Are occult rituals treated like spells? I see they can be subject to spell resistance, but can they be dispelled or blocked with spell immunity?
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This is a thing that needs doing, so here it is. I've just started this campaign, and will be leaving notes here as I go for future GMs' reference. Anyone else is welcome to add your own. My party, for reference:
Vesk blitz soldier
Human drone mechanic Aasimar witchwarper Chlorvian xenodruid mystic I tried to encourage them to have two melee weapon wielders considering the theme and the loot, but it didn't work out that way. The mechanic may make his drone into one when it gets more durable, but for now it's not. Side note: I use the Fantasy Grounds VTT, so I loved the art folio to share images with my players, especially tagless version of the maps. But for some reason, a couple of the maps didn't have tagless versions, so I had to delete them myself in GIMP, which is never pretty. Now to the actual adventure. I was concerned about an adventure originally built for level 2 Pathfinder characters being converted for level 1 Starfinder characters, but it works well...mostly. The initial fight against the baghra is going to be really bad if no one in the group has natural weapons or attack spells. Even with my group that had both, it was a rough fight and I wished I had given the baghra the sickened condition. It's entirely possible that your group stumbles upon the klaven before they get their equipment, so make sure they find the gear first. It's supposed to be dark in that center area, so maybe have a flickering light visible through the malfunctioning door of the storage room. The klaven fight is tougher then it looks since your group is likely to get flanked. I was originally going to hold off on giving the mechanic his drone until BR-N3R could become it, but I saw during this fight that that wasn't going to work, so I retroactively gave it to him with the rest of his gear like the adventure said to. Even so, they were out of spells after healing from the two fights, and needed to rest after clearing the rest of the rooms and meeting Andretta. Speaking of Andretta, this is the first instance of sloppy story conversion. The adventure says that faulty equipment knocked the baghra in the room out, but then says they spoke to her and she recognized the language as Ultari. It looks pretty strongly to me that in the Pathfinder version, she knocked them out with a sleep spell, but sleep doesn't exist in Starfinder, hence the quick change. I went with saying she used magic to knock them out anyway, since it was the end of the game session and her recognition of Ultari is the first important detail that the information-starved party will be getting, and knowing my players wouldn't question it. Use your own judgement for that one. It could also work to have her not know anything more than they do until they see Ultari on one of the other levels.
I'll be running the Starfinder version of Legendary Planet soon. Starfinder recently added shields to the game, and I'd like to add them where appropriate to LP. Could anyone with the Pathfinder version of LP take a look and tell me about any significant enemies that use shields or any other time where they come up?
This was released just in time for a Fall of Plaguestone game I was in tonight. I hurriedly converted a fire domain cloistered cleric over, so I didn't have all that much time to mull over the options, plus I know this will never get past level 3. Also this is the first spellcaster I've played in PF2. The other characters in the party are a fighter, monk, and ranger. Human Acolyte Flame Oracle
So, that's a lot of fire. Maybe if I did it again, I'd take the sun domain or a different feat for more variety, but I decided to stick with it because there's not actually such a thing as too much fire. My other 1st level spell was heal, and among my cantrips I grabbed daze for fire-resistant creatures. In the wagon attack, I hit a wolf with produce flame, then burning hands on the boss wolf and another (one-shotting the weaker wolf). The boss would have been a good target for fire ray, but I stopped to Battle Medicine the fighter after he took a bad hit. The wolves were dead next turn, and I never used a revelation spell to start my curse. That's the only fight of any significance we had tonight. So, I have a somewhat overkill mix of fire attacks with a cantrip, focus/revelation spell, and area attack spell. And incendiary aura seems like a great combo with fire spells (anyone who takes fire damage within 10 feet of you catches on fire). But I didn't find an opportunity to use it in the first fight. I'm really not sure when I would. I don't want to get within 10 feet of anybody unless I'm casting burning hands. I could cast it at the start of a fight and look for opportunities to run forward and light someone up at the edge of a fight, but then there's the problem of that it's a revelation spell. Once I use my first revelation spell of the day, my curse begins, and I can only cast one revelation spell per fight after that. I'm generally going to want to save that for fire ray, or dazzling flash for the sun domain. I'll keep reporting as we go. Can't comment on the curse yet, so for right now, it's a fun magical nuker but incendiary aura looks to be really hard to use at low levels.
So, there's discussion in the GM thread for The Dead Roads about the planar traits of the Boneyard and what its timelessness means if you decide to use it. I'm not concerned about that right now, but it's still on topic here. I'm thinking about what other things PCs have that may be different. The player's guide warns about the lack of animal companions, but there are other abilities that should work differently. For example, I'm going to have a player play a haunted bones oracle. I plan on having the haunted curse simply not function while they're in the Boneyard, since the spirits wouldn't have followed him getting blasted into the Boneyard. (He can keep the cantrips the curse gives.) Plus it'll be fun to see how he reacts. His first level revelation is effectively speak with dead (after I dropped the hint that controlling undead would be less useful at the beginning than he thought), so that's also in a weird place. I'm going to let it work since the spell says nothing about interacting with the body's soul, and I need to let the player have his abilities. Any other weird spirit-related abilities that can be changed in interesting ways?
A fighter's Bravery feature says, "Anytime you gain the frightened condition, reduce its value by 1." There are other effects that give the frightened 1 condition and say you can't reduce the frightened condition below 1. See the bard's Dirge of Doom or the wizard's Dread Aura. There are probably monster abilities that do the same thing. How do these interact?
This is the one where you have to rescue people from grioths and end up with henchman proxies clogging your hand. Since you're all at the same location, keep playing Hot Potato with the proxies. If they're not in your hand at the end of your turn, you can draw your normal number of cards. Of course, by the end of the scenario you'll have n+1 proxies, so everyone will be stuck with one card less, but keep passing that extra proxy around and it'll make a big difference.
I'm curious what boons people decide to keep in the vault as they get to higher adventures. Blessings are obvious, especially for Crimson Throne where all but maybe two are level 1. You couldn't even play the game if you chose to remove those. What about the core level zero blessings with no hour powers? Any other niche cards that are better in the vault than in your decks?
Hey, there's two of us just starting with the new Core Set and we'd like more people to play with. Saturdays at 10 AM at a local game store. Message for more details.
I'm running Starfinder for people who aren't really gamers, and they're constantly getting tripped up over move vs. standard actions. I think the three action system from Unchained and PF2 would be great for them, not to mention add a little sorely-needed mobility to the game. The thing I'm getting most stuck on is how Starfinder changed full attacks. I'm not sure if I should fully convert to the Unchained version and just accept that more damage will be dealt out or try to patch on a "you can only attack once per round unless you take this penalty" rule. The other issue is the class features that add attacks, like Soldier's Onslaught. Maybe the best thing is to only allow multiple attacks per round if you make a full attack, which is all three actions. Has anyone done this who can offer advice?
The adventure text says that the ghost mages (Event 5) cast resist energy twice before emerging. They do not know this spell. Would the resistances even stack with the resistance against everything they already have?
One of my players has asked if his +3 weapon can be cold iron. Since this would make a big difference on the one chapter where it matters most, and the special materials rules aren't terribly clear, I figured I'd better ask for advice. The fact that a +1 cold iron dagger is in the item pool makes me think the answer should be no. And since +3 weapons are master quality and cost 400+ gp for cold iron, I don't think they can afford to buy that upgrade themselves since they only have 100 gp.
I've got a PC who, as part of his motivation for joining the party, is taking advantage of the traveling around Numeria to search for his mother. She was an archaeologist interested in Numerian technological relics, and disappeared three years ago when she left Torch to return to ruin-diving to try and earn some money for the struggling family. She does have some bad history with the Technic League—they stole all her tech once. I'm trying to figure out where a good place to add her in to the AP would be. Maybe there's an NPC she could replace, too. We've just started Lords of Rust.
Has anyone used Automatic Bonus Progression from Unchained? I think it would help encourage the use of the tech armor and weapons. Any thoughts?
This was originally a Carrion Crown thread, but that forum's moving slowly these days, and I need feedback sooner than later. The short version is I decided to replace groups of 8 or 12 low-level skeletons with CR-equivalent troops, both for ease of handling and so that these necromancers aren't quite as much of a joke. This is the first time I've made monsters from scratch, so I'd appreciate any advice you can give. The departure I made from the normal rules is that I've given these troops feats. Most of these skeletons are encountered as guards for evil cultists, but since you can move freely through a troop at the cost of some damage, I wanted them to have the Stand Still feat. So, I gave the non-intelligent troops INT 3, justifying it by calling it their unit's coordination. My party will be level 8 at this time. I'm leaving gear off the block because looting troops was weird in Reign of Winter, so I'm planning on just letting the party recover what they would have in the AP as written. 12 skeletons is CR 5, turning into a 7HD troop. The only sample troop I have is here, scroll down and look for Rifle Troop.
