their racial favored class benefit for rogues is either +1 skill rank in stealth or ride, this seems odd to me because the standard favored class bonus is either +1 rank to a skill of your choice. Was this meant to allow more than the skill cap allows? or should it have been errata'd that they don't have a favored class for rogues?
Not sure what that design was about, honestly. (shrug)
What book are you getting that from?
'
Goblins of Golarion; page 31. Under Favored Class Options
Rogue: Add +1 skill rank—this skill rank must be spent
on Ride or Stealth.
Hmm. That seems silly. But then... goblins are silly too at times.
HAHAHA that they are :) just wondering if you had a Point of View on the subject.
their racial favored class benefit for rogues is either +1 skill rank in stealth or ride, this seems odd to me because the standard favored class bonus is either +1 rank to a skill of your choice. Was this meant to allow more than the skill cap allows? or should it have been errata'd that they don't have a favored class for rogues?
Not sure what that design was about, honestly. (shrug)
What book are you getting that from?
'
Goblins of Golarion; page 31. Under Favored Class Options
Rogue: Add +1 skill rank—this skill rank must be spent
on Ride or Stealth.
Hey james! question regarding goblins!
their racial favored class benefit for rogues is either +1 skill rank in stealth or ride, this seems odd to me because the standard favored class bonus is either +1 rank to a skill of your choice. Was this meant to allow more than the skill cap allows? or should it have been errata'd that they don't have a favored class for rogues?
Odd question here JJ: Would it be out of the realm of possibility to use Weapon Training for a weapon like spell? I know in the ruling you can use things like weapon focus and weapon specialization but there isn't a category for spells in the standard fighter array. How would you rule on that aspect?
As referenced in Book of the Damned-Volume 3, Horsemen of the Apocalypse;
There is a spell called Charon's Dispensation, short and sweet makes you immune to the poison, memory-stealing, and soul leaching powers of touching/drinking the water. But I cannot find statistics on the river or its qualities anywhere. Can anyone help me out?
i have a question in regards to feinting in combat vs foresight. We were in the air, thinking that you KNOW that you are going to be attacked, but you can't defend yourself because it isn't specific, just letting you know you are in danger. how do you feel on this one?
Question came up in game last week regarding Foresight vs Mindblank, i do believe tarzan was the one that asked the question a few pages ago. The question wasn't regarding the mindblank, the question was in regards to feinting in combat. We were in the air, thinking that you KNOW that you are going to be attacked, but you can't defend yourself because it isn't specific, just letting you know you are in danger. official word on this one?
asking one of my players, they did present the logic/vs game mechanics.
he did point out however, that it does not need to be anchored to any surface, and therefore could be floating at the height of the reverse gravity, making all of this angular nonsense a moot point. ><
well, looking at it objectively, as long as it is at or above 45 degrees in a vertical angle, it is still classified as vertical, rather than horizontal. its either that or place it against a wall behind them and telekinesis the players through it(i play with a bunch of power gamers and i do not believe karzoug will even scratch them unless they need to make a lot of saves, thus i want to make prismatic wall effective.
My players are on the final stretch of RoTRL, and prismatic wall...man is that mean. But how to best effectively use it?
The spell says it is a vertical wall, but may it be placed at a vertical diagonal with a corner? it doesn't have the same restrictions as the wall of force needing solid, unbroken ground. so if you placed it in a corner would it work coming up at say... a 45o angle? My plans are to reverse gravity on a player or two if placement works, and have them fly up racing into a prismatic wall.
simply put, conjure doesn't work. D.Door and teleport do because they are effecting you rather than the space outside, as someone has already put out there, line of effect blocks all spells unless the spell directly says otherwise.
I agree with you here, which is why i was looking for a little clarification, 200hp wont even drop a decent tank character at lvl 20, so thats why i was under the impression it was 1 target per level for full damage.
