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My group and I are having a debate on this, and I completely believe I am the one who is correct, so please enlighten me if I am not:

The half-elf reads as follows:Multitalented
Half-elves choose two favored classes at first level and gain +1 hit point or +1 skill point whenever they take a level in either one of those classes. See Classes for more information about favored classes.

The way that reads to me, is that the half elf gets 2 classes he can pick a favored bonus is, and can select that bonus at every level, and also gets either a hip point, or a skill point on top of that. Alternatively he could choice HP or skill point in both his classes and so long as he stayed within both classes while leveling, he would end up with one of each at every level. Am I wrong? Or is that not exactly how that reads?

ok, so my group is starting a new campaign. Our last two have been an Epic followed by a Mythic and this time we're going for "normal".

i've decided on a Bloodrager (Blood Conduit) for my character, however i have absolutely no idea what i want to do beyond that. no idea on race, build, background, or anything. I cant seem to come up with an idea of what to do....any advice is welcome.

this question is pretty cut and dry, but i can seem to find a "which one wins" answer to it.

What happens if someone casts a spell such as Teleport or dimension door with a target location inside of an anti magic field?

understandably, once inside the field, all magic stops working, but because of the way teleportation magic works in PF, the movement from one location to another is not effected by AMF if the movement is only passes through it, but not ends in it. what happens if the desired location is within it?

AMF says "Anti Magic Field suppresses any spell or magical effect used within, brought into, or cast into the area, but does not dispel it."

teleport spells do not make mention of not being able to be cast with a location suppressed by an AMF. the only conclusion i can therefore draw, is that you would succeed in hitting your location with no problems, but be unable to do anything once there, or you simply would fail at casting the spell as if it were an "area of strong physical or magical energy". my only concern with that, is those areas are supposed to be things like important magical places, just just a position covered in a spell.

ok, so this was discussed in another thread and a few of use realized that it is now entirely possible to make a character that gets two Black Blades. I am endeavoring to make this character a reality and would like some help to flesh it out.

aside from the obvious issue with a single character wielding two Black Blades (they are obviously going to hate each other). If we assume that they are actually willing to work along side one another, either out of mutual necessity, or some plot point about being twins, or copies or whatever else. the Mechanical aspect of how this character would work needs fine tuning.

So here is what i have come up with so far:

as a base, just to make it playable, the character needs to start at level 6 just to have acquired both blades. so in any combination, we need to take:

3 levels in Magus (Bladebound)
3 levels in Arcanist (Blade Adept)

aside from needing these two archetypes to function, i also think that because we are taking levels in arcanist we need to take the Eldritch Scion archetype so that we can focus on just CHA as our main stat for both classes. This also lets us do some cool things later on by taking the Arcane Bloodline for the Bloodrager.

so.....last thing I'll add is that in order to make this work we are going to need 2 weapons: we can either do the popular idea and make both ends of a double weapon the two black blades, which would be easy enough to pull off by just adding on the Staff Magus archetype to everything else but theres still the requirement of 1 handed slashing weapons for Blackblades to overcome. My personal Idea, though, is to take two Sawtooth Sabres for weapons. both qualify and are identical so there is no disperity. the exotic weapon proficiency makes them easy to TWF with as well.

I will be posting my initial build later (i need to build it first). any ideas on race? traits? build concepts?

In another thread we were talking about creating a wand of a 1st level spell using 3 metamagic feats and magical lineage and spell perfection and why/whynot.

I would like to know if there is any specific rule or FAQ on what determines what level a spell is at when creating an item. As far as I can tell, the only rule on the matter is that creating the item uses the spell from the slot its prepared in when doing the crafting. For me, that says that if I prepared it as a 1st level spell, it is expended at creation as such.

ok, so i posted a thread a while back asking for advice on how to fix my Magus/Monk after a terrible plot twist. my GM and i have discussed everything and figured out the story related elements and dramatic backstory changes necessary for my character to proceed in the campaign. part of this is to do a rebuild using the retraining rules in UCamp to change some things i already had, but this post os more about what i didn't already have and what i need to change in the build design.

Basically, this character is now going to be focused entirely on a "True Magus" build using Frostbite and Shocking Grasp debuffing/nova combos. Keep in mind that he is a Kasatha, so i'll be able to use rods/wands/etc. stuff fairly easily with spell combat, so any functionally effective combos using the extra two arms are welcome, but he wont be using MWF as i was already doing that, and it has now been removed as it was very hard to hit with the penalties.

the build assumes that by level 20 i will have an 18th level BB, a Legendary (mythic) weapon with cruel + spell storing + Keen +2 enhancement and another similar weapon. I also plan to create wands of bull's strength, Expeditious retreat, Mirror Image, shield, and haste once i have the feat to do so. i'll be using three spring loaded wrist sheathes so i'll have lots of options for using what i need to.

