Sindenky's page

Armor Gives DR Rules
A character in full plate should not take the same damage as an unarmored character from the same attack. All creatures gain DR based on their Armor Score. This DR is only bypassed if an attack would explicitly ignore any bonuses provided by normal armor.

______Manufactured Armor
Worn armor increases your Armor Score equal to the AC bonus it provides. Medium armor gains a +2 to the score, while heavy gains a +3. Masterwork improves this score by 1. Enhancement bonus also increase the Armor Score by 1 per enhancement.
(note: this means the bonus is applied twice. Once for the AC gained, and again for the enhancement)

______Natural Armor
Natural armor stacks with regular armor to determine your Armor Score, providing +1 to your score per point of natural armor.

______DR From Other Sources
DR from armor and other sources stack to a lesser benefit. Non-armor DR improves your Armor Score equal to the score it would normally take that receive that much DR.
(for example; DR 5 silver provides an Armor Score of 7, plus natural armor of 5 makes an Armor Score of 12. This provides a DR of 7 vs all attacks)

If an attack would bypass 1 DR source, but not another, its bonus is removed from your Armor Score when determining your remaining DR.
(from the above example, an attack with a silver weapon would bypass the DR 5/silver, so the Armor score is reduced by the 7 it had previously gained. This leaves us with a total score of 5, and a DR 4. Had resimply had the silver weapon bypass 5 DR, we would have only be left with DR 2, and been receiving a penalized amount of DR compared to a creature with the same score.)

______AC From Monks and Such
Any class or ability that provides an AC bonus in lieu of actually wearing armor gains a bonus to their Armor Score equal to the AC gained -1. Any time this bonus to AC would be lost or ignored, they also lose any DR that would be provided.
(example; a lvl 8 monk with a WIS modifier of +4, is adding +6 to their AC. This provides an Armor Score of 6-1=5, thus giving a DR of 4.)

______Shields
By default a shield provides nothing to an Armor Score. However you may spend various actions to ready a shield for a substantial boost. The bonus to your Armor Score depends on the action used. The base value is calculated the same as an armor would be.
__Immediate: Also required 1 AoO. Improve Armor scoreby Base + 4 vs 1 attack.
__Move: Improve Armor scoreby Base + 4 for 1 round.
__Fighting defensive: Improve Armor scoreby Base + 4 + 2 (or your fighting defensive bonus) for 1 round.
__Total defense: Improve Armor scoreby Base + 4 + 4 (or your total defense bonus) for 1 round.
__Full-round: Improve Armor scoreby Base + 11 for 1 round.
*Special: Tower shield can only be readied as a standard action or higher. Bucklers may only be readied as a move action or lower.

Armor Score | DR
___________1 | 1
___________2 | 2
___________3 | 3
___________5 | 4
___________7 | 5
___________9 | 6
__________12 | 7
__________15 | 8
__________18 | 9
__________22 | 10
__________26 | 11
__________30 | 12
__________35 | 13
__________40 | 14
__________45 | 15
__________51 | 16
__________57 | 17
__________63 | 18
__________70 | 19
__________77 | 20
__________84 | 21
__________92 | 22
_________100 | 23

This is the question I asked myself, so I took to the internet in hope of finding answers. I did not find any great answers, so I figured it out myself.

Long answer/Details:

So a lot goes into this. The above chart is obtained by following the rules of 25% WBL to Offense/Defense/Magic, then putting the big 6 is older of cheapest first. It also assumes you always sell the previous item when buying the upgrade, when enchanting to improve quality is probably cheaper. It also assumes you only want a single stat boosting item vs both a mental and a physical, and ignores the dual/tri stat items till MUCH later. You also don't buy both an armor or a shield, and never improve either past +5 quality. This is also a single weapon, so worthless of dual-wielders.

You see the real answer is dependent on the character and their build, and you can manage your wealth far better than this chart assumes. However this gives ME the baseline I was looking for in know that if I'm level 10 and still wearing a ring of protection +1 I'm doing ok, or the fact that my cloak is a +4 means I'm above the curve. So I wanted to share this with you guys in case someone else might find it useful.