True, but often spells are cast later in combat after said tank's been doing his job and is all beat up...
darnit! lol. in 3.5 when wail of the banshee was save or die makes for a mean tactic anytime in combat.(especially when karzoug casts it the first round outside of timestop in RoTRL) :P
Luckily, I have had players in my game take these templates and I have a solution that many agree with.
for example,
1/2 celestial
CR: HD 5 or less, as base creature + 1; HD 6–10, as base
creature + 2; HD 11 or more, as base creature + 3.
when the player is 1st level through 5th, *HD*
treat them for gaining levels as if they were 1 level higher, or CR
so in this experiment, when they reached enough XP for them to reach 7th level, they would in fact be 6th.
once they have their 6th HD, treat them as if they were 2 levels higher, ext for 11+
So unless you go epic or *mythic*, your character with the template will be 17th level in his class when the party gets to THEIR 20th level.
Unless you are going with the 3.5's Unearthed Arcana(D&D) optional rule on page 18 to be able to "buy off" level adjustments.
Reducing level adjustment rules:
Table 1–1: Reducing Level Adjustments
Starting~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Number of Class Levels Necessary for
Level~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Level Adjustment Reduction
Adjustment~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~(Not Including Racial Hit Dice)
+1~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~3
+2~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~6, 9
+3~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~9, 15, 18
+4~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~12
+5~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~15
+6~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~18
EXPERIENCE POINT COST
Each time a character’s level adjustment is eligible to be reduced,
the character may pay an XP cost to take advantage of the reduction.
The character must pay an amount of XP equal to (his
current ECL – 1) × 1,000. This amount is immediately deducted
from the character’s XP total. The deduction should reduce the
character’s effective character level (ECL) by 1. (If this deduction
would not reduce the character’s ECL by 1, the character’s
XP total is set at the maximum of the level below his current
ECL instead.) This XP cost can’t be reversed in any way, and the
payment must be voluntary on the part of the character.
Notice in the above rules how you can only buy off 1 level if it is a CR+4 or higher.
Wail of the banshee; does 10 pts of damage per caster level to 1 target/2 caster levels but those closest are effected first....
does that mean that the total is limited to say...200hp divided amongst the targets? or does it do 200/target and just effects those closest first?
Wail of the banshee inflicts 10 hp per caster level in all. It basically starts chewing through enemies, starting with the one closest to you, and then working its way out until it only does partial damage to the last victim. This does mean that the more folks who make their saving throw to halve the damage, the further the wail gets, which is weird.
Eh? It has been nerfed beyond oblivion from a spell that would have been a serious danger for a high level party.
A level 9 spell that do 200 hp of damage is little better than a harm spell.
I had always read it as: "it do 200 hp of damage to each target up to to 1 target level".
It has a Fortitude save to negate all the damage and with the hp of most characters at the level at which they will met it WoB is hardly a Save or Die spell.
With a cap of 200 hp as total don't seem much more than a glorified Circle of death. Level 7 at most.
I agree with you here, which is why i was looking for a little clarification, 200hp wont even drop a decent tank character at lvl 20, so thats why i was under the impression it was 1 target per level for full damage.
Wail of the banshee; does 10 pts of damage per caster level to 1 target/2 caster levels but those closest are effected first....
does that mean that the total is limited to say...200hp divided amongst the targets? or does it do 200/target and just effects those closest first?
I just got back from watching Paranormal Activity 3. Although it was more of the same as the first two, I still enjoyed it a lot.
I have a question, is it cruel to unleash an invisible monster on my PCs, that stalks them and tosses them about just when they think it's safe to camp?
If you have access to a few books i can tell you for a fact no!
In the forgotten realms module "shadowdale, the scouring of the land"
there is an encounter called Killers in the night(4cr above the pcs)
2 banestalkers.(invisible stalker, beasts of bane) they attack when the pcs are sleeping and target the same creature to feed on. performing a coupe de grace on a character. if he dies, 50% chance even a wish or miracle won't work to restore life.
sorry to ask more rule questions, and I promise I can harass you with my off-topic non-sense with my next few posts, as to a question on Alchemist bombs...in particular the Stink bomb.
They do damage in addition to their extra effects? I have some players asking due to the "can chose to have it create a thick cloud of smoke when it detonates" is too similar to say, the frost bomb "can chose to have it deal cold damage". Some think it does not do damage, but makes the spell effect in the area. What is your wording on it?
and let's see.....