I was also thinking of making a wand of Intensified Empowered Maximized Shocking Grasp at level 15 using spell Perfection, Magical Lineage, Empowered Magic arcana to make it a 1st level spell when casting into the wand. I would also do this same thing when casting SG into any spellstoring items i have. thoughts?

spells prepped and Pearls of Power will mainly be used to cast Frostbite combined with Enforcer+Rime Spell+Cruel Weapon to do butt loads of debuffing. I know its not the MOST that can be done, but it's more than enough most of the time. anything else can just get stunned via another spell or stunning fist.

All in all, am i doing this right as far as feats go? should i be focused more on magical feats instead of melee feats? if so, what do i use? i've no idea what would be better and why. I've read all the relevant guides, but don't see why spell focus/specialization would benefit me. perhaps someone could enlighten me?

i know this has been beaten to death on these forums time and again, but it seems to me that the guides arn't as comprehensive on this as they could be.

So I, having never actually built a Magus to nova before, want to know exactly what i need to create the most powerful and frequent nova a magus can do.

i know the basics:
-magical lineage - Shocking Grasp
-Shocking Grasp on spell list
-Intensified Spell
-Maximize Spell
-Spell Perfection
-Pearls of Power for repeats
-Keen weapon for a high crit chance for x2 spell damage

but what about other gear/feats that compliment or assist in the build? or is this seriously just a secondary "throw it in for the big hits" add on for another build focus?

Does a summoned creature such as a summoner's eidolon have available item slots like a player? Could I for example give one a belt of giants strength to wear to boost stats?

ok, so long story short:

i will be missing out on several sessions in the near future due to work related travel during which my group will continue to play without me. I need to figure out what my character does during this elapsed time that he is away. Keep in mind that this is an "evil campaign" and my character is LE.

So my questions are as follows:

1)i am considering a complete and total "rebuild" using the retraining rules in UCamp to retrain all feats and class levels into an entirely new class. something like oracle where i take the blind curse and gouge out my own eyes, or something like that (perhaps maim my own leg, not sure). the group thinks this would be unique and interesting and would certainly be something we've never seen before - a character leaving and coming back essentially a whole new person. there are a few speedbumps, of course, such as what exactly happens to class features/feats that grant physical items such as the blackblade. One idea for the blackblade was that since a Kasatha's mouth is a mystery, it is entirely possible that he could physically EAT the blade. this works nicely for me because my character believes that his soul is trapped in the blade and is what gives it its intelligence and ability to speak to him, so eating it would allow him to "keep his soul" while still removing the class feature. Theres also the matter of retraining mythic feats such as Legendary Item which i took at tier 1 for a second weapon (he uses MWF, shocking, i know). What are your thoughts on this? what are some other good ideas along these lines? How would you go about doing this?

2) i could take a less drastic approach that only retrains a couple feats such as MWF and a couple others so that the character remains a magus and loses the monk level. I like the idea of this for two reasons: a) because i love playing a magus and b)although i am happy with how i built him, it quickly became apparent that i was trying to do too many things at once with the build. he uses MWF, Spell combat, crane style v1.0, snake style, the frostbite/enforcer build, and the intensified shocking grasp build all at once. as a result he sorta became a jack of no trades because he wasn't focused on any one thing and pretty much cant hit the braud side of a barn anymore. It's still fun to roleplay his terribleness in combat, but he's no longer an asset in a fight as he should be for the group. so should i refocus him as a single magus build concept such as frostbite or shocking grasp build? this way he could return as a "more focused and ready to kick some god behind" character that is just a more fierce version of what he was before which could show that he found his purpose and meaning in life again and is ready to get after it.

3)i am entirely open to any other ideas anyone has. feel free to throw them at me.

side note: what are some good ideas for a personal goal for him now that he's no longer the "Darth Vader" to Asmodeous' "Emperor"?

if a character has levels in both wizard and sorcerer, do all of the spells written in his spellbook count as "Spells Known" for the purposes of casting a spell with a sorcerer spell slot?

i'm almost entirely sure they do not, but this subject came up in another thread and i figured why not give it its own thread to settle the matter. also, if i HAVE been arguing incorrectly, i would like to know.

perhaps this question has been answered long ago, but i haven't found it with my terrible search-fu. Could someone please explain to me why Weapon Focus (ray) is a thing, but Weapon Focus (Touch) is not? it seems very odd that ranged touch attacks can be considered a weapon for the purposes of this feat, but melee touch attacks, which are defined as "armed unarmed attacks" are not. With a Touch attack you do not provoke AoO (after you cast it), and can hold the charge as long as you want, effectively holding an attacker at bay defensively, whereas a Ray spell cannot be held and always provokes an AoO. it seems dumb that you cannot take Weapon Focus is something that is more of a weapon (as defined by the rules) than something that you CAN take it in.

and while i do understand that you can pretty much get around this by taking Weapon Focus (unarmed Strike) if you have IUS, the bonus would not apply to the free touch attack associated with the spell unless you were a Magus using spellstrike to deliver it (assuming the "weapon in your other hand" was an Unarmed Strike). it also would not allow you to increase the damage for the spell with subsequent feats such as Weapon Specialization if you could qualify for it.

