caught her fancy, instinctively desiring to manipulate it with her dexterous limbs (really deserving the title "sensory organs" more than mere "limbs",) in order to better know it.

Tree octopuses have eyesight comparable to humans. Besides allowing them to see their prey and environment, it helps them in inter-octopus relations. Although they are not social animals like us, they display to one-another their emotions through their ability to change the color of their skin: red indicates anger, white fear, while they normally maintain a mottled brown tone to blend in with the background.

The reproductive cycle of the tree octopus is still linked to its roots in the waters of the Puget Sound from where it is thought to have originated. Every year, in Spring, tree octopuses leave their homes in the forest and migrate towards the shore and their spawning grounds. There, they congregate (the only real social time in their lives,) and find mates. After the male has deposited his sperm, he returns to the forests, leaving the female to find an aquatic lair in which to attach her strands of egg-clusters. The female will guard and care for her eggs until they hatch, refusing even to eat, and usually dying from her selflessness. The young will spend the first month or so floating along currents, sometimes traveling hundreds of miles before eventually moving out of the water and beginning their adult lives.

Shoggoth.

Either that or a Ghost Wizard.

138. The bean grows into a seemingly kind jellybean monarch with some horrific side hobbies, but let's put that aside because the people will "get more from the idea he represented than from the jellybean he actually was."

I see what you did there.

I like it!

Actually... There is a feat called Inscribe Tattoo that basically allows just this. And more!

I know. The point of the house rule is so that the characters don't have to take an extra feat. Also, the feat doesn't allow magical tattoos to be used in conjunction with magic items (no arm tattoos with bracers) while the rules I posted do.

Speaking of bracers, forgot to put that into my list:
Sleeve Tattoos per rules and pricing of Bracers of Armor.

75. A 5-foot radius depression is formed in the ground that deepens by 5 ft. each round. Treat as Create Pit with a DC of 10 + 1/10' deep. The pit evolves into the following spells at the indicated depths: Spiked Pit at 30', Acid Pit at 50', and Hungry Pit at 100'

76. Blood Mist, DC 1d8+21

77. BEES!!!

That sounds like a fine balance because if you do the math for the Automatic Bonus Progression, the bonuses it gives is the equivalent of 50% of the gold for that level in slotted items but without actually taking up item slots.

Here's another optional house rule you could use that would be limiting in one way but more freeing in another:
Anyone with Craft Wondrous and 1 rank in Craft: Tattoo can make any of the following tattoos. These tattoos don't take up any item slots on the body, but a person can only have one of each of the tattoos. Back Tattoo per rules and pricing of Cloak of Resistance, Chest Tattoo per rules and pricing of an Amulet of Natural Armor, Head Tattoo per rules and pricing of any of the mental stat boosting headbands, and Waist or Lower Torso Tattoo per rules and pricing of any of the physical stat boosting belts. In addition, anyone with Forge Ring and 1 rank in Craft: Tattoo can make a Hand Tattoo per rules and pricing of a Ring of Protection.

4. Black Tentacles with a CL of 1d6+6

5. Greater Black Tentacles with a CL of 1d10+10

I started typing out these suggestions as I read through the talents. I haven't had the time to go through all of them yet (I only really check these boards while at work), but here are my notes so far:

Trapfinding: I would make the counterspell ability be it's own talent that requires Spelltheft, have it use Spellcraft, require a prepared action, and up the DC to 20+CL. The reason for the bumped DC is casters only get 1d20+CL vs 11+CL.

Triple jointed: Freedom of movement is a really powerful ability. I would make this minimum level 8 or 10.

Battlefield Medic: I would not have treat deadly wounds take any less time than 1 minute. A swift action for a normally 1 hour action is insane, no matter the effect.

Ace Knowledge: I would make the Lore Master ability a second tier talent requiring Ace Knowledge first. The third ability basically allows the Ace to pay 1/5th the cost for scrolls, so I would try to find a way to scale that back.

There's some REALLY broken stuff in there.
First, I would just have fate dice say: "you can add a fate die to any attack roll, skill or ability check, saving throw, damage roll, or caster level check. You can add the die after your roll, but before you know the results of the roll." That pretty much covers everything that you would want to add a die to.
For regaining fate dice, it should only be on certain rolls and there should be a way to stop someone from filling their pool back up by attacking a tree for a minute.
Paragon is insanely powerful. I would expect something like that to be the lvl 10 capstone of a prestige class.
Cheat fate: at level 20, guarantee a crit with a keen weapon. Even for level 20, that seems pretty powerful.
Savant is super broken. I would have the lvl 10 ability as written be the lvl 20 ability and drop 10 to 1/4 or 1/3 and remove the prestige class clause.