If you were to be given the chance to play a character with perfect stats, what would you play? would you go into any prestige classes? wierd backround? and why
My player loves to use the spell Emergency Force Sphere from the book
Cheliax, Empire of Devils. Making a wall of force around himself.
In D&D there were heavier descriptions on the effects of a spell and how it originates and casts. Like fireball how it is a bead.
Now, inside the bubble...is it possible for him to cast outside? like summons or other effects? RAW says no to it all, regardless of how it originates...and the players are a tad annoyed that I am playing it how it is written, because it was different in D&D, Final word?
A bubble of force blocks line of effect.
If a spell requires line of effect, it's blocked.
If it doesn't say, the GM gets to decide.
For instance, Summon monster I, my player says that the summon can happen outside. how would you rule that?
Line of Effect: A line of effect is a straight, unblocked
path that indicates what a spell can affect. A line of effect is
canceled by a solid barrier. It’s like line of sight for ranged
weapons, except that it’s not blocked by fog, darkness, and
other factors that limit normal sight.
You must have a clear line of effect to any target that you
cast a spell on or to any space in which you wish to create
an effect. You must have a clear line of effect to the point of
origin of any spell you cast.
A burst, cone, cylinder, or emanation spell affects only
an area, creature, or object to which it has line of effect
from its origin (a spherical burst’s center point, a coneshaped
burst’s starting point, a cylinder’s circle, or an
emanation’s point of origin).
An otherwise solid barrier with a hole of at least 1
square foot through it does not block a spell’s line of
effect. Such an opening means that the 5-foot length of
wall containing
the hole is no longer considered a barrier
for purposes of a spell’s line of effect.
My player loves to use the spell Emergency Force Sphere from the book
Cheliax, Empire of Devils. Making a wall of force around himself.
In D&D there were heavier descriptions on the effects of a spell and how it originates and casts. Like fireball how it is a bead.
Now, inside the bubble...is it possible for him to cast outside? like summons or other effects? RAW says no to it all, regardless of how it originates...and the players are a tad annoyed that I am playing it how it is written, because it was different in D&D, Final word?
OK, I have had the EXACT same problem with my players. Sometimes it's not
"why would I be $X behind other players" sometimes the party doesn't roll alot of useful gear, so when a character dies, he comes in at that level with everything they needed...or sometimes when a character, say a social rogue, is in a dungeoncrawl environment, he jumps headstrong into combat to die and create a fighter-type.
I have made it a solid rule in my games, seeing as how you can negate the negative level penalty by using restoration spells...If you want to create a new character, then you come in at one level lower than the average party level. if they are 1st level, you come in with a -2con.
much to the same effect that AD&D 2nd edition did with dieing. The players should feel SOMETHING for their characters....the loss of a 12th level character they have built backstory on since 1st level should have more impact than...oh well time to roll up a new guy to kick it with you adventurers, ext.
keeps the RP up as well as making the players connect with their characters.
Even better, you could play the kind of character you never could because of a fear of being too weak. Someone's already playing a theurge, so maybe a gnome duelist? Crossbowman? That commoner build you've been dying to try out...?
Hope I've given you a few ideas, at least.
I do believe you have. I think for the most part, a halfling duelist intrigues me greatly, and with straight 18s i can do it well, start off in dervish dancer archetype for the bard...im liking this more and more.
I didn't care too much for the Binder class myself, the only time I really went looking at it was when I made an abomination warlock build a few years back.
taking a feat in the book with the binder to bind the first level spirit that regens 1 con damage per round.
shooting off 24d6 hellfire blasts per round.
that aside, i haven't looked too far into the Incarnate, they gave me a "bleach" anime feel with the whole spirit energy ext. I will definatly take a look.
I actually was considering going commoner/survivor(from Savage species) into chameleon.....does EVERYTHING decent and doesn't have an expertise. with a lot of defensive capabilities.
All 18s, so no reason not to go for any possible class.
Starting with 3.5 characters, and changing/rebuilding when switching to PFRPG, or starting PFRPG?
