Seadin's page

Good to know! Apparently I need to double check legal feats more. Thanks guys.

So I really wanted to play a Shaman for PFS, but now that I'm reading the feats in the Advanced Class Guide, I notice that Shamans do not have the domains, blessings, or mysteries to qualify for the feat (unless it has been established somewhere that mystery=spirit.) I was hoping for advice on how I may qualify for Divine Protection while giving up as little Shaman levels as possible.

I too am on the apparently huge Crimson Throne bandwagon. I feel like it was the best urban adventure I've played, and had all the makings of a fantasy drama and action adventure. If they came out with a hardcover I would buy it in a second even though I already played through it.

I don't particularly worry about it, but I'm pretty sure I could come up with a reason why rapiers were introduced into a fantasy world without guns. I'm not sure if they have an official Golarion answer, but if they did it could revolve around nobles wanting a gentlemen sword that is used for sport and isn't cumbersome. The sword does present some advantages in the game mechanics that other swords do not. It is a 18-20 crit range weapon that can be used with weapon finesse. Not many weapons have all that so people can even chalk it up to superior sword crafting.

Sucky PRC with some awesome fluff and potential. Played one back in 3.5 days and the character was amazingly fun, but the class itself sort of falls flat. I'd love to see it remade into a solid archetype or base class that really gives it the attention and uniqueness it deserves.

+1 on the remake. I'd like to see either of those, because the shadowdancer is an awesome concept that doesn't hold up to today's classes. Maybe that Unchained stuff might cover it?

The shadow can be a nightmare to PFS dms, because a lot of powerful creatures like frost giants end up having masterwork weapons instead of magical weapons. Whether that is a good or bad thing is up to you. But with vanishing trick I would suggest that your ninja might not want to take that prestige class unless you really really want to teleport as a standard action through shadows, have a shadow creature, or get HIPS. I think your ninja will get things that will work just as well as HIPS. If you do want to make a shadowdancer, the new slayer class might work especially well with it.

I'd like to request consideration for a book on the noble families of the Inner Sea. There are some snippets here and there about their trades and what they are known for, but unless I've missed something big, I generally have no idea on the patriarchs and matriarchs, the attitudes of the families, how far they stretch from country to country, their holdings, or how their families are organized. Such fluff would help me with some more political intrigue once our Crimson Throne is completed and I imagine could come up in all sorts of games.

Sounds legit to me. Thanks guys.

By the common understanding of the rules, you were informed wrong. it's the act of making a ranged attack that provokes, not the action used. see the scorching ray attack of opportunity ruling for an example. so your swashbuckler should be fine.

i was going to find you a rulebook quote, but the rulebook borked it up and apparently nobody ever noticed: by the rules as written, a ranged full attack doesn't even provoke, only the attack (standard) action does.

You are absolutely right. My page 183 has standard attacks: Attack (melee) no, Attack (range) yes. But under full0Round Action is has Full attack: no. It doesn't specify melee or range like the standard actions do. As far as I can tell, this would suggest that a full round action with ranged weapons provoke no opportunities. I'm now even more confused.

Ah yeah I guess that makes sense that they wouldn't call it out as an exception if multiple range attacks didn't usually provoke multiple AoOs. If it comes up again I'll bring up that faqs. Doubt I'll change minds with it though :(

Edit: By the way while one guy called them "judges" I'm not sure if that's tongue in cheek. I'm not sure how much authority they have but they both are very active in PFS and run a lot of games. I respect their opinions even if I'm not sure if this ruling is correct.

PRD wrote:

Opportune Parry and Riposte (Ex): At 1st level, when an opponent makes a melee attack against the swashbuckler, she can spend 1 panache point and expend a use of an attack of opportunity to attempt to parry that attack. The swashbuckler makes an attack roll as if she were making an attack of opportunity; for each size category the attacking creature is larger than the swashbuckler, the swashbuckler takes a –2 penalty on this roll. If her result is greater than the attacking creature's result, the creature's attack automatically misses. The swashbuckler must declare the use of this ability after the creature's attack is announced, but before its attack roll is made. Upon performing a successful parry and if she has at least 1 panache point, the swashbuckler can as an immediate action make an attack against the creature whose attack she parried, provided that creature is within her reach.