i just want to know the justification for this, or if its simply an oversight made when the Developers rules that Weapon Focus (Ray) was allowable...

thread name says it all.

under the "Slotted Wonderous Items" rules it states the following:

If a creature has multiple body parts that correspond to a single wondrous item slot, it can still only gain the benefit of one item of that slot.

as we all know, this is refering to having 2 hands and 2 feet and not being able to wear 1 boot or 1 glove of a set and 1 of another, and gain both benifits, or wearing 8 rings.

the problem is that this rule has historically been used to explain the above. it doesn't consider having 4 hands. You have 1 "ring slot" per hand, and 1 "hands slot" per pair of hands. so what happens when you have 4 arms? do you now have 4 "ring" slots and 2 "hands" slots?

I'm trying to prove to to a tablemate that this build is actually a decent build. But I've never actually built anything like this. I've never even used vital strike before. So I need ideas on how to maximize potential. So far I've got gravity bow in a wand and vital strike, point-blank, precise shot, weapon focus, deadly aim, and vanishing trick and assassinate on my list of things to use. What else improves this build? Obviously increasing size helps, but how to do it without someone else to cast enlarge Person on you? What about increasing damage from sneak attack? Static damage? Ways to better the DC on assassinate?

i just came to a terrible realization when combing through rules on concealment and other things that use a D% to determine hit/miss.

i noticed that just about every D% roll in the came (at least that i can find so far) is in an increment of 10. normally this isn't a bad thing, but when you figure the fact that the most common way a player or GM rolls for D% (out of 100) is with two D10's you notice that it suddenly your 20/100 is really a 2/10, which, while making the roll much simpler, also eliminates the need for the 2nd dice entirely.

i cant find a single instance where a D% roll goes up or down by a single number or by 5, or anything like that so as to create a roll that is dependent on both dice.

while not exactly game breaking, it does beg the question: why bother ever putting the D% into the rules instead of just using a single D10? would that not be simpler?

This came up in a "my character could beat yours in a fight" argument me and a friend were having. Long story short they both come to a standstill by each making a single attack a round and the other one using crane wing to deflect it. One is a vital striking monk, the other is a magus with a monk dip.

If the magus has a spell such as frostbite cast and is holding charges, then would a charge be discharged every time either character used crane wing to deflect an attack?

im trying to find the name and backstory for the iconic magus from all the books, but i cant find anything on him so far. all i know is that he's a half-elf magus and in the mythic book he looks awesome with his shirt off...

anyone know where to look for this info?

ok, so i've pretty much got my character mapped out to level 20 for the campaign im currently in, but one thing i cant decide on is really bugging me:

is it worth fighting defensively to use crane style feats (GM already said we're running original crane style because the re-write makes no sense) or are those feat slots put to better use with things like spell focus/specialization/mastery?

its a level6 Magus that will be dipping 2 levels into Master of Many Styles at 7th and 11th.

i cant decide if i should instead take only 1 level in monk and the other in fighter so that i get the same number of feats, but higher bab and lower saves, or just stick with monk2.

the reason i need master of many styles is for the bonus combat style feats. i want to take crane style (all three feats) and snake style/snake fang. total of 5 feats, so i need both bonus feats in my build to pull it off. However, if i get rid of taking crane style altogether i can take both snake style and snake fang in one level and actually removes 4 feats because i'd no longer need Dodge in the build. this would allow me to take the spell focus set up as most magi do.

which one is better? more fun? more unique?

a magus who uses frostbite and then makes a crap ton of AoO's? or a magus who hits like a mac truck with something else while still getting a few AoO's?

after looking through a number of threads on different things, i keep seeing people talk about bypassing certain specific types of DR (such as cold iron) by having an Enhancement level higher than +1 for each specific DR type.

is this a PFS rule or just a common houserule? because i can't find this anywhere on the SRD or in the Core Rulebook.

I'm looking for ways to use the nauseated condition against an opponent. I can't seem to be able to find any spells or class abilities that can cause it except for the anti paladin one. Is there a poison I can use? A stacking sicken ability? Something a debuffing magus has access to?

When Holding the Charge on a touch spell, is the charge held in a specific body part (i.e. your primary hand) or just within the body its self?

ok, so i know that i can drop/pickup a weapon without discharging a held charge. and i know that its really supposed to just give me more options to discharge said held charge, but more specifically, where exactly IS the held charge held? within the caster himself, or specifically the hand to which he intended to deliver it with?

could i, for example, be holding a charge after a fight ends, then chest-bump my friend in excitement, and accidentally discharge the spell onto them?

i ask because i'm curious as to weather or not a magus/monk would be able to discharge multiple uses of frostbite/chill touch in the round AFTER he casts the spell via spell combat with his flurry of blows. i know that he could simply make all his attacks with 1 hand if need be, but what if he wanted to kick, or use the other hand? would those specific attacks NOT discharge a use? or does any contact with the casters body discharge?

also, lets say i am using a longsword in one hand and unarmed strikes in the other, would i be able to spellstrike with longsword to deliver one, then (using two-weapon fighting rules) deliver another with an unarmed strike?

many threads on this, still no answer. so i'm simplifying the question:

question 1) does Multi-Weapon Fighting qualify you for taking any feat that lists Two-Weapon Fighting as a requirement?