Any limitation on splat books?
Marshal from Miniatures Handbook for 3.5E.
Tank Fighter for PFRPG. Consider Combat Patrol.
Consider the Fauchard (Classic Horrors Revisited, I think) and material Silversheen for it (Osirion). That gives you a Reach weapon with Trip, 18-20 crit range, acts as silvered without the damage penalty, and immune to rusting effects.
If your WbL covers it, go for Celestial Armor, but make sure you discuss ways to upgrade it with your GM. Otherwise, if going PFRPG Fighter, consider Mithril Full Plate.
he is allowing 3.5 and pathfinder mixed. i was debating fighter going into disciple of dispatr scythe fighter. but i have too many ideas ><
OK, to put a long story short...I have been running RoTRL for almost a year. the campaign is finally comming to an end and it is my turn to take a step back and let someone else in my group GM for a while. We have a funny way of rolling stats for this particular GM. He has himself a D30 and he adds 78 to the total and has us use a 1for1 pointbuy system(10 points for a 10 stat) capping at 18. This allows for moderate to high powered players(1+78=79 roughly 13s in all stats and 1(14). the other players rolled between 4<our rogue> and 17<the mystic theurge> I was fortunate enough to hit that 3% roll...and landed myself 30. straight 18s.
now, the UNfortunate part....what to play????
I've been running for soo long it is a tad difficult to determine what to play.
we are level 6, and the classes for others is as follows.
Rogue(skill junkie)
Monk(tripping professional)
Cleric/wizard/mystic theurge(casting genious and magic item crafter)
so...what to play? the setting is 3.5 Forgotten realms and we are going through the year of blue fire, and the end will end up in the Pathfinder world. any help would be amazing.
one of the things i did like about 4e D&D was passive perception rolls.
in my opinion, i wouldn't roll each players perception and/or sense motives. If the players choose not to actively roll, then i sometimes will take a 10 as their passive rolls. much to the same effect that 4th edition does.
In my opinion, you should go with a straight staff magus. you can get weapon spec pretty early and if your GM is allowing outsourced materials...check out AEG's FEATS, in there is a feat called Bo Master.
Bo Master:
BO MASTER [GENERAL, FIGHTER]
You have mastered the art of fighting with a quarterstaff,
learning to meld strength and speed together.
Benefit: You may add your Dexterity bonus to your
attack and damage rolls with a quarterstaff. In addition, on
a successful critical hit, your critical hit multiplier is
increased by 1. Thus, a normal quarterstaff has a critical
hit multiplier of X2. With this feat, the multiplier
becomes a X3.
Hey James, Awkward rules question here and me and my player's want to know how you would handle the situation.
Say there is a Bard who wishes to take the Dervish Dancer(ultimate combat)
and the Dawnflower Dervish(inner sea magic). The question brought up to me is regarding the two abilities from each, one being ** spoiler omitted ** and the Dervish Dancer ability ** spoiler omitted **
Both of which give up the ability to use the dirge of doom power. big no-no, but if you say had the ability twice somehow(as per the Doomharp magic item from the Advanced player's guide) would you be able to take both? Granted if you lost access to the magic item you would loose out on one of your Archetypes until you got it back? its in the gray and wanted to see how you would answer. In my opinion, I look at it along the same lines as having a magic item that gives you a feat(there are several that give you two weapon fighting for example) to qualify for a prestige class or needed as prereqs....
I'd say no—a generous GM could certainly say yes, but those two archetypes are pretty similar (in fact, almost TOO similar, it was almost a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand was doing), and as such taking both would be almost like a fighter "multiclassing" into fighter. In other words... the bard should pick one of the two archetypes and go with that.
OK, on that note, would you find that there would be a way for a bard to gain one of the low level class abilities of one without having to take the entire archetype? for example rogue's evasion. The player is really interested in gaining the 1st level ability of the dawnflower dervish to be able to double the morale bonus of his inspire courage. but the rest of the archetype doesn't do much for him
Hey James, Awkward rules question here and me and my player's want to know how you would handle the situation.
