Senir's page

So Aroden's Spellsword says:
"If the rod or staff can be used to make attacks, you can attack normally with the weapon or use the weapon as if it were the merged rod or staff. If the effect created by the rod or staff requires an attack roll to successfully strike a foe, you can make the attack roll as if you were making an attack with the weapon at its highest bonus (including any bonuses the weapon would normally receive) rather than just a normal attack with the rod or staff—doing so does not allow you to add the weapon’s damage to the attack, but instead allows you to use your skill with the weapon to boost your chance of hitting with the rod or staff’s attack, spell, or effect."

If you put a rod of lordly might into a plain wooden staff, would your monk flurry with a 1d8, x3 crit, +4 slashing weapon if the rod was stored as the battle axe? Would it be bludgeoning but keep the other stats or something in the middle?

Is nodachi a hafted weapon?

I've seen some real world pictures of Nodachi that make them look like large katana and others that look more like long bladed pole arms. In Pathfinder they are both in the Heavy Blades Fighter Group as well as the Pole Arm Fighter Group. Pole arms are hafted in D&D while swords generally are not.

*reason*
I ask because wyroot can only be applied to hafted weapons (such as spears) and would like to know if it applies to a nodachi.

Kirin strike allows you to add untyped damage to an attack as a swift action after you hit. The damage is x2 the character's int mod.

Question 1
If the Kirin Strike damage is added to a crit, does the entire Kirin Damage get modified or does it follow rule of adding multipliers? For example:

Crit with x2 weapon and use Kirin Strike. Is the damage
Int mod*(2+1)
or is it
(Int mod*2)*2

ALSO

Question 2
Can Kirin Strike be used with a feat that allows Int to be used for damage rather than strength, such as Elven Battle Focus?

The Esoteric Magus gives away a lot for what it receives in return. At first glance it may seem that the price is just too high. However with a 1 class dip the Archetype works quite well. Why does Esoteric work? It works because of style feats.

Ki/Arcane points with Perfect Style and Ki Leech
Being able to use ki as an arcane pool is powerful. When combined with the spell ki leech it gives an easily replenishable source of points to allow for continued use of powers like Accurate Strike. When using Improved or Greater TWF Esoteric get more bang from AS than standard other magus builds because of the additional attacks. The feat Perfect Style opens up an easy to obtain ki pool. This combo works best with an 18-20 crit weapon like a waveblade and Ascetic Style.

Ascetic Style
Unarmed fighting becomes a powerful thing when combined with ascetic style. One of the primary weaknesses of UAS is the poor crit range. Ascetic style removes that problem. To improve crit range to 18-20 try the new Waveblade. The other problem is reach but with a monk chained weapon (double chained Kama, Sickle &Chain) Ascetic style opens that option as well. All with full monk UA damage.

Big Hits with Dragon Style:
The option to focus on strength and big strength mod multipliers opens up from using Dragon style. With 2 dragon style feats the Esoteric can use x1.5 str mod from every attack, x2 for the first one.

Jabbing Style
Since the esoteric is likely using two weapon fighting, they will have a lot of attack so Jabbing Style adds a big bump to damage for builds that are not strength heavy.

The problem with most of these options is that they are feat intensive and the esoteric loses all of its bonus feats. Depending on the build, 1 lvl dip into fighter and/or 1 or 2 lvls into monk solve these feat issues. This makes esoteric a somewhat incomplete archetype but a powerful multiclass option. If the plan is to use Ascetic Style then Unarmed Fighter is a solid option. If you plan to use multiple style feats or advance Perfect style for more than the ki pool then the Monk Master of Many Styles is a good option. If using Dragon Style and Dragon Ferocity the unchained Scaled Fist Archetype works well.