No mention of an attack action at all. You can do a Opportune Parry and Riposte even as reaction to a AoO.

Each melee attack is a valid reason for a parry.

That's what I was hoping for. I'll go with that until someone else gets some judges on me again :P

Multiple AoO against archers using a full attack action:

FAQ wrote:

Ranged Touch Attack Spells and AOOs: When you cast a spell that allows you to make a ranged touch attack (such as scorching ray), and an enemy is within reach, do you provoke two attacks of opportunity?

Yes, you provoke two attacks of opportunity: one for casting the spell and one for making a ranged attack, since these are two separate events.
(Note that at spell that fires multiple simultaneous rays, such as scorching ray, only provokes one AOO for making the ranged attack instead of one AOO for each ranged attack. It still provokes for casting the spell.

This answer originally appeared in the 9/11/12 Paizo blog.

This FAQ clearly say each ranged attack provoke an AoO.

posted March 2013

While I don't really want to defend a ruling that I disagreed with in the first place, I think that the faqs you posted was about two different things provoking rather than multiple attacks. First the casting of a spell which provokes, and the range attack which provokes for another reason. The argument made against me at this convention was that a full round attack is all bunched up into one attack action.

If you have the Combat Reflexes feat, you can add your Dexterity modifier to the number of attacks of opportunity you can make in a round. This feat does not let you make more than one attack for a given opportunity, but if the same opponent provokes two attacks of opportunity from you, you could make two separate attacks of opportunity (since each one represents a different opportunity). Moving out of more than one square threatened by the same opponent in the same round doesn't count as more than one opportunity for that opponent. All these attacks are at your full normal attack bonus.

I think the way that is being translated is that a full round of attacks is considered "one opportunity".

By the common understanding of the rules, you were informed wrong. it's the act of making a ranged attack that provokes, not the action used. see the scorching ray attack of opportunity ruling for an example. so your swashbuckler should be fine.

i was going to find you a rulebook quote, but the rulebook borked it up and apparently nobody ever noticed: by the rules as written, a ranged full attack doesn't even provoke, only the attack (standard) action does.

I was just told by some judges that the full round attack for a bow counts as one provoke, like how moving through multiple threatened squares of one target only provokes once because the whole movement is considered one "action". Because multiple attacks can do various things, such as trip, disarm, attack, I would have thought they each counted but I'm told I'm wrong.

The reason I ask about the parry thing is it sounds like if I activate parry during their iterative attacks, it's my full bab and not their's so it seems like I would have a good chance of parry and reposting. I didn't know if the whole full attack is one action thing might make that illegal. It sounds like not everyone is even on board with that ruling but I'm told that's what the judges said at one Gen Con.

I've made it so that any damage from Serithtial doesn't regenerate, and only Serithtial's damage can take Ileosa to fully lethal. Other weapons can do lethal damage, but they can't finish her off.

That's what I was thinking. Everyone else can help but you would need Serithial to finish her. The group lacks a paladin so whether or not the smite or holy avenger will kill her doesn't come in to play. I was just unclear if anyone else could hurt her or if other weapons do non-lethal damage.

I noticed that it says that the Queen's regeneration doesn't work against Serithtial, but in the Crown of Fang's description it says that only Serithial, a holy avenger, or a paladin's smite can do lethal damage to her. Would that mean that all other damage is considered non-lethal?

Also I was curious if people still used Serithial's weapon shifting abilities from the book. I noticed that they left that part out of the newer artifacts book.

You could try playing up personal relationships with the NPCs in the game. Maybe a player can enroll in Vencarlo's sword classes. Someone can hit it off with Trinia or the guard captain. Book two introduces you to a family in need of help that might warm some people's hearts.

If it helps at all, in the third book of Skulls and Shackles they specifically say you can't take a ten on your climb/acrobatics checks up the mast and rigging because of the stressful nature of a competition that is going on. I would assume that would mean that unless there is an outside complication such as a storm, combat, in this case people heckling you and competing against you, you can take a ten on climbing. That would also tell me that you aren't in too much danger just because you're climbing at a dangerous height.

I was recently informed that combat reflexes would not allow me to attack an archer multiple times when they take a full round action to shoot me multiple times point blank because all of the archers attacks that round are "a single attack action".