Skeleton Troop:
Skeleton Troop CR 5 XP 1,600 NE Medium undead Init +6; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +7 DEFENSE AC 18, touch 12, flat-footed 16 (+2 armor, +2 Dex, +4 natural) hp 52 (7d8+21) Fort +4, Ref +4, Will +7 DR 5/bludgeoning; Immune cold, undead traits, troop traits OFFENSE Speed 30 ft. Melee troop (2d6+4) Space 20 ft.; Reach 5 ft. TACTICS During Combat Free-roaming skeleton troops typically rush forward and spread out as much as possible to engage as many enemies as they can reach, regardless of if this causes them to provoke attacks of opportunity. Troops accompanied by a cultist will usually be ordered to form a wall to prevent enemies from reaching the cultist. Morale A troop disperses when reduced to 0 hit points or fewer. STATISTICS Str 18, Dex 14, Con —, Int 3, Wis 10, Cha 14 Base Atk +5; CMB +9; CMD 21 Feats Combat Reflexes, Improved InitiativeB, Iron Will, Stand Still, Toughness Skills Perception +7 Next I need 12 burning skeletons (CR 6), so I just added the burning template to my previous troop. I thought this turned out well, so left it alone. Then I had to replace a group of 8 (CR 5), which means taking off 2HD. Burning Skeleton Troop (large):
Burning skeleton Troop CR 6 XP 2,400 NE Medium undead Init +6; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +7 Aura fiery aura (1d6) DEFENSE AC 18, touch 12, flat-footed 16 (+2 armor, +2 Dex, +4 natural) hp 59 (7d8+28) Fort +5, Ref +4, Will +7 DR 5/bludgeoning; Immune fire, undead traits, troop traits; Weaknessess vulnerability to cold OFFENSE Speed 30 ft. Melee troop (2d6+4 plus 1d6 fire) Space 20 ft.; Reach 5 ft. TACTICS During Combat Free-roaming skeleton troops typically rush forward and spread out as much as possible to engage as many enemies as they can reach, regardless of if this causes them to provoke attacks of opportunity. Troops accompanied by a cultist will usually be ordered to form a wall to prevent enemies from reaching the cultist. Morale A troop disperses when reduced to 0 hit points or fewer. STATISTICS Str 18, Dex 14, Con —, Int —, Wis 10, Cha 16 Base Atk +5; CMB +9; CMD 21 Feats Combat Reflexes, Improved InitiativeB, Iron Will, Stand Still, Toughness Skills Perception +7 SQ fiery death (3d6, DC 16) SPECIAL ABILITIES Fiery Aura (Ex): Creatures adjacent to a burning skeleton troop take 1d6 points of fire damage at the start of their turn. Anyone striking a burning skeleton troop with an unarmed strike or natural attack takes 1d6 points of fire damage. Fiery Death (Su): A burning skeleton troop explodes into a burst of flame when it dies. Anyone adjacent to the troop when it is destroyed takes 1d6 points of fire damage per 2 Hit Dice the troop possessed (minimum 1d6). A Reflex save (DC = 10 + 1/2 the troop’s Hit Dice + the troop’s Cha bonus) halves this damage. Burning Skeleton Troop (small):
Burning skeleton Troop CR 5 XP 1,600 NE Medium undead Init +6; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +5 Aura fiery aura (1d6) DEFENSE AC 17, touch 12, flat-footed 15 (+2 armor, +2 Dex, +3 natural) hp 42 (5d8+20) Fort +4, Ref +3, Will +4 DR 5/bludgeoning; Immune fire, undead traits, troop traits; Weaknessess vulnerability to cold OFFENSE Speed 30 ft. Melee troop (1d6+4 plus 1d6 fire) Space 20 ft.; Reach 5 ft. TACTICS During Combat Free-roaming skeleton troops typically rush forward and spread out as much as possible to engage as many enemies as they can reach, regardless of if this causes them to provoke attacks of opportunity. Troops accompanied by a cultist will usually be ordered to form a wall to prevent enemies from reaching the cultist. Morale A troop disperses when reduced to 0 hit points or fewer. STATISTICS Str 18, Dex 14, Con —, Int —, Wis 10, Cha 16 Base Atk +3; CMB +7; CMD 19 Feats Combat Reflexes, Improved InitiativeB, Stand Still, Toughness Skills Perception +5 SQ fiery death (2d6, DC 15) SPECIAL ABILITIES Fiery Aura (Ex): Creatures adjacent to a burning skeleton troop take 1d6 points of fire damage at the start of their turn. Anyone striking a burning skeleton troop with an unarmed strike or natural attack takes 1d6 points of fire damage. Fiery Death (Su): A burning skeleton troop explodes into a burst of flame when it dies. Anyone adjacent to the troop when it is destroyed takes 1d6 points of fire damage per 2 Hit Dice the troop possessed (minimum 1d6). A Reflex save (DC = 10 + 1/2 the troop’s Hit Dice + the troop’s Cha bonus) halves this damage. Now I need 8 bloody skeletons (CR 5). I just did a feature swap with the CR 5 burning troop. Bloody Skeleton Troop:
Bloody skeleton Troop CR 5 XP 1,600 NE Medium undead Init +6; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +5 Aura fiery aura (1d6) DEFENSE AC 17, touch 12, flat-footed 15 (+2 armor, +2 Dex, +3 natural) hp 47 (5d8+25); fast healing 2 Fort +5, Ref +3, Will +4 Defensive Abilities channel resistance +4, deathless; DR 5/bludgeoning; Immune cold, undead traits, troop traits; OFFENSE Speed 30 ft. Melee troop (1d6+4) Space 20 ft.; Reach 5 ft. TACTICS During Combat Free-roaming skeleton troops typically rush forward and spread out as much as possible to engage as many enemies as they can reach, regardless of if this causes them to provoke attacks of opportunity. Troops accompanied by a cultist will usually be ordered to form a wall to prevent enemies from reaching the cultist. Morale A troop disperses when reduced to 0 hit points or fewer. STATISTICS Str 18, Dex 14, Con —, Int —, Wis 10, Cha 18 Base Atk +3; CMB +7; CMD 19 Feats Combat Reflexes, Improved InitiativeB, Stand Still, Toughness Skills Perception +5 SPECIAL ABILITIES Deathless (Su): A bloody skeleton troop is destroyed when reduced to 0 hit points, but it returns to unlife 1 hour later at 1 hit point, allowing its fast healing thereafter to resume healing it. A bloody skeleton can be permanently destroyed if it is destroyed by positive energy, if it is reduced to 0 hit points in the area of a bless or hallow spell, or if its remains are sprinkled with a vial of holy water. Last is skeletal champions. 8 of these is CR 8. These guys have Intimidate, so I thought it would be fun to give the troop Dazzling Display, even though Weapon Focus (troop) makes no sense. One group of them has bows and silver arrows on a tower, so I gave them a special ability I'll add after the main stat block. Skeletal Champion Troop: Skeletal Champion Troop CR 8 XP 4,800 NE Medium undead Init +6; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +15 DEFENSE AC 21, touch 12, flat-footed 19 (+6 armor, +2 Dex, +1 natural, +2 shield) hp 102 (12d8+48) Fort +7 Ref +6 Will +10; channel resistance +4 DR 5/bludgeoning; Immune cold, undead traits, troop traits OFFENSE Speed 30 ft. Melee troop (3d6+6) Space 20 ft.; Reach 5 ft. TACTICS During Combat Skeletal champion troops are highly organized and seldom break out of a regular formation. They start combat by intimidating their enemies with a display of their coordination, then march forward using an appropriate formation (typically a pincer to surround small groups). They prefer to avoid provoking attacks of opportunity unless they need to reach an enemy who is using area attacks on them. Morale A troop disperses when reduced to 0 hit points or fewer. STATISTICS Str 22, Dex 14, Con —, Int 9, Wis 10, Cha 16 Base Atk +9; CMB +15; CMD 27 Feats Combat Reflexes, Dazzling Display, Improved InitiativeB, Iron Will, Stand Still, Toughness, Weapon Focus (troop) Skills Intimidate +18, Perception +15, Stealth +11 For the archers, add the special ability:
So, Feldgrau's got a lot of skeletons. They're meant to be cannon fodder, but I'm using a VTT and would rather not have to mess with a dozen one-hit wonders when there's a more interesting alternative. I figured this would be a perfect place for the troop rules from Reign of Winter. Troops:
The troop subtype represents an organized group of trained soldiers that act as a unit, rather than as individuals. A troop is something of an abstraction, in that the component creatures that make up the troop are mostly irrelevant; only the troop as a whole matters for the purposes of combat. A troop is similar to a swarm, but is normally composed of Small or Medium creatures. Large groups of Tiny or smaller creatures should use the normal swarm rules.