Multiweapon Fighting (Combat)

This multi-armed creature is skilled at making attacks with multiple weapons.

Prerequisites: Dex 13, three or more hands.

Benefit: Penalties for fighting with multiple weapons are reduced by –2 with the primary hand and by –6 with off hands.

Normal: A creature without this feat takes a –6 penalty on attacks made with its primary hand and a –10 penalty on attacks made with all of its off hands. (It has one primary hand, and all the others are off hands.) See Two-Weapon Fighting.

Special: This feat replaces the Two-Weapon Fighting feat for creatures with more than two arms.

the bolded entry is what needs clarification.

Question 2) if yes to question 1, does Improved Two-Weapon Fighting grant an additional attack for EACH off-hand, or just one?

Improved Two-Weapon Fighting (Combat)

You are skilled at fighting with two weapons.

Prerequisites: Dex 17, Two-Weapon Fighting, base attack bonus +6.

Benefit: In addition to the standard single extra attack you get with an off-hand weapon, you get a second attack with it, albeit at a –5 penalty.

Normal: Without this feat, you can only get a single extra attack with an off-hand weapon.

again, bolded text is what needs clarifying.

ok, so I built this character for my current game of which we've played one session for. After realizing that my AC is a bit under par, I decided to take a 2 level dip into Master of many styles so i could pick up Crane Style/Wing/Riposte and Snake Style/Fang and not only be able to skyrocket my AC, but also output much more damage via AoO's. while doing that i discovered just how feat starved my character really is, and barely made those 5 feats fit into a 22 level build. THEN!, after i did all that, i discovered the changes paizo made to crane style and flipped my lid. I told my GM about it and he says we'll just play this campaign with the old crane style sense its still unclear as to how the new ones actually work.

that being said, currently we are level 6, first mythic tier, and here is my build as i have it plotted out to level 22 (odds are we wont get that high, but its just to be sure. our last one wasn't supposed to go to 28, but it did)

so basically, i think i might by trying to do too much with this guy, but still be able to pull it off. i WANT to put Crane Style back in, but i dont know where it would be good to replace stuff for things like Rime Spell and Enforcer. I also have to Put Dodge in there as well to be able to get all three Crane feats. should i just leave it out and stick with what i've got? or take out some other things because thats better?

Ultimately i will be doing a Fleet Charge into combat, then Spellcombating for quite a few hits, then forcing an AoO (if i can) to get 3 more. If all goes right, i can Debuff someone to all hell on turn one via Frostbite setup, Nuke the hell our of someone else turn 2 with Shocking Grasp, then continue to go to town as needed, all while never being hit, but having Crane Style would surely increase my Defenses by alot.

thoughts and advice are much apreciated. PLEASE HELP ME MAKE THIS GUY IMPOSSIBLE TO BEAT...yes, i am trying to make the most beast thing i possibly can....that was the challenge my GM gave us...i want to come back to the table with something for him to fear...

I keep seeing this combo all over the place and everyone seems to see this is working just fine, but i dont see how.

Chill Touch does not have [cold] anywhere in its description that i can find and does not do cold damage, so how are people coming to this conclusion?

firstly, i am unsure as to the "insinuation" that was made that caused the last thread to be locked, but i'm starting this one to continue the discussion about naturally multi-armed characters and MWF.

the specific clarification i'm looking for here is this:

What does the "Special" line in the Multi-Weapon Fighting feat mean exactly? does it mean that it replaces two-weapon fighting in respects to qualifying for other feats, or simply that it acts AS two-weapon fighting for appropriate creatures?

In addition, IF the ruling is that MWF qualifies a player for other feats, we also need a ruling on how improved/greater two-weapon fighting interact with the 2nd and 3rd off-hands. do they each get an additional attack a round, or just one of the 3?

i would like anyone who posts within this thread to hit FAQ when they do so that we can get a legitimate answer to this, as it has spanned across 3 threads so far without an answer.

things i DONT want discussed, as they seem to get the thread de-railed every time:

1) weather or not a player can even take MWF at all. as far as i am concerned, there are no rules denying a race such as the Kasatha from taking MWF once they qualify for it.

2) Vestigial Arm and any other magical means of gaining extra arms.