Say there is a Bard who wishes to take the Dervish Dancer(ultimate combat)
and the Dawnflower Dervish(inner sea magic). The question brought up to me is regarding the two abilities from each, one being
Meditative Whirl:
At 8th level, when using battle
dance, the Dawnf lower dervish can enter a trancelike
state where his spinning motion represents the
movement of the planets around the sun, and his
spirit is attuned to the healing aspects of Sarenrae. By
spending a move action focusing on his whirling, the
dervish can apply the Quicken Spell feat to any cure spell
he is about to cast (effectively spending a move action
and swift action to cast the spell). This does not alter
the level of the spell or the casting time. The dervish
can use this ability once per day at 8th level and one
additional time per day for every two dervish levels he
has beyond 8th. This ability replaces the dirge of doom
bardic performance.
and the Dervish Dancer ability
Razor’s Kiss:
Razor’s Kiss (Su): At 8th level, a dervish dancer can use his
battle dance to improve his weapons’ critical range. All attacks
he makes with manufactured weapons are treated as though
he had the Improved Critical feat. Natural weapons and spells
are not affected. This ability replaces dirge of doom.
Both of which give up the ability to use the dirge of doom power. big no-no, but if you say had the ability twice somehow(as per the Doomharp magic item from the Advanced player's guide) would you be able to take both? Granted if you lost access to the magic item you would loose out on one of your Archetypes until you got it back? its in the gray and wanted to see how you would answer. In my opinion, I look at it along the same lines as having a magic item that gives you a feat(there are several that give you two weapon fighting for example) to qualify for a prestige class or needed as prereqs. for other feats, if you lost the item, you wouldnt qualify for the other.
OOH! my player just brought up a serious issue as well i hope you might be able to elaborate on, He currently has the rune of wrath(from the highlady in #5) he was wondering if the mark from the champion of greed does the same(go to the player who takes the final swing)?
if so, how would the two interract?
would karzoug have control over that PC in the final showdown?
That'd be up to your GM. You won't have any spoilers from me!
but....but i AM the GM! I don't want to be too harsh on the players ;)
how would you go about the situation?
Spoiler:
P.S. I'm hoping that they fail to kill the Leng peeps and Mhar gets summoned....Primal earth elemental ho!
OOH! my player just brought up a serious issue as well i hope you might be able to elaborate on, He currently has the rune of wrath(from the highlady in #5) he was wondering if the mark from the champion of greed does the same(go to the player who takes the final swing)?
if so, how would the two interract?
would karzoug have control over that PC in the final showdown?
Me and my friends did this a while back, "stating out ourselves" if we were in a RPG RL world.
We never brought levels into account but stats we did, 16s being the highest for any of us(save myself for a specific reason) and should therefore be considered the maximum. we had no input on ourselves it was speculation on the group, so our peers voted on our classes.
Myself i was stated as such
M Human Fighter/Rogue CG
str 16
dex 14
con 18(3 time cancer survivor by the age of 21)
int 14
wis 9
cha 12
Sorry to bug you James. But I was wondering if you have hidden statistics somewhere for the Runelords other than Karzoug somewhere in the books? I have found Alaznists "levels" but they just indicate "CE Female Azlanti eviker 20+; presumed dead" 20+ showing that she is "at least" 20th level(if not mythic) and I am unsure as to if she is pure blood Azlanti(gaining +2 to every stat) In retrospect though, You gave Karzoug in the same book "NE Male Azlanti transmuter 20; presumed dead" while in the RoTRL AP you stated him with Archmage levels.
Question 1: do you have stat blocks or items(such as their swords) for any other runelords?
Question 2: Which incarnation should I use for Karzoug to keep accurate(my players just inched by the haunted dwarven mining camp in book 6)
Question 3: Any word yet on the Mythic level or epic level books under development? My players have been playing my game for almost a year solid and aside from the occasional "ok DM sean needs to beat up some goblins, you guys can run" it has been very consistent and my players want to continue into epic levels.