See two of many potential samples below:

Build One
01 UnMonk1 [Scaled Fist] Class Feats: (Imp U.Strike, Stunning Fist, Dragon Style*), Human: (Power Attack), Artful Dodge
02 Magus [Esoteric] 1st lvl Spells (of note: Frostbite)
03 Magus [Esoteric] Feat(Two weapon Fighting)
04 Magus [Esoteric]
05 Magus [Esoteric] Feat(Dragon Ferocity), 2nd lvl spells(of note: Mirror Image)
06 Magus [Esoteric]
07 Magus [Esoteric] Feat (Barroom Brawler)
08 Magus [Esoteric] 3rd lvl spells(of note: Tactical Adaptation)
09 Magus [Esoteric] Feat(Improved Two Weapon Fighting), Arcana (Accurate Strike), should pick up Ki Leech wand around now.
10 Magus [Esoteric]
11 Magus [Esoteric] Feat(Wpn Specialization), 4th lvl spells(of note: M.Physique II, Paragon Surge)
12 Magus [Esoteric] Arcana:(Spell Blending Arcana to gain Ki Leech or continue using a wand)

Build Two
01 Fighter 1 [Unarmed] Class Feats: (Imp U.Strike, Ascetic Style: waveblade*), Human: (Power Attack), Artful Dodge
02 Magus [Esoteric] 1st lvl Spells (of note: Frostbite)
03 Magus [Esoteric] Feat (Two weapon Fighting)
04 Magus [Esoteric]
05 Magus [Esoteric] Feat (Double Slice), 2nd lvl spells (of note: Mirror Image)
06 Magus [Esoteric]
07 Magus [Esoteric] Feat (Barroom Brawler)
08 Magus [Esoteric] 3rd lvl spells (of note: Tactical Adaptation)
09 Magus [Esoteric] Feat (Perfect Style), Arcana (Accurate Strike), should pick up Ki Leech wand around now.
10 Magus [Esoteric]
11 Magus [Esoteric] Feat (Improved Two Weapon Fighting), 4th lvl spells (of note M.Physique II, Paragon Surge)
12 Magus [Esoteric] Arcana:(Spell Blending Arcana to gain Ki Leech or continue using a wand)

Diversity training allows a character to add its Eldritch Knight level to it's caster level to determine qualification for feats. If a class ability has already been unlocked, do EK levels stack when determining what options can be taken with feats like:

Extra Arcana
Extra Arcanist Exploit
Extra Discovery
Extra Evolution
Extra Hex

Rakshasa’s Fortune is a magus arcana that lets you take extra monster abilities, that your selected shape doesn't already have, when you polymorph. See description below:

"Benefit(s) Whenever the magus casts a spell of the polymorph subschool on himself, he can draw a card from a complete harrow deck he owns as a free action.

If the card’s alignment and the magus’s alignment are a true match, the spell’s duration is doubled and the magus can select two additional monster abilities granted by the polymorph spell (such as scent or grab for beast shape II), even if the form assumed by the magus doesn’t normally grant that ability."

My question is what form do these new abilities take? There are no clear rules that I could find, so looking for thoughtful opinions. If you choose poison for a form that doesn't already have poison, is that ability:

1.added to a current natural attack if the form has one?
2.added to a current weapon if there are no natural attacks with the chosen form? (Formian Myrmarch adds poison to weapons)
3.added to a new natural attack that is similar to the poison application of the monster whose poison is being selected?

If a Witch has a Deity as a patron, would they qualify for feats that require the character receive spells from a deity, such as Weapon of the Chosen?

Thoughts?

When fighting more than one opponent, Kirin Path is a powerful ability when it comes to avoiding attacks simply by using an attack of opportunity to move out of the targeted square. How many attacks of opportunity can one use with Kirin Path? Is it one, or if you have combat reflexes, as many as you have available?

Kirin Path
Benefit: Whenever you make a Knowledge check to identify a creature, even when using Kirin Style, you can take 10 even if stress and distractions would normally prevent you from doing so. While using Kirin Style against a creature you have identified using that feat, if the creature ends its turn within your threatened area, you can spend a use of your attacks of opportunity that round to move up to 5 feet times your Intelligence modifier (minimum 1). You must end your move in a square threatened by the creature. This move does not provoke attacks of opportunity.