Troop Subtype: A troop is a collection of creatures that acts as a single creature, similar to a swarm, but typically as part of a military unit. A troop has the characteristics of its type, except as noted here. A troop has a single pool of Hit Dice and hit points, a single initiative modifier, a single speed, and a single Armor Class. A troop makes saving throws as a single creature. A single troop occupies a 20-foot-by-20-foot square, equal in size to a Gargantuan creature, though the actual size category of the troop is the same as that of the component creatures. The area occupied by a troop is completely shapeable, though the troop must remain in contiguous squares to accurately ref lect the teamwork of trained military units. A troop has a reach equal to that of the component creatures based on size or armament. A troop can move through squares occupied by enemies and vice versa without impediment, although the troop provokes an attack of opportunity if it does so. A troop can move
The exact number of a troop’s component creatures varies, but in general, a troop of Small or Medium creatures consists of approximately 12 to 30 creatures. Larger creatures can form troops, but the area occupied by such a troop should increase proportionally according to the size of the component creatures. Troop Traits: A troop is not subject to flanking, but it is subject to critical hits and sneak attacks if its component creatures are subject to such attacks. Reducing a troop to 0 hit points or fewer causes it to break up, effectively destroying the troop, though the damage taken until that point does not degrade its ability to attack or resist attack. A troop is never staggered or reduced to a dying state by
A troop is immune to any spell or effect that targets a specific number of creatures (including single-target spells such as disintegrate and multiple target spells such as haste), though it is affected by spells or effects that target an area or a nonspecific number of creatures (such as fireball or mass hold monster). A troop takes half again as much damage (+50%) from spells or effects that affect an area. If a troop is rendered unconscious by means of nonlethal damage, it disperses and does not reform until its hit points exceed its nonlethal damage. Troop Attack: Creatures with the troop subtype don’t make standard melee attacks. Instead, they deal automatic damage to any creature within reach or whose space they occupy at the end of their move, with no attack roll needed. A troop’s stat block has “troop” in its Melee entry with no attack bonus given. The amount of damage a troop deals is based on its Hit Dice, as shown in the table on page 313 of the Pathfinder RPG Bestiary. Unless stated otherwise, a troop’s attacks are nonmagical. Damage reduction sufficient to reduce a troop attack’s damage to 0 or other special abilities can give a creature immunity (or at least resistance) to the troop’s attacks. Some troops also have other special attacks in addition to normal damage. Troops threaten all creatures within their reach or within their area, and attempt attacks of opportunity as
Because of the chaos of combat, spellcasting or concentrating on spells within the area of a troop or within its reach requires a caster level check (DC 20 + spell level). Using skills that involve patience and concentration requires a successful DC 20 Will save. Felgrau's got random patrols that included large groups of skeletons, plus some set encounters with more groups. I'll list all forms of these groups. 12 burning skeletons
It looks like anything with 8 or more skeletons is worth replacing with a troop. This is the first time I've made a monster from essentially scratch, so I'd appreciate any input. I know skeletons aren't supposed to have feats, but I need to give them Stand Still so they can do their job of shielding the cultists. So I'm cheating and giving them an Int score of 3 to indicate that they have a group coordination as a troop. The party should be level 8, and are usually engaging the skeletons alongside more creatures to bring the encounters to CR 8 or 9. Skeletal champions are the main exception, as they're already at CR 8. You may notice I'm leaving off gear. Looting troops is weird, so I'm just going to allow the party to recover what they would have off of the original groups. Normal skeleton:
Human Skeleton CR 1/3 XP 135 NE Medium undead Init +6; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +0 DEFENSE AC 16, touch 12, flat-footed 14 (+2 armor, +2 Dex, +2 natural) hp 4 (1d8) Fort +0, Ref +2, Will +2 DR 5/bludgeoning; Immune cold, undead traits OFFENSE Speed 30 ft. Melee broken scimitar +0 (1d6), claw –3 (1d4+1) or 2 claws +2 (1d4+2) STATISTICS Str 15, Dex 14, Con —, Int —, Wis 10, Cha 10 Base Atk +0; CMB +2; CMD 14 Feats Improved InitiativeB Gear broken chain shirt, broken scimitar 12 skeletons is CR 5, so we're looking at a 7HD troop.
Skeleton troop:
Skeleton Troop CR 5 XP 1,600 NE Medium undead Init +6; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +7 DEFENSE AC 18, touch 12, flat-footed 16 (+2 armor, +2 Dex, +4 natural) hp 52 (7d8+21) Fort +4, Ref +4, Will +7 DR 5/bludgeoning; Immune cold, undead traits, troop traits OFFENSE Speed 30 ft. Melee troop (2d6+4) Space 20 ft.; Reach 5 ft. TACTICS During Combat Free-roaming skeleton troops typically rush forward and spread out as much as possible to engage as many enemies as they can reach, regardless of if this causes them to provoke attacks of opportunity. Troops accompanied by a cultist will usually be ordered to form a wall to prevent enemies from reaching the cultist. Morale A troop disperses when reduced to 0 hit points or fewer. STATISTICS Str 18, Dex 14, Con —, Int 3, Wis 10, Cha 14 Base Atk +5; CMB +9; CMD 21 Feats Combat Reflexes, Improved InitiativeB, Iron Will, Stand Still, Toughness Skills Perception +7 Burning skeletons add +1 CR, fiery aura, change in immunities, 1d6 fire damage, +2 Cha, and fiery death. In Feldgrau, burning skeletons come in groups of 8 and 12, or CR 5 and 6 respectively. The CR 6 version is easily made by adding the template to the CR 5 skeleton troop, but for the other I've got to take off 2 HD. Burning skeleton troop (large):
Burning skeleton Troop CR 6 XP 2,400 NE Medium undead Init +6; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +7 Aura fiery aura (1d6) DEFENSE AC 18, touch 12, flat-footed 16 (+2 armor, +2 Dex, +4 natural) hp 59 (7d8+28) Fort +5, Ref +4, Will +7 DR 5/bludgeoning; Immune fire, undead traits, troop traits; Weaknessess vulnerability to cold OFFENSE Speed 30 ft. Melee troop (2d6+4 plus 1d6 fire) Space 20 ft.; Reach 5 ft. TACTICS During Combat Free-roaming skeleton troops typically rush forward and spread out as much as possible to engage as many enemies as they can reach, regardless of if this causes them to provoke attacks of opportunity. Troops accompanied by a cultist will usually be ordered to form a wall to prevent enemies from reaching the cultist. Morale A troop disperses when reduced to 0 hit points or fewer. STATISTICS Str 18, Dex 14, Con —, Int —, Wis 10, Cha 16 Base Atk +5; CMB +9; CMD 21 Feats Combat Reflexes, Improved InitiativeB, Iron Will, Stand Still, Toughness Skills Perception +7 SQ fiery death (3d6, DC 16) SPECIAL ABILITIES Fiery Aura (Ex): Creatures adjacent to a burning skeleton troop take 1d6 points of fire damage at the start of their turn. Anyone striking a burning skeleton troop with an unarmed strike or natural attack takes 1d6 points of fire damage. Fiery Death (Su): A burning skeleton troop explodes into a burst of flame when it dies. Anyone adjacent to the troop when it is destroyed takes 1d6 points of fire damage per 2 Hit Dice the troop possessed (minimum 1d6). A Reflex save (DC = 10 + 1/2 the troop’s Hit Dice + the troop’s Cha bonus) halves this damage. Burning skeleton troop (small):
Burning skeleton Troop CR 5 XP 1,600 NE Medium undead Init +6; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +5 Aura fiery aura (1d6) DEFENSE AC 17, touch 12, flat-footed 15 (+2 armor, +2 Dex, +3 natural) hp 42 (5d8+20) Fort +4, Ref +3, Will +4 DR 5/bludgeoning; Immune fire, undead traits, troop traits; Weaknessess vulnerability to cold OFFENSE Speed 30 ft. Melee troop (1d6+4 plus 1d6 fire) Space 20 ft.; Reach 5 ft. TACTICS During Combat Free-roaming skeleton troops typically rush forward and spread out as much as possible to engage as many enemies as they can reach, regardless of if this causes them to provoke attacks of opportunity. Troops accompanied by a cultist will usually be ordered to form a wall to prevent enemies from reaching the cultist. Morale A troop disperses when reduced to 0 hit points or fewer. STATISTICS Str 18, Dex 14, Con —, Int —, Wis 10, Cha 16 Base Atk +3; CMB +7; CMD 19 Feats Combat Reflexes, Improved InitiativeB, Stand Still, Toughness Skills Perception +5 SQ fiery death (2d6, DC 15) SPECIAL ABILITIES Fiery Aura (Ex): Creatures adjacent to a burning skeleton troop take 1d6 points of fire damage at the start of their turn. Anyone striking a burning skeleton troop with an unarmed strike or natural attack takes 1d6 points of fire damage. Fiery Death (Su): A burning skeleton troop explodes into a burst of flame when it dies. Anyone adjacent to the troop when it is destroyed takes 1d6 points of fire damage per 2 Hit Dice the troop possessed (minimum 1d6). A Reflex save (DC = 10 + 1/2 the troop’s Hit Dice + the troop’s Cha bonus) halves this damage. On to bloody skeletons. They add +1 CR, fast healing, channel resistance +4, +4 cha, and deathless, which is a bit weird on a troop, but who cares. They only appear in groups of 8, or CR 5, so a simple feature swap with the smaller burning skeleton troop gives this: Bloody skeleton troop:
Bloody skeleton Troop CR 5 XP 1,600 NE Medium undead Init +6; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +5 Aura fiery aura (1d6) DEFENSE AC 17, touch 12, flat-footed 15 (+2 armor, +2 Dex, +3 natural) hp 47 (5d8+25); fast healing 2 Fort +5, Ref +3, Will +4 Defensive Abilities channel resistance +4, deathless; DR 5/bludgeoning; Immune cold, undead traits, troop traits; OFFENSE Speed 30 ft. Melee troop (1d6+4) Space 20 ft.; Reach 5 ft. TACTICS During Combat Free-roaming skeleton troops typically rush forward and spread out as much as possible to engage as many enemies as they can reach, regardless of if this causes them to provoke attacks of opportunity. Troops accompanied by a cultist will usually be ordered to form a wall to prevent enemies from reaching the cultist. Morale A troop disperses when reduced to 0 hit points or fewer. STATISTICS Str 18, Dex 14, Con —, Int —, Wis 10, Cha 18 Base Atk +3; CMB +7; CMD 19 Feats Combat Reflexes, Improved InitiativeB, Stand Still, Toughness Skills Perception +5 SPECIAL ABILITIES Deathless (Su): A bloody skeleton troop is destroyed when reduced to 0 hit points, but it returns to unlife 1 hour later at 1 hit point, allowing its fast healing thereafter to resume healing it. A bloody skeleton can be permanently destroyed if it is destroyed by positive energy, if it is reduced to 0 hit points in the area of a bless or hallow spell, or if its remains are sprinkled with a vial of holy water. That just leaves skeletal champions. A group of 8 skeletal champions is CR 8, so this group needs to be made from scratch. When I saw they have Intimidate, I figured it would be fun to give them Dazzling Display even though the prereq of Weapon Focus makes no sense. Normal skeletal champion:
Skeletal Champion CR 2 XP 600 Human skeletal champion warrior 1 NE Medium undead Init +5; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +6 DEFENSE AC 21, touch 12, flat-footed 19 (+6 armor, +1 Dex, +2 natural, +2 shield) hp 17 (3 HD; 2d8+1d10+3) Fort +3 Ref +1 Will +3; channel resistance +4 DR 5/bludgeoning; Immune cold, undead traits OFFENSE Speed 30 ft. Melee mwk longsword +7 (1d8+3/19–20) STATISTICS Str 17, Dex 13, Con —, Int 9, Wis 10, Cha 12 Base Atk +2; CMB +5; CMD 16 Feats Cleave, Improved InitiativeB, Power Attack, Weapon Focus (longsword) Skills Intimidate +7, Perception +6, Stealth –1 Skeletal champion troop:
Skeletal Champion Troop CR 8 XP 4,800 NE Medium undead Init +6; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +15 DEFENSE AC 21, touch 12, flat-footed 19 (+6 armor, +2 Dex, +1 natural, +2 shield) hp 102 (12d8+48) Fort +7 Ref +6 Will +10; channel resistance +4 DR 5/bludgeoning; Immune cold, undead traits, troop traits OFFENSE Speed 30 ft. Melee troop (3d6+6) Space 20 ft.; Reach 5 ft. TACTICS During Combat Skeletal champion troops are highly organized and seldom break out of a regular formation. They start combat by intimidating their enemies with a display of their coordination, then march forward using an appropriate formation (typically a pincer to surround small groups). They prefer to avoid provoking attacks of opportunity unless they need to reach an enemy who is using area attacks on them. Morale A troop disperses when reduced to 0 hit points or fewer. STATISTICS Str 22, Dex 14, Con —, Int 9, Wis 10, Cha 16 Base Atk +9; CMB +15; CMD 27 Feats Combat Reflexes, Dazzling Display, Improved InitiativeB, Iron Will, Stand Still, Toughness, Weapon Focus (troop) Skills Intimidate +18, Perception +15, Stealth +11 For the archers, add the special ability:
Whew! Please let me know what you think.
Sorry for the short notice. I've got two slots open for Risen from the Sands (the Free RPG Day 2014 module) tonight on Fantasy Grounds. No software purchase is necessary for this game; you can just get the demo from the Fantasy Grounds website or Steam. For complete information and sign-ups, go here. I have pregenerated characters available, or you can get me your character (levels 2-4, but please don't bring a level 2 on this one) early and I'll convert it. Better yet, if you have Hero Labs, go to File -> Save Custom Output and choose the Fantasy Grounds option.
Normally, you can't modify the black blade of a bladebound magus beyond what it naturally grows into. However, the whole point of Sins of the Saviors is to get runeforged weapons. At the time of forging, the black blade will be at +4 with the ability to add +4 of enchantments more via the arcane pool. I'm looking for some advice on how to handle it. Here are the options I could use: 0) The magus may permanently enchant his black blade in the runeforge pool as if it were a normal magic weapon and it also follows normal black blade progression, becoming a +12 equivalent weapon when fully activated. Hahaha—no. 1) "Sorry magus, you're out of luck. Your sword's cool enough already." Don't like this either. 2) The magus may permanently enchant his black blade in the runeforge pool as if it were a normal magic weapon, but since it's already at +4/+4, this +2 bonus will make it +10 and cap the sword where it is. It will not increase to +5/+5 at level 17. This hurts a bit, but the game's ending at 17 anyway. He can still use arcane pool points to get the sword to a +5 enhancement if he likes. 2.5) As #2, but the blade advances to +5 at level 17. This leaves only +3 worth of enchantments that can be added with the arcane pool. Least favorite of the three reasonable choices. 3) Enchanting the black blade in the runeforge pool adds the runeforged ability to the list of weapon properties the magus can add to his blade with his arcane pool. The blade advances as normal. This seems a bit too flexible at first, but that is the point of the arcane pool, plus he won't get the passive bonuses of having a runeforged weapon unless that property is active at the time. My current favorite option. What do you think about these? Any other suggestions?
I've got a player with a Zen Archer 1/Ranger (n-1) character. A little while ago he asked for a +5 Sense Motive item. There's no such item in the books, but a +5 boost to a skill has a standard price of 2500 gp. He wanted it added to his +5 perception goggles. It seemed like a reasonable slot for the skill, plus the party was in a big city and had time to commission the item, so I allowed it at the standard 1.5x mark-up for stacking on a slot. Turns out I forgot he had Snake Style. I don't remember the conversation too clearly, but I'm pretty sure he didn't tell me the real reason he wanted the boost. I have effectively given him a +5 to his AC (and touch AC!) once a round for a measly 3750 gp. Are there any reasons why I shouldn't take the item away?
Role: The modern major-general knows that a military officer must be a great man—both a gentleman and a scholar. As a representative of his government, he must be able to hold his own in any battle, including philosophical and scientific debates. Alignment: As a high-ranking military officer, a modern major-general will almost always match the alignment of his government. The nature of a society that produces modern major-generals leads them to be almost exclusively lawful. Even in private matters, modern major-generals have enormous societal pressure to keep to this alignment at all times. Hit Die: d8. Requirements To qualify to become a modern major-general, a character must fulfill all the following criteria. Alignment: Must match the alignment of the character's government. Skills: Knowledge (nobility) 5 ranks Special: The character must be a commissioned officer in the military of a prosperous nation. Class Skills The modern major-general's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Appraise (Int), Bluff (Cha), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (all skills taken individually) (Int), Linguistics (Int), Perception (Wis), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis), Swim (Str), and Survival (Wis). Skill Ranks per Level: 6 + Int modifier. Level BAB Fort Ref Will Special
Class Features The following are the class features of the modern major-general prestige class. Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Modern major-generals gain no proficiency with any weapon or armor. Information Vegetable, Animal, and Mineral: At 1st level, the modern major-general receives Skill Focus (Knowledge [nature]) as a bonus feat. Persuasive Song (Ex): Starting at 2nd level, the modern major-general becomes skilled at using songs to manipulate people. Once per day he can sing a persuasive song, substituting a Diplomacy, Bluff, or Intimidate check with a Perform (sing) check and adding half his class level as a circumstance bonus. Every three levels after 2nd, he can perform one additional song per day, to a maximum of three per day at 8th level. These songs may be used in any circumstance where a Diplomacy, Bluff, or Intimidate check would be made, but take three minutes to perform. The modern major-general suffers a -20 circumstance penalty to Perception checks made to notice hidden creatures while performing a persuasive song. In addition, if a persuasive song is performed to replace a Bluff check, the dishonor causes the modern major-general to suffer from remorse, starting 1 hour after performing the song, for 24 hours or until he comes clean to the subject of the persuasive song. While suffering from remorse he takes a -2 morale penalty to all attack rolls, saving throws, skill checks, and ability checks. Quote the Fights Historical: At 3rd level, the modern major-general receives Skill Focus (Knowledge [history]) as a bonus feat. Intimidating Title (Ex): Starting at 4th level, the modern major-general can begin to harness the power of his status. Simply by saying he is a modern major-general as a swift action, he gains a free Intimidate check against his opponents, adding half his class level as a competence bonus. This ability can only be used against those who do not already know his title. This ability may be used as part of a persuasive song. At 7th level, the modern major-general's title can also be invoked by his allies, using half the modern major-general's class level as a competence bonus to Intimidate, even when he is not present. Matters Mathematical: At 5th level, the modern major-general receives Skill Focus (Knowledge [engineering]) as a bonus feat. Perfect Patter (Ex): Starting at 6th level, the modern major-general becomes an expert at speaking rapidly. His persuasive songs now take half the usual time to perform. He can also halve the time needed to do anything involving mainly speech, such as influencing attitude with Diplomacy. If he can cast spells, he can halve the time needed to cast spells with a verbal component that normally take more than 1 round to cast. At 10th level, he can reduce the time needed to cast spells with a verbal component and a 1 round casting time to a full-round action. Answer Hard Acrostics: At 7th level, the modern major-general receives Skill Focus (Linguistics) as a bonus feat. Appeal to Patriotism (Ex): Starting at 8th level, the modern major-general can appeal to the patriotism of even his most hardened enemies. Once per day, by invoking the name of his head of state or a national symbol, the modern major-general gains a circumstance bonus equal to his class level on Diplomacy checks against anyone who has even the most remote connection to his nation. He may do this in circumstances where Diplomacy checks may normally not be allowed, such as in combat. This ability may be used as part of a persuasive song. Whistle All the Airs: At 9th level, the modern major-general receives Skill Focus (Perform [sing]) as a bonus feat. Model Modern Major-General (Ex): At 10th level, the modern major-general's self-confidence is absolute. His Persuasive Song and Intimidating Title abilities now give his full character level as a bonus to their respective checks, and his Appeal to Patriotism ability now uses double his class level. Finally, the modern major-general gains a competence bonus equal to his class level to Diplomacy checks made to arrange marriages for members of his family.