Enjoy,
SIN

How does the ring of friend protection interact with the shield master ability? If the familiar triggers is are they now taking 1/2 my dmg twice netting a 25/75 split? Or if I trigger the ring do they take 1/2 then o take back 1/2 at a 75/25 split?
I don't immediately see a reason the two skills would not stack, and looking for RAW issues, not specific GM issues.

Hey guys, I'm paying the Falcons Hollow book line and what some help fleshing out the town and making it feel real. My book order is:
Hollow's Last Hope => Crown of the Kobold King => The Pallid Plague => Carnival of Tears => Revenge of the Kobold King => Tower of The Last Barron => Treasure of Chimera Cove => Hungry are the Dead => Tears at Bitter Manor => Realm of the Fell-knight Queen

I'm custom editing each adventure to match my players power, so they are really just templates for me. In between books i want to play 1-2 custom sessions were i introduce different NPC's. As you may know reading the titles, A LOT of people are going to die in Falcons Hollow, and i would like to introduce those people to my players. Here is a list of the NPC's that i have so far, and a shot Description:

I really want some fun and interesting social encounters to let the players kind of know the town is alive but in trouble. Like every single turn they could run across a crime needing resolved, or a person begging for help. I sort of want to overwhelm them with how many issues the town has.

So we are using spheres of power so my level 1 druid player can shift into an earth elemental. The stats come out very fair, so I have no issue with it and do not want to modify or remove his skills.

What I'm after is some GM advice on how I can control my earth swimming player. He can burrow though earth and stone, and can even burrow though manufactured stone such as walls, and also actively does not leave a sign of the burrowing.
With this power he has been "swimming" though and around the dungeon, just peeking though walls to see what he can see. Rules I have so far:
-while under the earth you can see nothing.
-must make perception checks in order to hear or detect anything.

Does anyone have ideas on how i can regulate him in a way that hinders his swim, while not entirely eliminating its usefulness.

So I have been a fan of ABP since it came out, but haven't gotten to really run with it since then. My favorite part of it being 1, I know my players will be powered correctly and not under powered due to myself giving less than optimal rewards, or the players foolishly buying +3 weapons instead of boosting saves or AC ect., and 2, The amount of gold adventuring brings in is ludicrous! Even cutting it in half is an insane sum, but still grounded in "reality" a bit more.

So I have done a TON of number crunching, and have decided on a few set standards I would like to follow for my party of 4 level 2 characters that just leveled, and have received 0 treasure;
1: They will experience 12 encounters between levels
2: For this level, each encounter will grant them 375 exp each
3: Each encounter will reward them with ~83.33g each
4: Each encounter is not created equally, but each will be worth 1/2-4 encounters of exp
5: these numbers are rough guidelines, not set values
6: My games are hard and levels are slow, so treasure MUST excite my players

So I owe my players around 500g/e ATM. They have 1 major fight worth 4 encounters before the end of the book, and should receive all of their treasure then. Including the boss fight, this should equal ~833.32g/each.
I want this treasure to be more exciting than gems and art, especially since raw gold wont go very far in the town poor shops. Magical boosts to stats are basically out due to the low values, and the ABP stats.

The party is:
Fire Keneticist
Oread Druid (Shape shift grapple build)
Musket master (guns everywhere)
Hobgoblin Hunter (NPC fill in)

tl;dr

I'm looking for cool ideas for treasure for ABP players receiving ~833.32g and are level 2.

I'm wondering if there is any way to accomplish a 17-20 crit range on unarmed strikes. Preferably anything paizo printed, however 3.5 and 3pp can be considered.

I'm working on a monk build and was wanting to use Dragon style to get 1.5x str to dmg for unarmed strikes. I stumbled across a thread some time ago were people seems to be coming to the conclusion that substituted stat dmg act like the relevant stat unless noted otherwise. I.E. Swapping Dex for STR still provides 1.5 dex for 2 handing.

In this case I'm seeking to replace STR with DEX for dmg rolls, but still get the 1.5 dmg from my style. Dooes this work?

So I have read a few posts about this type of character a few times. Here are they key points I would like to build around:

-High damage full attacks
-strong parry AC
-Disarm as AoO in response to attacks

So I'm really just stuck on the feats I'm looking for to pull this off, and what styles would be worth using.