3) PFS legal situations. we're all aware that you cant play a Kasatha in PFS, but PFS isn't the only way to play this game, so keep in mind that this is for NON-PFS games.

these three things are irrelevant to the topic.

this subject was brought up in another thread and figured it needed its own so as not to confuse it with the original subject.

the question is can a race such as the Kasatha, which naturally has 4 arms, wield 4 weapons at once and attack with all of them in a single round. (one being a primary hand and the other 3 being off-hands)?

and if so, is this race subject to taking Multi-Weapon Fighting instead of Two-Weapon Fighting since MWF isn't a player class feat.

also, if it DOES have to take MWF, does it then qualify for improved/greater TWF since there is no improved/greater MWF? or would it never be able to get those additional off-hand attacks?

if it CAN take improved/greater TWF, do these feats apply to ALL off-hands? or just one? if just one, can they be taken multiple times, each time applying to a different off-hand?

Chill Touch:
School necromancy; Level sorcerer/wizard 1
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S
Range touch
Targets creature or creatures touched (up to one/level)
Duration instantaneous
Saving Throw Fortitude partial or Will negates; see text; Spell Resistance yes
A touch from your hand, which glows with blue energy, disrupts the life force of living creatures. Each touch channels negative energy that deals 1d6 points of damage. The touched creature also takes 1 point of Strength damage unless it makes a successful Fortitude saving throw. You can use this melee touch attack up to one time per level.

An undead creature you touch takes no damage of either sort, but it must make a successful Will saving throw or flee as if panicked for 1d4 rounds + 1 round per caster level.

Spellstrike (Su): At 2nd level, whenever a magus casts a spell with a range of “touch” from the magus spell list, he can deliver the spell through any weapon he is wielding as part of a melee attack. Instead of the free melee touch attack normally allowed to deliver the spell, a magus can make one free melee attack with his weapon (at his highest base attack bonus) as part of casting this spell. If successful, this melee attack deals its normal damage as well as the effects of the spell. If the magus makes this attack in concert with spell combat, this melee attack takes all the penalties accrued by spell combat melee attacks. This attack uses the weapon's critical range (20, 19–20, or 18–20 and modified by the keen weapon property or similar effects), but the spell effect only deals ×2 damage on a successful critical hit, while the weapon damage uses its own critical modifier.

(emphasis mine)

Holding the Charge: If you don't discharge the spell in the round when you cast the spell, you can hold the charge indefinitely. You can continue to make touch attacks round after round. If you touch anything or anyone while holding a charge, even unintentionally, the spell discharges. If you cast another spell, the touch spell dissipates. You can touch one friend as a standard action or up to six friends as a full-round action. Alternatively, you may make a normal unarmed attack (or an attack with a natural weapon) while holding a charge. In this case, you aren't considered armed and you provoke attacks of opportunity as normal for the attack. If your unarmed attack or natural weapon attack normally doesn't provoke attacks of opportunity, neither does this attack. If the attack hits, you deal normal damage for your unarmed attack or natural weapon and the spell discharges. If the attack misses, you are still holding the charge.

(problem here is that this text is assuming the touch spell in question only allows a single touch before expended, not multiple touches...)

so the question here is this: if a (lets say 5th level) magus casts chill touch using spell combat and spell strike does that mean that in this particular round he gets to make 5 free attacks because the spell allows this many? Or could it possibly mean that you could be granted a free touch attack every round (since you only get one) but have multiple attacks and it still counts as "as part of casting the spell". the second theory would make more logical sense obviously because its not so OP, but it seems plausible that the first could be correct unless there is a ruling or rule i am missing here.

i've used this build before and have always assumed its 1 free touch attack and the rest are just normal held charges, but now i'm curious if there is an FAQ or something that actually states as much because judging by this i'd have to say that the spell gives you multiple free touch attacks...

i'm not trying to break this spell any more than it already is, trust me, but i would like to know if how we've all been playing it is actually correct, or if we've all just made an assumption and were wrong...

OK, so my gm basically told us to go all out with our characters for our new campaign. He gave us 8k starting gold, first mythic tier and no class/rave restrictions. I love the magus and I love two-weapon fighting. So I made one that could do it. We started at level 5 and made it to level 6 in our first session.

I made a kasatha bladebound kensai magus who uses chill touch as a primary spell for spellstrike. I went with the champion mythic path and took fleet charge and the universal path ability that gives you a legendary weapon and gave it the Powerful ability.
I've got twf, weapon focus and weapon focus mythic, and I can't remember what else ATM, but basically what I'm getting at is that I feel that my level 6 character has entirely too much power.

Granted this is our first mythic game and I've never seen this stuff used yet, but is seems to me that mythic is really just way out of balance with typical games.

Just an FYI I spent my 8k gold on a belt of giant strength and headband of vast int.

Could this be more broken, or am I in for a rude awakening when he throws a mithic bbeg at us?

ok, so i'm starting a new campaign (Rise of the Runelords) with my friends while our normal GM is out of town for a month and only have a couple who are gonna play so i figured i'd make it a gestalt game. then i thought about the guys who'll be playing and realized neither of them likes to play caster/healer types. so i realized i need a "guide" PC to basically follow them around and play the healer/support class.

initially i thought i would make a gestalt magus(skirnir)/paladin. but after building it i feel that it lacks the casting ability to really support them. so then i thought about magus/oracle but it doesn't look like it would fit my idea of a paladin-ish character. i know there has to be some good combos out there that will give me that balance of offence/support i'm looking for. any ideas?

pretty strait forward question. im just looking at ways to make a magus spontaneous without actually changing the rules. i'm looking for feats/spells to use similar to how an oracle becomes a god-caster.