I recently made an adjustment to a BBEG from Runelords (found here if you're interested) to give him magus levels. Normally, he has a weapon (with only one attack), a claw, and a bite. I'm not entirely sure what happens to the claw attack when using spell combat. I know the magus is supposed to keep one hand free for casting, but the question is whether making the attack with the claw means you can't also cast the spell. Extrapolating from the rule for shield attacks losing the shield's AC, it seems like it's either the spell or the attack. As for the bite, I'm pretty sure he keeps that even if he doesn't keep the claw. This would also be useful to know for when a magus morphs into a form with claw attacks.
I've got an odd problem in that my choice for the Skinsaw Man's target had to leave the game during Thistletop. So, I had to pick my target without any good foreshadowing. I've decided to adjust the Skinsaw Man to copy his target's class (magus) to make the envy (no female PCs) more obvious. I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't mind checking my conversion or offer suggestions. Normal statblock:
The Skinsaw Man
Male unique ghast aristocrat 4/rogue 3 CN Medium undead (human) Init +10; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +4 Aura stench (10-ft. radius, DC 17, sickened for 1d6+4 minutes), DEFENSE AC 23, touch 18, flat-footed 16 (+3 armor, +1 deflection, +6 Dex, +1 dodge, +2 natural) hp 90 (7d8+59) Fort +9, Ref +12, Will +9 Defensive Abilities channel resistance +4, evasion, trap sense +1; Immune undead traits OFFENSE Speed 30 ft. Melee +1 war razor +12 (1d4+5/19–20), bite +6 (1d6+2 plus disease and paralysis), claw +6 (1d6+2 plus paralysis) Special Attacks disease (ghoul fever, DC 17), paralysis (1d4+1 rounds, DC 17), sneak attack +2d6 STATISTICS Str 19, Dex 22, Con —, Int 18, Wis 18, Cha 24 Base Atk +5; CMB +9; CMD 27 Feats Dodge, Improved Initiative, Lightning Reflexes, Persuasive, Toughness, Weapon Finesse Skills Acrobatics +16 (+21 jump), Bluff +17, Climb +14, Diplomacy +19, Intimidate +19, Knowledge (local) +14, Knowledge (nobility) +14, Ride +14, Sense Motive +14, Sleight of Hand +16, Stealth +21 Languages Common, Elven, Varisian SQ rogue talents (finesse rogue), trapfinding +1 Gear +1 leather armor, +1 war razor, ring of jumping, ring of protection +1, stalker’s mask, extravagant noble’s outfit worth 200 gp, cameo worth 100 gp containing tiny portrait of PC, key to area B29 To adjust, the BAB and HD stay the same, but good saves go from Ref to Fort and Will. He gets (8-2)x3=18 fewer skill ranks. Acrobatics and Stealth are no longer class skills and gets dropped by 3. Slight of hand is no longer a class skill and probably has no ranks put into it. A bonus of +16 with a +6 DEX means 7 ranks, leaving 11 to get rid of. I can get rid of climb, that's another 7 done. Funny, I just realized he has no ranks in swim. Anyway, Ride is the next most obvious one to go, that's 5 ranks, meaning I'm 1 over. Spellcraft is a required skill to write spells in your book, so that's where it'll go for a total of +8. Convenient! Now for class abilities. Good-bye sneak attack, evasion, trapfinding, trap sense, and the rogue talent. This means he loses Weapon Finesse, which he needs, so I have to get rid of another feat. I'll pick Persuasive, even though it's cheating a little since it was probably his first feat. Diplomacy and Intimidate go down by 2. I replace the abilities with arcane pool (5 points), spell combat, spellstrike, a magus arcana, and—of course—spells. For the arcana, Close Range looks good so he can deliver Ray of Enfeeblement with spellstrike. Other suggestions are appreciated; also for the spell selection. From Rogue to Magus:
The Skinsaw Man
Male unique ghast aristocrat 4/magus 3 CN Medium undead (human) Init +10; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +4 Aura stench (10-ft. radius, DC 17, sickened for 1d6+4 minutes), DEFENSE AC 23, touch 18, flat-footed 16 (+3 armor, +1 deflection, +6 Dex, +1 dodge, +2 natural) hp 90 (7d8+59) Fort +11, Ref +10, Will +11 Defensive Abilities channel resistance +4; Immune undead traits OFFENSE Speed 30 ft. Melee +1 war razor +12 (1d4+5/19–20), bite +6 (1d6+2 plus disease and paralysis), claw +6 (1d6+2 plus paralysis) Special Attacks disease (ghoul fever, DC 17), paralysis (1d4+1 rounds, DC 17), spell combat, spellstrike Spells Prepared (CL 3th; concentration +7) 1st—frostbite, ray of enfeeblement (DC 15), shocking grasp, vanish 0 (at will)—detect magic, flare (DC 14), ghost sound (DC 14), ray of frost, read magic STATISTICS Str 19, Dex 22, Con —, Int 18, Wis 18, Cha 24 Base Atk +5; CMB +9; CMD 27 Feats Dodge, Improved Initiative, Lightning Reflexes, Toughness, Weapon Finesse Skills Acrobatics +13 (+18 jump), Bluff +17, Climb +14, Diplomacy +17, Intimidate +17, Knowledge (local) +14, Knowledge (nobility) +14, Sense Motive +14, Spellcraft +8, Stealth +18 Languages Common, Elven, Varisian SQ arcane pool (5 points), magus arcana (Close Range) Gear +1 leather armor, +1 war razor, ring of jumping, ring of protection +1, stalker’s mask, extravagant noble’s outfit worth 200 gp, cameo worth 100 gp containing tiny portrait of PC, key to area B29 Now, since I have six PCs, I'm adjusting his HP to max and adding 50% more wealth in gear. I'm also going to add a pair of plain ghast buddies. I should also mention that we're using hero points, and I haven't decided if he'll be getting any yet. Total wealth is just under 12,000 gp, so we'll add around 6000 gp. This is easiest done by making the war razor human bane, which will affect all but two of my PCs. But let's try a more diversified approach (besides, his arcane pool bumps the weapon up to +2 already). I try not to add any new items much more expensive than the enemy already has. A Sihedron medallion seems nice, but it makes it harder to pick other items and false life is unnecessary with my potion plans. I'm not even sure false life works with undead. I want gloves of elvenkind, but they're too expensive. I'll go for a cloak of resistance +2, amulet of natural armor +1, and add a potion of blur and ablative barrier. Since undead are immune to nonlethal damage, ablative barrier effectively gives 20 free hit points, unless the paladin is the only one who hits. His spellbook should get the total close enough. Six PC adjustment:
The Skinsaw Man
Male unique ghast aristocrat 4/magus 3 CN Medium undead (human) Init +10; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +4 Aura stench (10-ft. radius, DC 17, sickened for 1d6+4 minutes), DEFENSE AC 24, touch 18, flat-footed 17 (+3 armor, +1 deflection, +6 Dex, +1 dodge, +3 natural) hp 115 (7d8+59) Fort +13, Ref +12, Will +13 Defensive Abilities channel resistance +4; Immune undead traits OFFENSE Speed 30 ft. Melee +1 war razor +12 (1d4+5/19–20), bite +6 (1d6+2 plus disease and paralysis), claw +6 (1d6+2 plus paralysis) Special Attacks disease (ghoul fever, DC 17), paralysis (1d4+1 rounds, DC 17), spell combat, spellstrike Spells Prepared (CL 3th; concentration +7) 1st—frostbite, ray of enfeeblement (DC 15), shocking grasp, vanish 0 (at will)—detect magic, flare (DC 14), ghost sound (DC 14), ray of frost, read magic STATISTICS Str 19, Dex 22, Con —, Int 18, Wis 18, Cha 24 Base Atk +5; CMB +9; CMD 27 Feats Dodge, Improved Initiative, Lightning Reflexes, Toughness, Weapon Finesse Skills Acrobatics +13 (+18 jump), Bluff +17, Climb +14, Diplomacy +17, Intimidate +17, Knowledge (local) +14, Knowledge (nobility) +14, Sense Motive +14, Spellcraft +8, Stealth +18 Languages Common, Elven, Varisian SQ arcane pool (5 points), magus arcana (Close Range) Combat Gear potion of blur, potion of ablative barrier Other Gear +1 leather armor, +1 war razor, ring of jumping, ring of protection +1, stalker’s mask, cloak of resistance +2, amulet of natural armor +1, spellbook containing all prepared spells plus arcane mark, prestidigitation, dancing lights, burning hands, expeditious retreat, feather fall, magic missile, and shield, extravagant noble’s outfit worth 200 gp, cameo worth 100 gp containing tiny portrait of PC, key to area B29 I thought about adding another level of magus for BAB +6/+1 and 2nd-level spells, but decided it was going too far. The magus is already going to be dropping, probably the druid as well. Anyway, thanks for any help you can give.