Answer 1: I do vaguely know what the levels of the other Runelords are... but not for sure, since we don't have solid rules for post-20th level characters. I do know that Alaznist, Sorshen, and Xhanderghul are higher level than Karzoug, who is established by Rise of the Runelords to be 20th level already. So... no. Don't have stats for them yet.
Answer 2: You can still use the version of Karzoug in the adventure, but if you want to rebuild him for Pathfinder, make him a 20th level transmuter. We'll have official stats for him in the middle of next year in the updated Rise of the Runelords hardcover.
Answer 3: No word yet on a Mythic level book yet.
In regards to the runelords should they have the Azlanti racial modifiers and if so do you think that in itself would be enough to raise Cr by 1 or would it need to be in Conjunction with something else?
well, if i may say so here(sorry to butt in on the thunder here james) but the NPC CR being PC Class level -1 anyways...the +1 from pureblood azlanti and the additional +1 from his "better than average gear" would keep Karzoug at least at his PC levels +1, which he currently is at. That is just my DM interpretation of the ruling is all, and in no way should reflect how Paizo is ruling. Just my speculation is all.
if you still check this thread I am interested in seeing what you have done. my party has had an easy time(i have kept everything the same, save for 2-3 various npcs) Karzoug i updated and the champion of greed as well, but noone else.
Sorry to bug you James. But I was wondering if you have hidden statistics somewhere for the Runelords other than Karzoug somewhere in the books? I have found Alaznists "levels" but they just indicate "CE Female Azlanti eviker 20+; presumed dead" 20+ showing that she is "at least" 20th level(if not mythic) and I am unsure as to if she is pure blood Azlanti(gaining +2 to every stat) In retrospect though, You gave Karzoug in the same book "NE Male Azlanti transmuter 20; presumed dead" while in the RoTRL AP you stated him with Archmage levels. Question 1: do you have stat blocks or items(such as their swords) for any other runelords?
Question 2: Which incarnation should I use for Karzoug to keep accurate(my players just inched by the haunted dwarven mining camp in book 6)
Question 3: Any word yet on the Mythic level or epic level books under development? My players have been playing my game for almost a year solid and aside from the occasional "ok DM sean needs to beat up some goblins, you guys can run" it has been very consistent and my players want to continue into epic levels.
ok, that all sounds pretty reasonable. If you are familiar with BvD, there is a disease in there called Festering anger or something along those lines, that instead of just making the townsfolk sick, it would enrage them and attack themselves. thus ending in a chain reaction and leaving one "crazy" man left. This way i wouldn't be connected to the "murders" in any retrospect, they just went crazy and killed each-other.
For example, there are plenty of diseases that are not accounted for via the spell contagion. Unless every disease can be contracted through a monster(many can't) how do you get them/give them to PCs?
I understand the rules and regulations behind how diseases function. but other than specific monster entries, how is a player to acquire a disease? For example, say I want to play a character that is paid to kill an entire town. Easiest way to accomplish this? disease the food supply.
There are rules for creating poisons through alchemy(craft) but nothing other than a specific monster has this disease, or DM puts the disease in the box. Does anyone know more on the subject?
I apologize if this is the incorrect forum to be asking this question, but I was wondering if anyone or paizo has even set the statistics for all 7 of the swords. The sword of greed can be found with full statistics in Pathfinder #6, and I saw the sword of lust somewhere but cannot remember where. Is anyone able to help me track down some information?
good combinations are abound when you refer to making a character. this all is dependent on stats as well. you don't want to make a monk/paladin if you only have one stat above a 14, for example. a few that i have seen go far are as follows
Monk10/paladin 10
fighter 5/gunslinger 15
Monk/rogue/shadow dancer(especially zen archer with hips)
Rogue/red mantis assassin
sorcerer/oracle/mystic theurge
Paladin/cavalier
I'm just wondering if, as of yet, there are plans to take the pathfinder system to the epic level. The existing 3.5 epic system is a real mess, and I'd like to see pathfinder start completely from scratch. After all, I'd like a chance to put all of those neat capstone abilities to use.....
Thoughts/feelings/flames?