Now that I'm playing around with a swashbuckler, I was wondering if that same rule applies for the opportune parry deed. Do I only get to parry once against a full round attack? Can I choose to take the first hit in the face and then try to parry that enemy's -5 bab attack?

At first I was all "Oh hey a paladin who is hiding behind good isn't nice to act like a jerk and is playing lawful stupid." Now with more of the details it sounds like he genuinely has reasons to think you are shady as hell and led them to a death trap. Bailing on people and cutting off their escape route does seem highly suspicious. I tend to play chaotic good roguish characters, and if I had been playing, my character would have settled for giving your character a punch in the face for that. That being said it sounds like the gm had to manipulate events to go their way so really it's the GM's mess to clear up in my opinion.

An examination of what Dou-Bral found that turned him into Zon-Kuthon would be really interesting. Just putting that out there....

I feel like whoever this dm is, they're getting a lot of unfair judgement. They aren't arbitrary trying to punish a player from the sounds of it, but apply a very reasonable rule set the game has. I took the child character section of the Ultimate Campaign books as a means to play a low level adventure where your characters are children who are just beginning to learn whatever in their field. They were shooting for Arya Stark rather than Gara the sand ninja.

If you want to play a child prodigy who is a person of mass destruction and that's what your dm wants to do, which will probably be shot down by a LOT of dms, then fine. But to expect people to just be open minded to your character concept which isn't consistent with the rules or even the setting (Pathfinder is a fantasy game, not a super hero game despite the magic) is a bit absurd. If there are any children of immense power in Pathfinder, which I wouldn't doubt, they are a rare exception. It's like asking to play as the child of "insert god here" but just aesthetically.

Thanks!

I was reading the Avenger archetype for swashbuckler, which sounds like it has a neat Blackjack vibe to it, but I'm unsure about the avenger finesse ability. It say...

"At 2nd level, a mysterious avenger gains all of the benefits of the swashbuckler's finesse class feature, and gains the ability to use a whip in place of a light or one-handed piercing weapon for all swashbuckler class features and deeds. This ability alters swashbuckler finesse."

What I'm unclear about is whether a whip is replacing a one handed piercing weapon, making it so the mysterious avenger can only finesse a whip instead of say a rapier.. or if it simply adds a whip onto the list of things you can use with swashbuckler finesse.

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic-items/wondrous-items/wondrous-items/c-d/cape- of-the-mountebank

Does exactly what he wants and is under 15,000 gp.

I see. In that case I just wish it was less swashbuckler exclusive.

The absurd thing about slashing grace for me is that as far as I can tell, it does nothing to make a slashing weapon a finesse weapon for purposes of attack roll.

I would change it so...

Slashing Grace (Combat)
Prerequisites: Dex 13, Weapon Finesse, Weapon Focus with chosen weapon.
Benefit: Choose one kind of one-handed slashing weapon (such as the longsword). When wielding your chosen weapon one-handed, you can treat it as a one-handed piercing finesse melee weapon for all feats and class abilities that require such a weapon (such as a swashbuckler’s or a duelist’s precise strike) and you can add your Dexterity modifier instead of your Strength modifier to that weapon’s damage. The weapon must be one appropriate for your size.

Otherwise the weapon finesse pre-req is just a wasted feat.

Cayden Cailean is my favorite god in Pathfinder, though I think there is a great selection of deities. While I think Ashiel is being far too harsh on the guy, it sounds like Iomedae would agree on that view point of Cayden 100%. Also since he's the god of freedom, it would make sense to me that he would have the liberation domain, since its subdomain is freedom.

I think with a little modding it wouldn't be too hard to get a NWN2 server going set somewhere in Golarion. There is a guy who does the modding for multiple servers who seems very interested in the rules set, though I obviously can't speak for him. I personally would jump at the chance to play on a server set somewhere like Korvosa/Sandpoint/River Kingdoms.

Despite what the rules under cleric say, in Pathfinder #64 you will find a cleric of Zon-Kuthon who is LN and channels positive energy. Whether this is a special case, the result of his alternate interpretation of his god, or just a mistake, I don't know. But if it was intended, then I don't see why a cleric of Asmodeus couldn't do the same thing.