I haven't had to deal much with polymorphing until now. My luck's run out, though, as I've been sent this question by one of my players. He's playing a magus. We're currently at level 2.
That bit at the end of the penultimate paragraph is partly explained by us using a virtual tabletop. Any suggestions on how to work this out? It's still somewhat Greek to me at this point. I don't get the part about templates, I thought you had to pick specific creatures from the bestiary to change into. I was thinking of allowing him to change into any creature he would know about by taking 10 on a knowledge check; this would mean that taking 20 to research the creature gives him enough info to safely transform. Also trying to figure out why a magus would want to use polymorphing for more than situational things.
I've been playing Pathfinder for a year now, mostly PFS, which as we all know has no crafting (Gunslingers don't count). I'm going to be playing in a Legacy of Fire campaign soon, and am jumping into my first full-blown wizard, complete with crafting. The rest of this is me attempting to explain the crafting rules to make sure I know them. Hopefully somebody will point out how I've completely misinterpreted something. Some of the parts in bold are what I'm not sure about yet. MASSIVE Wall o' text warning. Mundane Item Crafting:
Uses the Craft skill. Can be used untrained, but you'd better be pretty smart if you don't want to waste a bunch of raw materials. Requires artisan tools to avoid a -2 circumstance bonus, except for alchemy. Alchemy requires an alchemist's kit, but you don't need to worry about it if you're in a city. Still nice for the +2 bonus once you can afford it.
I'm taking Craft(alchemy). I want to make some Alchemist's Fire (AF from now on) on the cheap, because who doesn't like burning things? 1) Find the item's price in silver pieces (1 gp = 10 sp). AF costs 20 gp, or 200 sp. 2) Find the item's DC from Table: Craft Skills. AF is DC 20. 3) Pay 1/3 of the item's price for the raw material cost. AF costs the crafter 66 or 67 sp. 4) Make an appropriate Craft check representing one week's worth of work. If the check succeeds, multiply your check result by the DC. If the result × the DC equals the price of the item in sp, then you have completed the item. (If the result × the DC equals double or triple the price of the item in silver pieces, then you've completed the task in one-half or one-third of the time. Other multiples of the DC reduce the time in the same manner.) If the result × the DC doesn't equal the price, then it represents the progress you've made this week. Record the result and make a new Craft check for the next week. Each week, you make more progress until your total reaches the price of the item in silver pieces. OK, so getting a 20 to craft AF gives a result of 20 x 20 = 400 sp. Therefore, you can create 1 AF in half a week, or 2 AFs in a week (paying 134 sp), presumeably working 8 hours a day. Does this follow the magic item rules about crafting while adventuring? If you get a 30, that's 600 sp, or 3 AFs, you can make in a week. Now, do you have to make items one at a time, or can you just say how many you're making this week based on the result? Easier for everyone if it's the latter. You can also decide in advance to raise a DC by ten in order to work faster by raising your multiplier. Now getting your 30 to craft AF gives 30 x 30 = 900 sp, which is 4.5 AFs in one week, or one in two days. If you fail a check by 4 or less, you make no progress this week. If you fail by 5 or more, you ruin half the raw materials and have to pay half the original raw material cost again. If you get a 19 to craft AF, you make no progress, and if you get a 15, you lose 33 or 34 sp worth of materials. Making an antitoxin is DC 25, is worth 500 sp and costs 167 sp. Making the 25 gives 25 x 25 = 625 sp. This is ugly, but essentially you can make an antitoxin in 6 days. You need to get a 35 on your craft check at DC 35 before you can make 2 antitoxins in a week (6 days again, actually). Now, let's say I was crazy enough to make a masterwork weapon for my fighter pal without using the Masterwork Transformation spell. Let's pick a longsword, because it's worth 15 gp which is divisible by 3. The normal longsword costs 150 sp (crafter pays 50 sp), and is DC 15. Easy enough. Bare minimum is 15 x 15 = 225 sp and you've got your longsword in 5 days. Get your craft check up to 25 to get the sword done in 2 days. Once you go for masterwork, you're in trouble. 315 gp becomes 3150 sp. You pay 1050 sp or 105 gp, and the DC is now 20. 20 x 20 = 400 sp, and it takes 8 weeks to make that thing. Getting your craft skill up to 30 means it still takes you 3.5 weeks. If you only care about the bare minimum for crafting, you only need to get your craft bonus up to +13, because your alchemist's kit/mwk artisan's tools will give you a +2 to get you to the hardest DC (25) by taking 10 (this is ignoring traps and high strength composite bows). If you're only making weapons and armor, you only need a 20 for mwk stuff, or a +8 bonus on your own. Even lower if you just want to make your own arrows or something. But the extra speed is worth it, so craft is worth maxing if you're going to do any real amount of it. Magic Item Crafting:
Now here's where it's really happening. This requires feats, caster levels, some spell, and the only skill you need is Spellcraft (you can substitute others), which is why everyone looks at the wizard first for this. Magical Tattos are the exception, requiring a related Craft skill.
This is somewhat simpler than mundane crafting, I suppose to make up for the extra cost and requirements. You have to pay half of the base price of the item in raw materials, and you can make an item in 1 day per 1000 gp of its base price, irrespective of the DC. This is working 8 hours per day. If you rush, you can complete this in only 4 hours by increasing the DC by 5, but you cannot exceed the 1000 gp/day limit. If you work while adventuring, you can squeeze in 4 hours of work to get 2 hours (or 250 gp) worth of progress. If you get a portable artificer's lab (costs 300 gp), you get 3 hours of progress (375 gp) for those 4 hours of work, but the DC goes up by 5. You also need the required spell prepared (or known, if you're a spontaneous caster) each day you're working on the item, and it must be cast during the process. Potions and scrolls are an exception to this rule; they can take as little as 2 hours to create (if their base price is 250 gp or less). Scrolls and potions whose base price is more than 250 gp, but less than 1,000 gp, take 8 hours to create, just like any other magic item. [...]Regardless of the time needed for construction, a caster can create no more than one magic item per day. While mundane crafting lets you make rolls per day of work if you so desire, magical crafting requires full commitment. You make one Spellcraft roll at the end of the required amount of time based on the base price of the item you want to make. Fail this roll by 4 or less and the item doesn't work, and you've wasted all that time and money. Fail by 5 or more, and it's cursed, which the GM gets to have fun with. At least if it's cursed you can sell it to some schmuck if you're chaotic and/or evil, or find a weird collector. For this reason, you shouldn't spend the resources to craft something unless you can finish it by taking 10 on your check. Exceeding the DC by any amount gives you nothing extra; no faster speed or cheaper cost. But if you fail, you're screwed. Nothing like wasting days of work and thousands of gold because you didn't roll high on the die. On the other hand, maybe you're the gambling type and you've got a lot of extra money from crafting already, right? Right? Let's spice this up with some examples, hey? Let's say I'm taking Craft Wonderous Item at level 3. The first thing I want to make is a Handy Haversack, because I'm a weakling and the fighter's getting sick of carrying my crafting gear. It's base price is 2000 gp, so I know it'll take 2 days of full effort and cost 1000 gp. What else do I need? Craft Wonderous Item and the spell Secret Chest. Well, dang. Secret chest is a 5th level spell, so I can't cast it until I'm level 9. Not to worry, as I can simply substitue requirements by increasing the DC of the Spellcraft check to show how much harder I have to work at it! The crafting feat is always required, though, and you can't substitute requirements when crafting potions, spell-trigger items (wands and staves), and spell-completion items (scrolls). OK, the base DC for crafting magical items is 5 plus CL. Handy Haversack is a 9th CL item (because of Secret Chest), so the base DC is 14. I don't know Secret Chest, so I have to increase the DC by 5 to ignore that requirement, making it a DC 19. At level 3, I've got a 20 int (+5) and max ranks (+3) in Spellcraft, a class skill for me (+3), giving me a +11 in Spellcraft. Taking 10 gives me a 21, meaning I have no problem making this item! If I wanted to work only 4 hours per day, however, that would push the DC to 24, and I'd have to roll a 13 on the die; not worth the risk. If I'm making this while I'm out adventuring, I can get it done in 8 days. Using a portable artificer's lab shortens this time to 6 days, but the DC is 24 again and I'm not ready for that yet. With my luck, the GM would say I made a Bag of Devouring by accident. Now, let's say I didn't have that high a Spellcraft bonus, couldn't be sure of making the DC 19 and didn't want to chance it on the dice. There's a couple of ways around this. First, I can get some friendly caster who can cast Secret Chest to stand over my shoulder and cast it when I need it. Maybe. You could read it so that this isn't allowed. I'd probably have to pay him, though. I could also go buy two scrolls of Secret Chest (one for each day I'll need to craft the item), and make a caster level check to cast the spell from the scroll. That costs more than the market price of the Haversack, though, and would be pretty stupid. Now, with items where the spell required doesn't line up so nicely with the item's caster level, how does that work? Does the higher CL only adjust the base DC, or have I gotten this all wrong and need to increase the DC by 5 for the lack of the CL, as well? Magic Weapons and Armor:
These basically follow the rules for other magical items, except the caster level here is enforced and can't be replaced by raising the DC of the Spellcraft check. You also need the Craft Magic Arms and Armor feat and a masterwork weapon or armor, of course. There are two things you can do do a weapon or armor: give it an enhancement bonus, or give it a special ability. An enhancement bonus is easy: the caster level required is three times the enhancement bonus, so a +2 longsword requires a 6th level caster, and the base DC is 11. No fancy spells required. The market price is 8315 gp (8000 for the +2 and 315 for the mwk longsword), but you only worry about the 8000 gp the magical part takes, since you're starting with a mwk longsword. So it'll take you 8 days and 4000 (+ 315) gp to make. That's less time than it took the blacksmith to make the mwk sword in the first place. Working 4 hours a day raises the DC to 16, while working while adventuring takes 32 days (22 at DC 16 with a portable artificer's lab).