Boar style
pros:
+2d6 DMG (rend)
Piercing unarmed strikes
Free Demorilize cheecks
1d6 Bleed
cons:
Piercing dmg requires 2nd feat
zero synergy with disarming

Dragon style
pros:
x2 STR dmg 1st attack
x1.5 STR dmg all attacks
only 2 feats worth getting
cons:
doesnt provide piercing dmg
zero synergy with disarming
no Dex to dmg

Snake style
pros:
piercing dmg
free AoO when enemy misses
combos with parry
cons:
2nd feat is worthless
immediate action dependent
works poorly with riposte

Panther style
pros:
Free AoO
retaliatory strike =/= AoO
Disarm resolves before AoO completed
combos with parry + Riposte
cons:
No piercing dmg
Move action prevents full attack
WIS based retaliatory limit

Any styles that do not provide piercing dmg require another feat to obtain it. Master of many styles blending is a very viable options.

I'm sure there is a reason for the limited coding options we have, but i would LOVE to see some more options presented. Some great options would be:
[code]
[img]
[imgleft]
[imgright]
[align=left/right/center]
[u]
[size=#]
[color=xxx]

These open up A LOT of fun tools. My personal reason is the creation of posting formats for play-by-post games to help better illustrate your character.
The uses from am DM standpoint alone are astronomical!!

As the subject says, two of my players have become infected by a vargouille. The knowledge monkey of the group is about 3 hours behind the main group to the dungeon, so was not there to identify the creature. There is a good chance he will not get a chance to see it, or may not even succeed the check to know what to do.

The players are still in the early stages of dungeon, and are not in a position to leave any time soon. Even if they blitz though the dungeon and get back to the surface in say an hour, there is only about 4 more hours of daylight, and they are dead in 11.

once they get on the road back home, its a 2 day trip back to town. Its not looking good for them, and I really don't want to just hand them a cure, but some access to the daylight spell would be great!

I'm seeking ideas for items that have daylight or stronger built in, or even more creative ways to slow the progress.

In my upcoming session of crown of the kobald king, there is a section of the dungeon that is filled with smoke. The first area is a cave live tunnel system that twist and winds several directions, the smoke limits vision and can result in the players losing their sense of direction. The second room were the smoke is coming from is much thicker, preventing vision past 5 ft.

I'm looking for advice on how to play a section with this type of limited or restricted vision.

Ideas so far:
-Remove the grid board. Just vaguely describe the surroundings to the players, track their movement on my own map, but give them zero visual representation of the area to work with.

-Only draw a limited section of map. For the first area, give them only their square, and the immediate squares adjacent to them. They must/then can use the walls to help guide themselves though the area. For the second room only give them the exact square they are standing in and treat them as blind.

-As above, but force the players to make a check each round in order to maintain a sense of direction. If they fail the check, they step in a random direction (1d8) instead of advancing the way they had intended.

Any ideas or suggestions are much appreciated.

I can simply NOT find this anywhere, and feel like im just missing it. I know that the caster level requirement is 3 for a simple +1 long sword.

However I can find nothing regarding a spell requirement. Is there absolutely no spells required in the crafting?

Also seeking to confirm, Craft magical arms and armor simply has a requirement of 5th level, but no requirement of caster levels. The levels for casting must be level in a spell-casting class right?

edit: Read it wrong.

Hey guys, I'm on here to fish for ideas and opinions on something I have been trying lately.

tl;dr: I am rolling a lot of the players rolls behind the scenes as to not give away when a check fails miserably.

Now what i'm doing is I have taken a lot of the players skills and begun rolling their dice or results in secret. Key examples of rolls would be: Fortitude saves, will saves, perception, sense motive, bluff, diplomacy, stealth, and any other checks that could result in misinformation.
The key intent of doing this is to prevent players for meta-gaming dice results, or predicting that the information I have feed them in false. For example, Todd walks into a room and makes a perception check for traps. Todd roll, getting a result of 4, adding his 6 to find a 10. He fails to beat the traps DC of 12 and discovers no traps. Now when Todd makes this roll, he in aware of his poor result, and chose to still be cautious of the room, as well as the other party members. When I as the DM make this roll, i inform Todd he discovers no traps, and he moves though the room without fear. Now alternatively lets say Todd rolls an 18, giving him a result of 22. When i inform Todd the room has no traps, he is confident in his skills, and moves though the room with no fear. When the player is not aware of the degree of success of failure on his roll, i feel he plays and acts more organically.