Perhaps this has been ruled on somewhere. I am unsure, but I want to take racial heritage (elf) as a dhampir so that I qualify for a racial archetype for oracle. Is this possible?

Under the fluff of the dhampir it clearly states that the only know way one is created is with a vampire and a human.

On a side note, why is this exclusively for humans? Can't other races contract the disease as well? Shouldn't they conceivably all be able to birth a dhampir?

Either way, I want to have elven blood as a dhampir. Is this possible?

I keep seeing everyone talk about how casters are gods and martial classes suck. I just don't see how. Are people playing games where concentration checks and spell interruption and AoO don't exist?

I'm sorry if this is just gonna be another "the game is unbalanced" thread. That's not my intent. I just don't see how people can come to that conclusion. There are so many things in the game that make a martial character render a spell caster nothing more then a bag of wet potatoes without even having to do much. Spell resistance being the biggest one.

Also, if the argument stems form the idea that in a 1v1 fight a sorcerer or wizard can beat a fighter every time, well then no duh! The game is designed around a rock<paper<sizzors concept which is exemplified in the three types of saves and how some classes have higher saves in one area and lower in others. The idea is that caster beats tank, tank beats healer, healer beats sneaky, sneaky beats caster.

No one class should ever be better then all the rest, and if you think full casters can, I want to know why because I just don't see how unless you are ignoring rules and giving them D12 for hit dice.

I'm wondering how exactly you are supposed to use this arcana with spell combat if you need a free hand to cast a spell. does this mean that you use said free hand to use wand instead? if so, then does that mean that any apendage you have that can hold/use wands now counts for using spellcombat so long as you are doing so with a wand?

for example: if i have wand wielder as a tiefling with the vestigial tail racial trait i should be able to cast spells from a wand held in my tail while using spell combat. most people agree with this. but what happens when i use that same setup, but put another weapon in my off hand. am i still able to use spell combat? before i picked up that 2nd weapon i met all the requirements and my off hand was utterly useless, but once i pick the only thing that changes is the usefulness of my off hand.

opinions or a link to an faq that aready exists about this would be great. i couldnt find one.

OK, so I thought about building amyrmidarch/arcane archer and upon doing some research I noticed that the AA does not list elf/half-elf as a requirement in the pfsrd app on my phone anymore. I was curious as to weather or not this requirement has finally been removed, of if it was an oversight on the part of the app creator.

Secondly, I have noticed that there are a few magus arcana listed as complimenting more than one archetype for magus that don't seem to exist. To name a couple: precise prowess, lucky strike, stolen skill, and deadly follow-up.

I haven't been able to find them in the books either, so I'm not sure if this was a mistake on the writers behalf, of I'm just a terrible researcher and they are right in front of me. Either way, if they do exist, can someone link me their descriptions, of if they don't, let me know so I can FAQ the issue.

And lastly, how do people normally make up for the loss of magus arcana in the myrmidarch/AA build without waiting feat slots on extra arcana and killing build potential?(I know this is an advice question, but majority of post is rules, so figured I'd combine without making two threads)

My GM has already made a ruling on this for my game, i just want some clarification because i think the way the feat is worded is kinda iffy.

the question is, does the "swift action" noted in the the description of the feat actually count towards your swift action for the round? i ask because it states that the use of the feat as a whole is a full-attack action, so to me, this is unclear.

[edit] to me this makes it sound like the swift action stated is actually a PART OF the full-attack action, and not its own separate thing. perhaps i am just over analyzing the wording. but if it counted seprately then it should be worded thus: "you active Dimensional door as a swift action then take a full-attack action,...

Dimensional Dervish: You can take a full-attack action, activating abundant step or casting dimension door as a swift action. If you do, you can teleport up to twice your speed (up to the maximum distance allowed by the spell or ability), dividing this teleportation into increments you use before your first attack, between each attack, and after your last attack. You must teleport at least 5 feet each time you teleport.

when i built my magus, it never dawned on me that i might want/need to use a metamagic rod in conjunction with spell combat/spell strike. now, for obvious reasons i want to do so. the simple and most common solution would have been to make a tiefling when i first created him, but alas, i chose human instead.

basically i need a way to hold a rod and be able to cast through it while still having my hand free for spell combat. at first i thought that the Rod Wielder arcana would work, but as it turns out, that arcana was not designed for metamagic rods.

so far i have only been able to come up with two solutions, both of which involve a dip into another class, which i am more then willing to do, i just don't know which is the better option.

i can:
A) take a 1 level dip in Witch and get the Prehensile Hair hex to allow me to wield a want with my eyebrows (as this is how my friend thinks i should do it, for flavor)

or

B) take a 2 level dip into Alchemist and get a third arm.

either way i get what i want, but i believe two levels in alchemist will grant me more in class abilities and skills then which. i'm not sure that is outweighed by the fact that with which its only a 1 level did.

im lost and need some help. also, it would be awesome if someone knew of a way i could achieve what i am looking for without having to take a dip at all, but so far i haven't found anything.