If you want a special ability, you'll need to check for the caster level of the ability you're adding. These also require spells, which can be skipped by raising the DC by 5. Now, since special abilities can't be added to weapons without enhancements, there's the question of how the required CLs interact. You simply take the higher of the two as the requirement. For example, I want to make my fighter pal a +2 frost longsword. Starting with a masterwork longsword (already paid for), I need to be 6th level for the +2, and 8th level for the frost ability, so I need to be 8th level. I also need the spell Ice Storm (or Chill Metal if I were a druid), which isn't a problem since it's only a 4th level spell. The frost ability costs the same as a +1 bonus, so this weapon is priced as if it were a +3 weapon, or 18000 gp. This takes 9000 gp and 18 days of work from me, and I need to make a DC 13 check. If I wanted to only work 4 hours a day AND I didn't have Ice Storm, the DC is still only 23, which a wizard has no problem making by taking 10 at level 8. Now, I want to take that +2 frost longsword and make it a +3 frost longsword. The caster level is now determined by the +3 bonus, which gives 9th CL, and that beats the 8th CL from the frost ability. As for the cost, a +4 bonus costs 32000 gp, but you've already got 18000 gp of it, so you need to work with the difference, or 14000 gp. That's 14 days of work at DC 14, costing 7000 gp. I'm pretty sure you don't need Ice Storm now, since you already have the frost property. If you started from scratch at this point, you would still need Ice Storm even though the +3 bonus is what determines the caster level. Upgrading the frost ability to the icy burst ability is probably allowed, since the latter is a clear upgrade to the former and they require the same spell. This raises the caster level to 10th, beating the 9th CL from the +3, and so on and so forth. Armor is just like weapons, except with costs, and therefore time commitment, halved. There are also a lot of magic items (such as rings of protection) that follow the x3 caster level rule for each level of bonus they provide. And that's more than enough. Thanks to those who read through that. Just typing this out, I caught 3 or 4 mistaken assumptions I had. I'd appreciate any other corrections you can give me.
The previous threads on the topic are long and full of arguing, so I'm making a new one in the hopes an agreement has been reached that I missed. Do alchemists need to draw their extracts as a move action before they can drink them as a standard? If it were up to me I'd say no, drawing and drinking is a standard like a spell, but this is for PFS. How about the mutagen? I'm thinking Accelerated Drinker shouldn't work on extracts if this is the case. On a related note, it's pointless to put extracts and mutagens in spring-loaded wrist sheathes if I'm right, but can you even load them with normal potions in the first place? Compressed spring + glass = bad idea.
Background:
I made each of my players take one of the campaign traits either from the RotR player's guide or from the APG, since they're Sandpoint-related. One of my players took the Outlander(Exile) trait, I suspect simply for the +2 initiative. "For whatever reason, you were forced to flee your homeland. Chance or fate has brought you to town, and it's here that your money ran out, leaving you stranded in this small town. You are also being pursued by enemies from your homeland, and that has made you paranoid and quick to react to danger. You gain a +2 trait bonus on Initiative checks." He then proceeded to present me with a very well-researched backstory that fit the trait. His PC is a female emberkin aasimar flame oracle who was raised at the Everlight Oasis. Unfortunately, her twin sister killed the priestess who raised them and pinned the blame on the PC, who had to run for her life and ended up in Sandpoint. The player has not nearly been cautious enough for someone who is being hunted by Kelish soldiers. Short version: a player made the huge mistake of giving me an evil twin to work with. The PC is a female aasimar with purple eyes (but brown hair, not white, sadly), and the evil twin has already framed the PC for murder in the past. The scenario practically wrote itself at this point, and I had to take an evil laugh break. Evil twin motivation:
The player gave me no reason for the evil twin's actions, so I have a blank slate here. I'm leaning towards envy. Being an oracle of flame (and aasimar to boot) at one of Sarenrae's major holy sites means the PC was paid a lot of attention. The twin grew furious over the special treatment, and framed the PC for murder to get rid of her. So first order of business: what class to make the twin? Oracle's currently out for motivation reasons. I was thinking of making her a cleric of Ymeri, but emberkin get bonuses to INT and CHA, so this isn't playing to her strengths. Antipaladin might be interesting, but I'm not sure you can go to antipaladin without being a paladin first. Also not playing to her strengths. Fire wizard isn't really hardy enough to survive, but I was thinking of giving her a charmed goon, anyway. The party will be level 5, possibly 6 by the time they fight. Now, my rough plan is for the party to have just finished investigating the first Skinsaw murder scene when a Kelish party rides up, looking for the sheriff. They heard the town had trouble with an aasimar recently, and another aasimar helped take care of her. They've come looking for their fugitive. One of the men is actually the evil twin in disguise, which the soldiers don't know. Hemlock's going to cover for the PC, since she's a hero. I need to work out the political situation some, because I want the soldiers to have some support from Magnimar, but not enough so that politics alone forces Hemlock to arrest the PC immediately. After the party investigates the sanatorium, the twin will let herself be seen killing someone, attempting to link the PC to the other murder. At some point, she'll kill one of the soldiers, maybe replacing the captain. The party will figure things out or catch her at something, have a chase scene, and the confrontation. My final question is how to work the disguise? A normal hat of disguise won't disguise an aasimar as a human, and a greater hat of disguise seems like a WBL breaker as loot at that level (costs 12K gp). Any advice you can give would be appreciated.
Had an odd situation come up in my last game. The oracle summoned an eagle while the party was fighting an enemy druid. The druid had speak with animals already cast, and had prepared charm animal, but had no targets for it until the eagle showed up. Stealing the summon sounded fun so I just went with it. Didn't do much harm and successfully ticked off the party. After the session, I did some rule checking. I now see that the oracle could have simply dismissed the summon as a standard action, but what if she decided not to? The eagle is now friendly to both the summoning oracle and the enemy druid. The druid can actually speak to the eagle, but its link is with the oracle, who can't give it orders. The druid's animal companion is dead, so there are no other targets for the eagle. The druid won a Charisma check against the eagle to have it attack one of the other PCs, but should it have been against the oracle instead? Are summoned eagles even vulnerable to charm animal in the first place? Can the oracle get the eagle to do anything if she can't speak to it? What happens if the oracle forgets she can dismiss the eagle and attacks it instead?
First time I've done anything like this, so I thought I'd get a second opinion. My RotR group consists of only three players (switch-hitter ranger, oracle of flames, and archaeologist bard), so I expect they will be level 4 (which means animal companion) by the time they get to the second level of Thistletop. Most of the fights should still be a challenge since it's a lot of relatively tough people. The problem I see is Lyrie. She only has 24 hp, so mirror image is basically the only chance she has of seeing the end of the second round. Plus the group might have recruited Orik. Now, the group caught Tsuto, stripped his gear, and took him to the garrison. They are currently in the Catacombs of Wrath. What I'm thinking is to have Tsuto escape while they're down there. This way he's available to back up Lyrie, and it makes Lyrie herself more memorable than just "random wizard." It will also put pressure on the group to raid Thistletop without waiting for Sheriff Hemlock or Shalelu to return to Sandpoint. If I did this, how do I adjust for Tsuto's lost gear? Normally the two of them make a CR 5 fight, worth 1600 XP (800 each). I was going to drop the CR by 1 for the lost gear, but I realized the only thing that really affected Tsuto in combat was the ring of protection +1. So maybe I should leave the CR and XP alone. I need to make a decision about Tsuto's escape by tonight, but I don't think they'll get to Lyrie until next week at the earliest. Any advice is appreciated. I overthink things, and I needed to take my hands off this for now.