I have an epic adventure path brewing in my head, but it'll be a while before we do something with it in Pathifnder. I'm guessing, at minimum, 3 years. If there's a big enough demand/outcry for an epic Adventure Path or an epic Pathfinder Module before then, of course, that'll change.
its been a few years since this post, wondering if we have word from paizo dev team if there is anything in the works? getting close to the end of running my players through rise of the runelords, /hope*
well, the best i could come up with, was to take the XP allotment section under the game mastering section of the core rulebook. for example, if they were to be CR 10, they would have an alloted 9,600 xp to work with, regardless of their level. so if he was a 5th level character with ghost, making him a CR 7 and worth 3,200xp himself. leaving a remainder of 6,400xp left to play with. meaning if he wanted to stay in a host body indefinably, he could in theory possess something that is a CR 9, worth exactly 6,400. Does this sound like a bad theory james?
If you build an encounter where a ghost possesses a creature, and the encounter involves a fight against that possessed creature and then against the ghost... that's two encounters that resolve more or less back-to-back, and as such you should generally try to make the ghost and the thing it's possessing relatively similar in CR scores if you can. It does nothing at all to the ghost's CR, though.
If one was a CR 9 and the other was a CR 10 monster, I'd probably quantify that as two encounters, not one encounter. In any event, you should award the PCs XP for a CR 9 and a CR 10 monster at the end of the encounter, assuming they killed/defeated the possessed creature to cause the ghost to come out and then defeated the ghost as well.
In any case... an encounter's CR is really only something you use to summarize the complexity of the encounter in Pathfinder—it has no real impact at all on things like XP awards or the like. It's just a numerical score you can assign to an encounter to give yourself a quick reminder of how tough that fight is probably going to be.
thanks for the response James. The main reason I am looking for this information is not for an encounter against pcs, i am currently running a monster-based anti-hero game. where the pcs play as monsters and go up against those goody two-shoes adventurers. One asked me to play a ghost, weighing the pros and cons i decided to allow the incorporeal monstrosity. possessing a town guardsman or a member of the thieves guild is his goal at the moment, and wanted to know how that would equate to his CR for the purposes of leveling are concerned.
no doubt, all really clever ideas. if i do keep the ghost(now that i'm thinking about it) i will drop the monk class levels to be a CR 18, and start with a possessed lvl 20 fighter NPC(using their terrible stat array) make him a 2 handed fighter with a scythe(+5 vorpal of course) haha.
Hoping to catch the eye of one of the developers with this one, i have looked everywhere and haven't found a clear answer. If a ghost(or other creature with a possession-like ability) inhabits another creature, what does that do to the CR of that ghost? say for instance: a Human Ghost, Fighter 8(CR 10) manages to grab hold of a Halfling Rogue 10. would that be a CR 20? looking at it you gain the HP, physical stats, and You can’t choose to activate the body’s extraordinary or supernatural abilities. The creature’s spells and spell-like abilities do not stay with the body.
while you keep your mental stats, base saves, level, ext.as with magic jar. any help would be greatly appreciated.
It's a telepathic Dirge of Doom, who says you have to let your allies hear it? Just whisper what the song is to your DM and watch the hilarious face he makes! ;)
im liking the abilities that my ghost combination comes with, the only issue i will come across will be a god-damned paladin rofl.
cyclops diviner with a vorpal weapon. take foresight subschool. Go gish and as many reroll abilitys as possible. You can now oneshot anything that needs a head. A dip into weapon adept and using a vorpal kama gives perfect strike.
this build seems mean as hell, but i doubt your taking into effect the fact that you can only ever get one immediate action per round, and there are no feats to give you more :(
Illithid Antipaladin with a Beholder mount! DO IT! YOU WONT!
If beholders or illithids were pathfinder i would totally do it! but unfortunatly since he is allowing monster races and such he is limiting everything(including magic items) to pathfinder books only :*(
They have no level adjustment look closely at the drow noble character example. Then go vivisectionist alchemist or master summoner.
They do, snirvneblin and drow noble are a CR+1, In the core rulebook under the gamemastering section states dms shouldnt let players play this at first level but second was ok, implying that because they are stronger than standard races they are a CR +1 because of spell-like abilities.
