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Specifically, does an antipaladin smiting a lawful good inquisitor get the double damage bonus for the first round?

They do not have "aura" so my thoughts are no.

Is the monster lore bonus included in the actual act of identifying a creature, or just in identifying the creature's strengths and weaknesses once you know what it is?

For example, a bearded devil pops up. Does an inquisitor get a monster lore bonus to a knowledge planes roll to actually figure out it is a bearded devil, or does he/she only get the bonus if the party knows it is a bearded devil and is trying to figure out that it is immune to fire, etc.?

Since I have it (outflank) but my buddy does not, do I get an AOO if he crits, or does he get an AOO if I crit?

The L12 dwarven fighter in an adventure I'm running has a modified cloak of the mountebank- basically, it allows him to use it as a move action instead of a standard action (and he can use a standard action after).

His favorite trick, which I very much love and support, is to teleport directly above a flying creature and then grapple it as he's plummeting past the monster.

I know it's a rule modification, but I love it so much that I want to keep allowing it, just looking for the best mechanic.

I've been using a fairly easy acrobatics roll to basically control his angle enough to attempt a grapple, and then normal grapple rules (and falling rules at the same time).

Anyone done anything similar? Let's say I teleport 10 feet above a flying demon, what are the rolls for grabbing that booger and taking him down to earth with me?

I know similar stuff has been done before.

First, some contestants based on each level of each AP. (So weight classes). Note: these are the only ones I've read.

Kingmaker1: Drunk "Stag Lord" (still sounds like a male stripper name)
Kingmaker2: Giant owlbear thing?
Kingmaker3: Brain damaged lich
Kingmaker4: Immortal barbarian guy
Kingmaker5: Rival king
Kingmaker6: Fey druid/sorcerer lady

SSkull1: Snake priest lady
SSkull2: Snake wizard guy
SSkull3: Totally randomly-showing up ghast snake wizard guy
Sskull4: Intellect devourer sorc guy
Sskull5: Torturer guy, I guess?
Sskull6: Priest/weakened God combo

CCrown1: Ghost wizard
CCrown2: Giant mutant golem (with assistance)
Ccrown3: Necromancer
Ccrown4: Giant tentacle porn
Ccrown5: Vampire hag witch
Ccrown6: Mutant magnus lich

Winter1: A bro-witch
Winter2: A witch
Winter3: Another witch (I think)
Winter4: Big white dragon guy
Winter5: Rasputin!
Winter6: Queen Elvanna

Of these so far, my votes go to the Splatter Man, the Abberant Promethian, the brain damaged lich, the giant tentacle thing, Rasputin and Ydersius. Yarzoth MIGHT win the L1 class, though, as she was awesome.

A +1 glaive costs $2,000 + some change while a +1 throwing glaive costs $8,000 + and can be thrown 10 feet (or more for a penalty). I can't have the throwing property without spending at least $8K (or $4k to craft).

So for $6,000 extra, I can stand a few feet away from someone and throw my magic glaive at him- at which point he'll be like "oh, hey, free magic glaive" and pick it up and stab me with it or just leave.

Returning weapons are cool, but am I missing a good use for throwing? You could probably just add throwing to returning and it would work. Or you could drop the +1 requirement and just have a flat $1,000 fee for the throwing property.

Done before I'm sure, but anyway.
IMO

1. Shadow demon
2. (tie) Ghoul, Phase spider
3. (tie) Gibbering mouther, wisp

Actually, most demons probably belong on the list.

Similar to the other thread, but related to the dwarf.

It seems like he gets the least screen time of any of the five- as most of the other low-level monsters have a thematic tie in with one of the other villians. (I assume all the headless are kind of the lopper's not the MM's)-

Anyhow, did anyone add some more backstory, visions etc. related to the MM? I was thinking of some tie in with the dwarf smith in town. I'm not looking to change the encounter, I just want to somehow make him be as significant as the other four during the buildup, but retain his creepy introvert identity.

The dwarf in the party has actually hit on her a few times, so I was picturing her knocking on Kendra's door and saying something like "I dreamed we were knocking boots, but then this other dwarf with a hammer came at us," or something, but in stoic dwarvish fashion.

I could see something like a T-Rex having to decide whether it wants to either bite something new or swallow what it already in its mouth.

On the other hand, a froghemoth or a elder polyp or something else with a whole mess of tentacles should be able to snarf down lunch and still make some tentacle attacks.

Are there any swallow whole rules where it basically just counts as an attack, or is it always ex=standard action?