I'm new to GMing. I've started running Rise of the Runelords, and I have a question about when the AP doesn't give complete loot for monsters from the bestiaries. The goblins were fine; since they had a good amount of gear already, I didn't worry about slighting my players a small amount of gold. Later, I see sinspawn, and the Treasure entry there says "standard (ranseur, other treasure)." OK, what am I supposed to be doing? I'm working from the SRD, I have the Treasure per Encounter table, so I know that this CR2 creature should have 800 gold worth of loot (Fast XP track). A ranseur costs 10 gp. Now I really don't want to have to come up with 790 gp worth of loot that a sinspawn might be carrying, and it feels silly to just have it carrying 400 gp. I'm also going to have to do this again for most of the other standard monsters, it seems. Kind of annoying, since I bought an AP so I wouldn't have to worry about most of this basic encounter building. I don't really mind doing it if there's some quick and dirty way to handle it. Any suggestions?
I've got a player for my Rise of the Runelords campaign who wants to play an emberkin aasimar oracle of flames that ends up as a Divine Scion. I took a look at the class, and didn't like what I saw, so I sent him this (please note that I am not allowing Evil or CN characters in this campaign):
Can you tell me if I interpreted the rules correctly here?
I'm going to be picking up the Inner Sea World Guide while it's on sale. Are there any other books of similar importance you would recommend for a GM planning on running games in Golarion?
I ran this one a couple of weeks ago, some confusing things came up that I made a quick ruling on, and fun was had. There are still a few things I haven't figured out which I'm hoping to get clarified before I run it again this weekend, if you'd be so kind. 1) The frog's grabby tongue. What's the usual tactics with this? Grab & reel in for biting next round? Can he pull a goblin in the same round he grabs it? Does he have to drop the grapple before he can bite? 2) The two dogs are in the same area, but one's chained to the mast on the lower deck, oddly. I decided that both dogs would wait together for the goblins on the upper deck for there to be any sort of challenge, but this seems contrary to their nature. 3) One of the players on the lower deck wanted to lob up something (alchemist's fire, tanglefoot bag, can't remember) at one of the dogs near the edge of the upper deck (FYI: not in melee). I decided that the dog would have cover (-4 to attack) and total concealment (50% miss chance). I briefly considered giving another -4 to attack for a non-standard use of a thrown item, but decided not to. 4) There was fighting in the rigging, which was awesome. Normally to cross the rigging between masts is a DC 10 Climb check; auto succeed for anyone with spider climb. Does having a climb speed mean you can do things like charging or bull rushing while climbing? Or are your hands too busy with the climbing? 5) I forgot to have Vorka use her Desnan candle 1st round like she's supposed to (too excited by produce flame), so later I had her pull it out and get ready to use it from the rigging, and then she got hit by a bomb. I decided the firework was burning, she dropped it to summon instead, and it shot out in random directions for the next 4 rounds. That's more a fun story, but it brings me to my actual question: 5a) Vorka's tactics say she first lights the Desnan candle, which fires a weak attack every round for 4 rounds. That's a terrible use of 4 rounds. I know you're not supposed to adjust mechanics intentionally, but will it matter if I adjust her tactics and have her light the firework and throw it amid the party? And here's couple fun things that came up as a hopefully fun thank-you for reading this far: This post is long: One player tried to win the hide-or-get-clubbed game by giving away the location of the other players when it was their turn to hide. He failed miserably, which made it extra hilarious.
One player spider-climbed up the galley chimney (knew there was a dog inside by this time). He tried dropping fireworks down into the fire, but they were only paper candles and did squat. Then he dropped various liquids he was carrying down there, put out the fire, and climbed down and out of the stove. Ended up getting a nice flank on Cuddles
I'm making an elf witch for PFS play, and I started with a concept of Mary Poppins. After adding in some Dolores Umbridge and Nanny Ogg, I've ended up with the nicest little old elf lady you've ever met. She just can't believe that the nice young man (such a shame about that scar on his face) would really hurt her, put that big knife away before you hurt yourself. Once she's ticked off, though, out comes the Evil Eye and the cackling. So she's high INT, low WIS, decent CHA, and I need to pick skills. I have 6, plus a 7th from favored class if I need it. Fly, Knowledges arcana & nature, Spellcraft, and Perception are no-brainers. The question is how to use the charisma. UMD is nice, but how useful is it with the witch's great spell list? I could work with either Diplomacy (nice old lady) or Intimidate (scary old lady); Diplomacy requiring a trait to get as a class skill, and Intimidate I'm not sure how useful it is. Then again, the nice old lady schtick is going to become an act eventually, so Bluff could work well. Maybe I could combine it with Disguise for some fun. (Why isn't Disguise a class skill for witches?) Any ideas?
Any way for casters to get Precise Shot for their rays without having to get the waste feat of Point Blank Shot? The combination of firing into melee and nearly-always-there soft cover for an effective -8 is kinda ridiculous. Maybe I should encourage my wizard player to use his bow more so he can make better use of the feats.
Can Create Water wash away Grease, at least enough so it can be ignored mechanically? My gut says it'll wash away grease from one 5' square, object or medium creature, 'cause that's a decent chunk of water. On the other hand, no surfactants (soap).
[background]
My question is: would it be better for Beginner's Box players to run a couple of modules like We Be Goblins, Fallen Fortress, and whatever's the Free RPG Day module for this year to get them used to the full Pathfinder rule system before adding on the additional layer of PFS? Or are the First Steps modules good enough?
"Why do birds suddenly appear every time you are near?"
If you're not familiar with the Spellscar Mystery for oracles, it was in Inner Sea Magic. Also, here. Oracles with this mystery have been affected by primal magic, and gain the ability to unleash said forces on their foes. I was recently encouraged to give this one a try, and since I like playing flavorful characters, I agreed to give it a go. My character was caught in a release of primal magic, and has been altered (hair is now purple, became left-handed, Dad is now a chicken, etc.). Attempts to restore her and Dad have been unsuccessful, and her only hope is that her own developing magic can do what others' can't. Break Enchantment is obtained at 10th level. Unfortunately, primal magic events have been ruled out of bounds for PFS play (see here). This leaves the Spellscar oracle merely really good at telling enemy spellcasters to sit down and shut up. But that's not good enough for me! Spellscar oracles are supposed to be about unleashing chaotic forces they can barely control and trusting their party to react better than their enemies. You killed the most fun part of the mystery, Paizo, and I want it back! So, I made my own table of fifty primal magic events to be unleashed when the oracle casts a spell or uses a revelation. They are intended to NOT have any effect on the gameplay mechanics, as long as we can all agree that people have a Weirdness Censor and can ignore things you would expect to startle them, like chocolate rain. My hope is that any average (and slightly below-average) PFS GM would see that these effects don't have to actually affect the game and allow them as normal roleplaying. Since these could be used in non-PFS games as well, or modified and used as normal primal magic events, I decided to throw them up here. Table of "Innocuous" Primal Magic Events Please give me any suggestions/warnings/funny insults you have, or make your own events and I'll add them to the list.
I've recently gotten into Pathfinder after only experiencing D&D through the Neverwinter Nights and similar games. I avoided casters at first because the spell list was really simplified for the games (No flying, hardly any utility spells besides Identify and Knock, etc.) I think I'm ready to enter the world of prepared casting now. I wanted a divine caster because I don't think I'm ready for managing a wizard's spellbook to access the spell list. I went with cleric because I had a flash for a character concept I like. The part of mechanical interest is that this cleric also knows a decent bit about arcane magic from her background (read: UMD). This is for Society play, so Mystic Theurge is out of the question, since it takes too long. I don't like the slowed spell progression even for a full 20 levels, anyway. I had some help in the form of Rogue Eidolon's guide to the domains, but the rest of it is all my fumbling in the dark. I'm hoping to get some advice on my planning process, but I'll be cutting a lot to avoid wordiness. Human Cleric 1
Traits: Dangerously Curious for UMD, Beneficent Touch (Silver Crusade, reroll 1s while healing 1/day. Bleh.) Diety: Desna, Domains: Luck (Bit of luck will be OP when allies get multiple attacks), Travel (Not as sure about this over Liberation now; +10 movement seems less important when you're not going to melee. Teleport still nice.) Skills: 2 + 1 human + 1 INT + 1 favored class = 5. Diplomacy, Heal, Sense Motive, UMD, rotating Knowledge: Religion, Arcana, and maybe Planes. Feats: Selective Channeling, Combat Casting, planned for Heavy Armor, Extend Spell, Improved Initiative, Lighting Reflexes, and Combat Expertise. Didn't realize you had to be in melee for that one. Iteration 2 will drop STR to 8 and bump INT to 14, using the extra skill point to pick up Spellcraft, which fits the concept nicely but I wasn't sure was that helpful for a cleric. Also not sure about Heal's usefulness. Maybe could drop DEX to 10 to get WIS to 15 + 2 = 17 so it's 20 at level 12, but then I couldn't get even that little help to ranged attacks. The Benificent Touch trait is getting swapped out, probably for Reactionary, or maybe Deft Dodger, and maybe I should take Quicken Spell. I know about the rods, but I'm not really sure how they're used. I was going to use a shield and just chuck darts when I'm out of spells early on, but maybe I should use a crossbow instead? I wasn't really looking at the APG when I made this. Maybe this build idea is a lot simpler as an Oracle. Any help or ideas you have would be appreciated. |