Currently i am playing an epic level campaign with a brand new Magus that i built last week (my previous character payed the ultimate price) and after one session i quickly realized that spell combat/spell strike really limit what you can do in a round if you chose to use them. although when you DO use them, you can be very dangerous, you leave yourself open to many dangers if you use some of your arcana's in the same round as spell combat. mainly this is because most arcana require either a swift or imidiate action to use.

i have discovered a few things that give me a little more leway to deal with this, but i am still at a loss for the most part on how best to gain maximum potential from a single round.

so far what i have done is:

-taken EWP(Kitana) so i can use a 2h weapon while still using spellcombat/spellstrike
-added spellstoring to my weapon to effectively get a second spell in a round as a free action
-always have a touch spell held indefinitely prior to combat
-taken 1 level of Time Thief to gain 'Motes of Time' to grant an extra swift action in a round if i need it.
-Always have Intensified Vampiric Touch and Vampiric Touch spells prepared to use with spellstrike to supplement HP in frontline combat.

i cant ever seem to get the Critical Strike Arcana to work when i crit because i never have a swift action to activate it with. and given that its a 1/day ability, i find that it is highly over-rated. i get more out of maximize magic arcana and maximized spellstrike feat then i do from critical strike.

any ideas on how to get more actions per round, or utilize more arcana/spells in a round would be appreciated.

When using a metamagic rod, you "channel the spell through the rod". self explanatory right? well sure, except when you are talking about spells with a range of touch and/or personal. with a touch spell, would you use the end of the rod to deliver the touch attack, or would you have to use the rod to charge your opposite hand? same goes for personal since they act essentially like a touch spell that you can only touch yourself with...

i ask this because it is never clearly defined in the rules on rods...anywhere...

...also, the magus has an arcana called Rod wielder that states "...or when making a spellstrike attack channeled through a rod" in its description, but still does not specify if you need to make the attack with the rod (using the rod as your weapon for the purposes of spellstrike) or if you are holding the rod in your free hand and channeling the touch spell through your rod and into your weapon in the other hand....

First of all, this question is really two parted:

firstly, the EK class ability 'Spells per day' states the following:
"At the indicated levels, an eldritch
knight gains new spells per day as if he had also gained a
level in an arcane spellcasting class he belonged to before
adding the prestige class. He does not, however, gain any
other benefit a character of that class would have gained,
except for additional spells per day, spells known (if he
is a spontaneous spellcaster), and an increased effective
level of spellcasting. If a character had more than
one arcane spellcasting class before becoming an
eldritch knight, he must decide to which class he
adds the new level for purposes of determining spells
per day."

that being said, when taking levels in EK after being any arcane class, would your level of spells increase according to your base class? example: if i am a level 7th level sorcerer i can only cast up to 3rd level spells. if i take a level in Eldritch Knight when i level up, would i then be able to cast 4th level spells?

the line stating "and an increased effective level of spellcasting." is highly unclear on this. my interpretation is that "Increased level of spellcasting" simply means caster level. however my friend who plays in my current campaign with me suggests that it encompasses pretty much everything to do with leveling up as a caster except the class abilities as it states in the (-).

Part 2 of the question is an epic level ruling question: if a 20th level Magus takes levels in EK, would he increase his level of spells castable as the above noted sorcerer (assuming the answer to part 1 is a yes)? and if so, would you use 7th,8th, and 9th level arcane spells from the current sorc/wizard spell list as magus spells, or would you create new spells of those levels specifically for the magus as you do with 10th+ level spells for the sorc/wizard when they advance beyond 20th level?

ok, i need an official ruling on this if someone can link it...

can a rogue/ninja/assassin sneak attack a barbarian if the rogue/ninja/assassin is more then 4 levels higher without flanking said barbarian?

the wording in the discription is really kinda shady on this...

Its fairly simple of a question, but I can't seem to find the answer in the rulebook.

In d&d there was a paragraph that said that your size was determined by you the player when you build the PC. But in pathfinder it seems to be built in to the race its self. Is there a way to make, for instance, a small human or elf? Obviously gm fiat is the simplest answer, but I'm looking for raw.

So I just found out that my next campaign is going to be an evil one and I need to start working on a lvl three PC for it. I've played a CE campaign before, but I really want to maximize potential on this one. I am thinking maybe a dampiir magus or evil synthesist. But I am not too sure just how powerful either of those characters would be when the limitations of their classes keep them from excelling in a "I do whatever I want because I can" environment. Obviously an assassin is the obvious choose for CE, but I really need to get away from playing rogue classes as that's all I ever play. Any ideas?

OK, so did some caltulations with my character and its apparent to me that the variables involved with damage are extremely high the higher you go in level. Currently I am lvl 25 (12 ninja, 8 fighter, 5 inquisitor).