This sounds similar to a house rule I made for a Barbarian's rage.
I wanted a rage that was more akin to the hard to control rage that takes you over that you see in most works of fantasy.
Feel free to steal this and/or modify it to work for your caster:

Something I want to do with my games is have them tell me what they want their alignment to be and then put their character through a very simple scenario:
"You're in a shop in the equivalent of a Mall. The owner just stepped into the back and the only other patron just walked out the door heading to the right. You see a coin pouch lying on the ground, probably belonging to the man who just left. What do you do?"
Their actions will help determine what their alignment actually is and then make their alignment somewhere between the outcome and what they initially wanted.

I always run alignments where Evil is Selfish, good is Selfless (or altruistic), and illegal acts are chaotic.
For those interested, here are some possible outcomes for each alignment:

A long time ago I came up with the idea of a Cleric of Gygax. I got the idea of a follower of the DM after making an Evangelist with the Deific Obedience feat.
This is what inspired me to finally getting around to making a full write-up on these forums.

Say you have a player who wants to be Meta or you want to have the party come across a crazy priest of "The almighty DM! The one true god that controls our actions and determines our fate!"
What would your Deity entry look like and what boons would you grant with Deific Obedience?

Here's mine:

Shiv of Healing
This +1 Brilliant Energy dagger has a base damage of 1d4 no matter the size and deals an extra 1d6 points of positive energy "damage" on a successful hit. The positive energy heals living creatures hit.

Note: "A brilliant energy weapon cannot harm undead, constructs, or objects."

Something I throw into each of my games:
Shoes of immortality
These hideous toe crocs halt the aging process of any who wear them, but only while wearing them. However, the natural healing process is also halted while wearing them and thus the wearer does not regain any hit points when resting. In addition, the sight of the crocs impose a -1 penalty to most charisma based checks the wearer attempts.

I would probably price this at 2000.
I wouldn't go to overboard with the price because the same basic thing can be accomplished by duck-taping 3 rods end to end...

I came up with a similar but more versatile item:

Staff of holding

What counts as a Natural 20 on a d24 or d30?

-

-

Die: d20 --- d24 ---- d30
Crit : 20 ---- 24 ---- 29-30
---- 19-20 - 22-24 - 28-30
---- 18-20 - 21-24 - 26-30
---- 17-20 - 20-24 - 25-30
---- 15-20 - 18-24 - 22-30

This puts all the crit ranges within 2% chance of the original.

I had another idea for a feat.

Hat Trick
If you miss on your attack roll, then the difference between your natural roll and 20 will be added to your next attack roll; if you roll a Nat 1 for instance, then you will get a +19 bonus on your next attack roll. If you get a Nat 14 and still miss, then you only get a +6 bonus on your next attack roll; these bonuses are not cumulative.

For most characters most of the time, this might as well read: if you miss your attack, your next attack will hit.

Vault 88:
"What is the natural rhythm of humans?"
The vault contains no clocks or any form of time-keeping devices. This, combined with the vault's complete detachment from the outside world, will test to see if humans keep the standard 24 hour cycle or if their wake/sleep cycle stabilizes at a different time frame.

Vault 89:
"How malleable is the rhythm of humans?"
All clocks and timekeeping devices start slowing down ever so slightly and eventually stabilize after 40 years so that a 24 hour clock actually takes 30 hours to complete a cycle. The slowdown is equivalent to making each day 1 second longer than the last. Record how a 30 hour sleep/wake cycle effects the psychology and productivity of the different generations.

Suggestion: have the uses/day be the total minutes active per day just like a Barbarian's rage is rounds per day. Or increase the uses to 3/level but have it cost a number of uses equal to the spell level.

I like the idea of having the PCs come up with the activities themselves, buy you could also have NPCs available that have some ranks in Profesion to help train the PCs in exchange for favors/bribes/really good diplomacy or intimidate checks.
Options: Profession: Boxing, Basketball, or other sports; could be used to train up Str, Dex or Con.
Profession: Teacher; for Int, maybe also Wis.
P: Games (chess, cards, etc.) for Wis.
P: Public speaking, Acting, Debate, or Singing for Cha.

Suggestion:
Ability Training
Choose the ability score you wish to increase. The amount of time you need to spend on training that score equals the current score divided by 2 in days [or weeks, depending on how much time they have in the prison]. At the end of the training period, you roll 1d20 with no modifiers (unless you have a trainer, see below) with a DC equal to your current ability score +3. If you succeed, you gain a +1 inherent bonus to that ability. This can't raise a score above 18 unless that score also has a racial bonus, in which case the max is 20 (or 22 for a +4 bonus). [Note: inherent bonuses cap at +5]

Another can attempt to give an aid bonus (+2) by succeeding at an ability check or an appropriate profession check with the same DC. The trainer needs to spend all of the training time with the trainee but can simultaneously aid a number of trainees equal to their modifier in that ability (min 1) or their ranks in profession.

When I saw Bayonetmancer, I was expecting something like this.

You could make it a Familiar Archetype that replaces Deliver Touch Spells at 3rd level with something else.

I didn't know about the Raktavarna... I'll have to make a note of that.