Seadin wrote:

First of all I'm very disturbed by all the people justifying torture, and fear for my nation :(

I feel that way, too, at least sometimes.

Seadin wrote:

Then again Pathfinder tends to surprise me with neutral alignments where I see evil, and I believe in the Korvosa book, torture was common punishment in the neutral city. Those who think players place too much of the modern world into the fantasy setting may want to take note of that.

Neutral societies are sorta defined by being a mix of Good and Evil stuff. That'd be some of the Evil stuff in Korvosa...and is pretty much only for treason, murder, and rape, anyway. I'm not sure I'd call that common...

Also accidental death. You get branded and imprisoned for trying to unionize. They are a pretty harsh society.

First of all I'm very disturbed by all the people justifying torture, and fear for my nation :(

Besides that, the Inquisitor class seems to give a lot of options for good aligned characters that doesn't include torture. Intimidation being key. A good aligned inquisitor can infiltrate the enemy, detect who is evil, detect lies that the individual is telling, and has a healthy bonus to their intimidate checks. The class pulls off a Batman better than Batman because Inquisitors have magical means to back up the fear they cause. There is no excuse for a good aligned inquisitor to go around torturing people on a normal basis. If you want your game to have a more depressing darker tone, that's your world, but I'd suggest that the normal Pathfinder/D&D alignments wouldn't mean much in such a setting.

I can see a good aligned character doing something extreme, like torture or beating a bad guy to an inch of his life due to very emotional and extreme circumstances, making for a very memorable moment in a game. It would be a dark moment for a good aligned character edging them a little towards anti hero, and possibly an act that could end a paladin's career. Because inquisitors do get powers from their gods and are alignment restricted, I imagine they would have to be careful about this.

Then again Pathfinder tends to surprise me with neutral alignments where I see evil, and I believe in the Korvosa book, torture was common punishment in the neutral city. Those who think players place too much of the modern world into the fantasy setting may want to take note of that.

Something I forgot to mention.... Aren't Aldori dueling swords basically stylized katanas that are possible finesse weapons? In a lot of the artwork I've seen that's what they look like to me. Another reason why I would support katanas in Pathfinder should be finesse weapons via class or feat line.

High charisma and bluff can make a rogue a good feinter. Put some feats towards feints might make you a good team player and earn yourself some decent hits. Working towards some dirty trick feats with agile maneuvers might also help make your rogue interesting and helpful in combat. I always saw Flynn Rider as a good inspiration for a charisma rogue.

The only finesse non-light weapons I know of are the rapier and the elven curved blade. I see where people would ask why an elven curved blade would be finesse and not a katana, and I assume the answer would be the flexible metal used by elves or something like that. A katana is a slashing sword that can be used in one or two hands, so I would put it in the same vein as a longsword and scimitar.

Scimitars CAN be made finesse with the right feat trees, so I would propose katanas have similar options. The Iaijutsu master of 3.0 could weapon finesse a katana, which I noticed was lacking in Paizo's sword-saint class. So I would either suggest a feat line or class ability. I do find the idea of being a swashbuckler with a katana a little silly, so I would encourage a better route, even though the swashbuckler one is valid.

A Ninja/Water Oracle that would drop an Obscuring Mist that only they could see through leaving no one else able to attack.

I played with a ninja who did the same thing in Pathfinder Society. The plan was so he could get sneak attacks with shurikens. Not only did it make it difficult for other players to attack, but he was all too happy to remind my rogue and the other ninja in the group that now we CAN'T sneak attack because of concealment. So +1 on the ninja/water oracle because not only did his tactics not work during that adventure, but he also managed to gimp the entire group.

They do mention them in the third book. If the players defeat the crazy king of Old Korvosa, it leaves a power vacuum that the CS exploits, and they basically run the place. In Bahor's mansion, he has documents of the Society's illegal activities. With those documents, the players can blackmail them. I haven't used them in my game yet, but I plan to at some point. Possibly to reform the guild into a more honorable thieves guild using those documents and backing players up in political dealings.

The star tower and the castle might draw different protagonists. If Scarwall has been cleansed of undead, then the orcs will be very interested in it. The tower on the other hand serves an important function and there are those who would like to see it fall. Mythic Realms contained once such antagonist who had been going around trying to destroy star towers. Goodly characters might find it difficult to accept that the tower and its evil curate are a necessity. All that being said I think it's possible and could make for really interesting post campaign play.