The result. With this style of play i have had many opportunities to have the players tailed by informants, or stumble into rooms with hidden monsters and the players be none the wiser. I do feel that the games are being played out more organically.
However, these pros have bought out a Con. I have noticed that a LARGE portion of player interaction comes in the form of the DM asking for checks such as perception and stealth. With that interaction removed it results in me as the DM rolling a ton of dice and tacking results(something i have managed very well), and the players left to talk among themselves or wait for something to happen. I have combated this con by actively asking the players what their characters are doing. Sometimes this can spark really active, in character interaction with each other and the world around them. Other times it results in the players responding with an "i don't know, i guess ill head back to the church."

All in all I have to say that i LOVE the organic play resulting in the player being unaware when they fail, but it has caused simple 10 minute conversations, or gathering of information to drag out into long winded uneventful sessions. For example, in the session we JUST finished player, my players began the session knowing that a group of kids had gone missing. They spent their time searching for leads before discovering the kids had run off into the woods. Chasing after the children, they discover they have been taken by kobolds, and must delve into the ruins of an old monistary in order to save them. This is pretty straight forward, and involves about a 10+ hour walk from town, but other than that should not take to long. This session was a short one of only 3.5 hours, but the above is all we managed to get accomplished. I could tell we all left the table feeling a bit upset at the lack of interaction, as i had intended this to be a very combat heavy session, that resulted in literally 0 attack rolls.

tl;dr2: Have i made a mistake in doing rolls this way? Or is something entirely different the cause of my problems?

Thanks for your help!!

Hey guys, I am currently running the entire Falcons Hollow line and have been reading each book cover to cover. Right now we are just beginning with the lost children in the first stages of D1 crown of the kobold king.
I really enjoy Droskars crucible as a dungeon, and enjoy the consistency of dungeon ecology presented in all of the printed material. However, ive hit a bit of a snag. On the first floor of the crucible, there is a pretty iconic enemy. A ghostly possessed suit of armor that haunts the hallways, that in reality is an adimantine full plate set trapped inside of a gelatinous cube. I absolutely LOVE this enemy, and cant wait to run it, but heres my issue. The location of the cube is in the hallways marked area 4, and this is the MAIN hallways leading from the entrance of the dungeon, to the area the kobolds have claimed. There is no way to avoid the slime by taking another hallways without having access the a hidden passage that the Kobold have yet to discover. I cant seem to understand how the Kobold are avoiding the slime and still exploring the dungeon, and exiting to the surface to obtain supplies.

A gelatinous cube has a speed of 15 feet, thats a full 30 feet a round if it chooses not to attack and simply chase its prey. It had blightsight 60 feet, and due to the size of the dungeon it can really detect a lot from its location in area 4, paticularly the battle raging in area 12 were the first of the children can be found. I cant find a reason for the cube to be located in area 4, and not have chosed the kobold all the way down to area 2, or even made its way after the gouls hold up in area 15.

If anyone has ideas or suggestions, i would REALLY appreciate it.

I really like drugs in pathfinder, I enjoy the bonuses you gain from using them, and love the peneltys gained from them too. However I want to mess with it some more so I had an idea for something like this.

Drug addicted, trait: when addicted to a drug, increase the bonuses from said drug by +1, and decrease the peneltys of the drug by -1.

What do you guys think of some hing like this? Or any other ideas for making a drug addict a more playable character?

Hey, I was looking over the information we have regarding pack animals and noticed this and I wonder if I could get clarified.

Is there an error in the War Pony stat block?

Reading the horse stat block I saw this:

Docile (Ex)

Unless specifically trained for combat (see the Handle Animal skill), a horse's hooves are treated as secondary attacks.

So the block lists their attacks at a -5 due to their secondary nature.
However after becoming combat trained this -5 would be removed correct?

now looking at the Pony, Combat Trained (or War Pony) stat block their bab(+1) + str mod(+3) = 4, though their attacks are listed as:
Melee 2 hooves –1 (1d3+2)
should it not be
Melee 2 hooves +4 (1d3+3) ?

Thanks for your reply!