A while ago I came up with a crazy idea to use shadow weapon in a campaign. What could be used with the spell seems straight forward to me and everyone at the table, but never got a chance to use it. Have a new GM that feels almost no damage enhancing metamagic feats can be used with it.

My original understanding was as follows:
Am I wrong about how I'm interpreting the spell?

Metamagic that can be used:
Dazing
Disruptive
Echoing
Ectoplasm
Heighten
Intensify
Jinxed
Merciful
Persistent
Piercing
Quicken
Sickening
Silent
Still
Tenebrous

Metamagic of note that cannot be used:
Maximize
Empower
Umbral
Shadow Grasp

Any feat that would work with a weapon that is the shape of the shadow weapon will work with the shadow weapon. Plus:
Spell based feats:
preferred spell
spell focus
greater spell focus
spell perfection
spell penetration
greater spell pentration
spell mastery
spell specialization
greater spell specialization

While doing a bit of theory crafting with a friend we ran into an interesting question. When a monk of the empty hand picks up a q-staff, he uses it as a non-magical improvised q-staff.

So what happens when a spell/sla/su is cast on the weapon that a Monk of the Empty Hand is using as an improvised weapon?

What we know:

1. We know that improvised weapons can't be enchanted as a weapon, only as tools.
2. We know that magic weapons don't get their magic bonuses when used as improvised weapons.

What we are questioning is if you can cast spells on improvised weapons to improve their combat effectiveness. The most obvious one is Shillelagh since it increases the effective size of a weapon, and there are rules for different sized improvised weapons. There are also rage powers, bloodlines, and others.

Thoughts?

I'm in a group with builds that aren't very well optimized, so I'm retiring my character that may steal a lot of fun from the rest of the group. I'm taking this opportunity to play with, and build a character around, a sub-optimal, but extremely cool spell: Shadow Weapon.

My experience with Illusions is a little light, so I want to make sure I have all my options on the table.

Any feat that would work with a weapon that is the shape of the shadow weapon will work with the shadow weapon. Plus

Have I missed anything or is any of my information on how metamagic works with the descriptor:shadow wrong?

Also, if you've made good use of the spell Shadow Weapon before and have any helpful tips, let me know.

There is a major difference between an Arcanist who builds a BlackBlade and a Magus who finds it. The Arcanist starts with a normal weapon, turns it into a bonded item with Sword Bond, and that weapon later transforms into a BlackBlade. The Arcanist gives up 3 exploits for this. The Magus discovers or is discovered by their blades, and gives up 1 arcana to use it.

There are two major benefits of having a bonded item. They are the ability to pull an extra spell from their spell list and the ability to enchant their bonded item. You can't add enchantments to a BlackBlade after it becomes sentient, but what happens if the Arcanist has already enchanted their bonded weapon before it becomes a BlackBlade?

1. Does an enchanted Sword Bond weapon lose all it's enchants when it becomes a Sentient Sword?

2. Its unlikely since enhancement bonuses do not stack, but do the bonuses from the Sentient Sword enchantments stack with the enchanted Sword Bond?
(If it is answer 2, could you end up with a +5 flaming BlackBlade, instead of a +5 BlackBlade?)

3. Will the Sentient Sword stats only impose themselves when they're greater than those of the enchanted Sword Bond weapon.
(If it is answer 3, could you end up with a +4 flaming BlackBlade, instead of a +5 BlackBlade?)

Does anyone have any experience with the second level a arcane spell - Decastave? I have a player who wants to use the Tome of Battle strike Insightful Strikes through the Decastave "weapon." Not really certain about this one. Anyone have any thoughts?

If a Shaman takes the Witch's Hex, Prehensile Hair, does the Elven FCB increase the reach?

The Seven Branched Sword lets you make a trip attempt to make an opponent flatfooted. If made flatfooted in this manner, what actions can the flatfooted character take?