Right now my shadowdancer is a 3rogue/2 fighter/and 5 shadowdancer, so I think that he'd have +2 from arcane strike. He would max out at +3 which I guess makes it as good as weapon specialization. Anyway thanks for the feedback, I'll feel a lot better about using it in PFS now.

Hello, I was told that with new official rules on spell like abilities, my shadowdancer could qualify for arcane strike because of shadow illusion and shadow call. Is this correct? I'd like to just confirm this for my character in Pathfinder Society who I want to be 100% legit.

I'd like some more fiction about Blackjack.

I think that light hearted adventure tends to make us shrug off the terrible implicated realities and gruesome moments Pathfinder and Golarion gives us. A few brief descriptions are easy to over look and under think. Making a super depressing and dark adventure is more about the story and atmosphere, and there are plenty of places on Golarion for that. For example in Crimson Throne, we're on a standard adventure. We don't have to think too hard about what is happening in Korvosa with the Grey Maidens and what happens to the commoners or people who oppose them. What about about Lamm and his gang of kids? It would just take one scene to take him from a cruel villain to something sickening. I think the writers probably limit themselves from certain details for the sake of good taste but as a dm, you're not limited. I recently started a Skulls and Shackles game and let the players be as evil as they want and now usually end up depressed after every game at the monsters they have become.

Sorry I didn't post sooner but thanks a lot for all the very in depth responses. I really appreciate it.

Wouldn't a class that is built to make better use of feints be an good way to make a swashbuckler class? Maybe with their own version of sneak attack that is triggered by feints, and a class ability that at a certain level lets them feint as a swift/free action? Maybe a class ability that makes better use of combat expertise also.

Alright, I'll give it my best shot. Thanks.

Do you guys know if there is a stat block somewhere for a Mythic Great Wyrm Blue Dragon? In my Mythic handbook they only have a red great wyrm, and I'm unsure of myself as far as adding in the template and doing things correctly myself. I didn't know if the bestiary 4 would have mythic dragons but one way or another I'd some day like to throw Kazavon into our game.

Has anyone hit up Genndy Tartakovsky? Samurai Jack and Clone Wars both seem like styles that would work well with Pathfinder. He did have a Dexter episode where they played D&D.

So I started playing Skulls & Shackles with my group. Started off great but now that we started the second book, I found out the hard way that this will not be a swashbuckling adventure but a tragic story about a cruel evil pirate crew that works their way to the top one cruelty at a time. They attacked their first ship and after some especially creative slaughter, not much of the enemy crew was left. Now they want to tow the ship to port to sell it off.

I saw on page 19 that splitting a large enough crew would allow players to pilot ships into port to sell but I don't see anything about towing. I know very little about sea faring in real life, but it seems to me that rolling in with a merchant ship in tow to a pirate port would just make the PCs easy targets to other pirates. I imagine towing would hamper speed and maneuverability.

Has anyone else had players try to do this and are there any suggestion on how to handle towing?

Awesome. I would like to find out more about Lady Seraphina and her future roles in Korvosa.

I think the two options are to either play up the Rakshasas letting the PCs live for later use, or throw the players a bone with some holy piercing weapons. There is the holy crossbow in the mansion. My group had a scythe barbarian, so we just waited for him to crit for 120+ damage every fight.

We had a gnome druid in our party. The dm introduced the PC after we had killed a giant hippo that emerged from the river and started eating people. After we dispatched it for Croft, an angry druid approached us and informed us that the men the hippo killed were poachers and that she was going to have one of her druids "keep an eye on us", and it ended up being the PC. If I remember correctly the Guide to Korvosa mentioned druid activists over near the docks protesting all the fishing, so you could play up the environmentalist idea and have the druid swept up in the affairs of the other players.

If your character will take it upon himself to kill to protect innocent people (like protecting a peasant girl) or to see justice done that wont be done otherwise , even if his methods are shadey, I'd go with chaotic good. If he'd be willing to murder simply to avoid inconveniences I'd go with chaotic neutral. For me it would be if the character is more rebellious hero or pragmatic scoundrel.