My +to damage is 36 after everything is added and I am throwing everything I've got at them.

This is the formula I am using to determine damage: DMG=(36*hits)+(1d8*hits)+(holy=2d8*hits)+(bane=2d8*hits)+(sneak=8d6*hits)

In a full attack I can land a total of 8 arrows from 7 attacks when using a ki point, manyshot, and rapid shot.

This give me the following numbers:
With no sneak:
Min - 328
Max - 554
Crit max - 1248

With sneak:
Min - 376
Max - 880
Crit max - 1584

Of course these numbers assume best case scenario. That being said, I can't help but notice that landing everything have a huge difference depending on the dice rolls.

Other players I'm my GRP have characters built in such a way that they roll 1 die a hit for damage and their minimum is closer to my max but their max isn't much higher. How does that happen aside from obviously I'm rolling more dice. And which is the preferred? More variable, or static depenability?

OK, so I've been playing a sneak attacking archer for a while now and I love the play style. But one of the biggest drawbacks is that you don't get a flanking bonus ever with a bow, even if you threaten properly and have all the snap shot feats because in the flanking description it specifically says "melee" weapon.

I have successfully found a way around this and I am kinda pissed I didn't discover it before. There is a teamwork feat called "Gang Up" which states that you are counted as flanking a target if at least two allies are threatening it, regardless of weather or not those two are flanking with each other. I am now using this feat as I have recently dipped into inquisitor.

Say goodbye to not getting my sneak attacks anymore!!!

ok, so a while back i posted a thread asking for help on created my first pathfinder character....i ended up creating a rogue fighter(archer arc-type) Fetchling bow user who worked out pretty well...what i didn't know is that my GM likes to dish out XP like candy on holloween....

so here's my problem: we're maybe 1/3 through the set campaign course and our party is already lvl 25. (no kidding, right). we're already playing in the epic lvl range and ruleset, but the leveling doesn't seem to be slowing down any and i have quickly run out of ideas for where to take my character now.

here is a rundown of what she looks like as of now:

I plan on taking Inquisitor up to at least lvl 8, but after that i don't know where i want to go with her....honestly i have nothing more to buy for her except maybe a helm of brilliance if i want to go that way, and as far as feats go, the only idea i have is the dimensional Dervish line . but to do that i need more then 1 use of a dimension door spell per day to make it effective. not to mention its not really necessary for a ranged player to really ever move. especially not with my AC...

before anyone says anything, yes, i know, this is freaking outragous and broken but hey, its how the GM wanted it to be. there are 8 players in the group who are all just as insanely geared and powerful as this and the stuff he keeps throwing at us is still keeping us on our toes like we were at lvl 1, so yeah....

i want to build a character kind of like a savage fighter but who uses natural weapons with unarmed fighting abilities.

i need a base class to build with and some ideas on what the feat tree should look like.

i asked this question in my character build thread but only got one answer since the thread quickly turned to how to optimize the build.

Q: should i go with a male vampire hunter with a backstory about his whole family being killed by some nameless vamp who i'm seeking retribution from, OR should i go with a similar story but for a female who also is a seductress who uses her womanhood as a means to get whatever she wants from any man who she finds?

the character is a ranger/rogue.

this is strictly a play style question. its not going to effect combat in anyway, but roleplaying will be much different. on the one hand, i have a man who talks very little and uses Sense Motive as his only real means of dealing with npc's. on the other hand the female can use all manner of pleasantries which are based on diplomacy with DM given pluses due to being highly attractive to get information or lower prices, etc. from male npc's. also, i fully intend to seduce my group mates for the sake of causing mayhem between us all as well as getting a kick out of it out of game since im a man IRL. (my group is all friends so its not going to be weird moments of silence.)

obviously there is much more fun in playing the female, but the problem is that i've never roleplayed the opposite sex before and it's going to take me out of my element, so im not too sure...

ok, so long story short i've played many rpgs before (to include D&D 3.5) and i've done ALOT of research into this new character i'm making. however i also want this toon to blow away my GM. were starting the campaign at lvl 10 and we've been given unlimited build capability as long as its in a paizo book. that being said i've used the core rulebook, the advanced race guide, and the advanced players guide to create this character.

the concept is a sneak archer who plays always from the shadows and prefers to always hide and attack from the shadows.

thats my character in a nutshell. really i just want opinions and some advice on a few things.

firstly, what is the best way for a rogue to utilize battlefield control to get a sneak attack? obviously stun/daze would be the best idea but i'm finding that the only real way to get any abilities that would give me these is to crossclass again into sorcerer/wizard which i would like not to do.

secondly is more of a playstyle question: should i go with a tragic backstory for a male toon who is a vampire hunter seeking revenge, or a female seductress who wants to take advantage or every man she sees for her own personal gain? both will have a similar backstory as to why they became adventurers, but the way i play them will be much different.

also just so you know. the group will consist of 8 to 10 people.