"The transmuted creatures can tread on any liquid as if it were firm ground. Mud, oil, snow, quicksand, running water, ice, and even lava can be traversed easily, since the subjects' feet hover an inch or two above the surface. Creatures crossing molten lava still take damage from the heat because they are near it. The subjects can walk, run, charge, or otherwise move across the surface as if it were normal ground."

The description "you hover an inch above the ground" technically makes it sound like you could walk across chasms or canyons, but I'm sure that's against RAI.

However, I'm assuming someone with a ring of water walking is immune to the ground applicatio of the grease spell, since his or her feet are not touching the ground?

I've generally allowed players to do whatever they want as far as spell point of origin goes (for glitterdust, fireball) etc. but especially as things go into 3 dimensions with flight I'm starting to wonder if there's a limit.

Obviously, attempting to put a fireball at a point behind the bad guys to where it doesn't get the party's fighter is understandable. On the other hand, if I'm fighting a swarm of flying monkeys, am I really able to instantly tell that setting off the fireball at a vacant point in space 60 feet up, 25 feet over and 70 feet down is going to be the ideal placement to perfectly just get each monkey and no party members?

I'm considering having players ballpark tell me where they want it to go off, but if they start measuring the grid for perfection making an int check or something.

Mechanically, I'm not even sure how you "order" your fireball to detonate 330 feet in the air, but not 335, but I understand this is a game, yada.

How do other people handle this? Ideally non condescending responses, please, though I know that's not possible for everyone.

I'm having a little bit of trouble balancing out the perfect balance between role playing, roll playing and "no, I'm sorry, but this is a combat."

I'm running a campaign with a bard that has 20 ranks of bluff and diplomacy. Obviously, I try to give him some social or potentially social encounters, and there are some obvious combat encounters so everyone else can kill stuff.

But there's a middle area where I'm having some trouble. A team of Red Mantis assassins jumped the party to try to get an artifact back. Ruthless, best assassin guild in the world, etc. The bard says he wants to make a bluff to tell them they no longer have it. He's a fairly new player, so I prod him to actually give me the bluff. He gives me a little, but not much, so I decide to let him bluff at a -5 penalty. He rolls a 16 for a 31 total. The Red Mantis assassins don't come close on their sense motive roll.

But the other players actually wanted to do stuff (both combat and roleplay)- so I decide the bluff success caused several of the assassins to not attack that round and wait for instruction from the group leader. The player kind of looked hurt that his high roll didn't solve the encounter.

I'm also having a little trouble balancing the roleplay aspect of social skills with the character skill set. I typically make them roleplay for +4/-4 to the roll, but even that seems strange, since I don't force my players to demonstrate their swimming ability before their characters roll a swim, etc. On the other hand, I don't want the "bluff skill" to get in the way with game interaction.

Anyhow, there's kind of a balancing act here and I was wondering if there's ever been a good list of tips. I've been on the other end too- I had a beguiler in 3.5 that would try to talk his way out of all possible encounters with humanoids. The other players would get annoyed. I switched to a wizard.

I'm not too familiar with this world, so would the Red Mantis Assassins be more apt to lawfully make a bargain to get the blade or set up a trap to try to get it w/o paying.

I had Chivane and a few other priests go rogue and more or less kill off most of their faction. They sort of went underground and spied on the PCs and other groups.

When the PCs were battling the trogs, Chivane and a few priests struck. They went in and got the blade in the middle of the battle. I expected her to get away and use her in book 4.

The PCs got really lucky and played really smart. Using a combination of glitterdust, detect evil, dimension door and unlucky DM rolling, they managed to stop Chivane's escape plan and now have the blade.

Using messengers, they've offered the main Red Mantis folks (on the island) to sell them the blade for 30K and a signed pacts to never attack the PCs, their faction or the Muse's tribe.

I'm considering the following options.
1. Roleplay a meeting with the Red Mantis mayor. He offers 30K but refuses the lifelong contract. Maybe agrees to a one year moratorium.

2. Some sort of trap where they agree to the 30K but try to kill the PC's. Keep in mind they did take the blade off of the body of a dead Red Mantis agent.

3. Use the Aspis plotline from Book 4 but have it be Mantis.

4. Some sort of bargain loophole, like the money they receive comes with its own curse.

Anyhow, I usually like the idea of lawful evil people keeping their bargains, because it always seems smoother. Any suggesitons or background on how the Red Mantis would act in this situation would be appreciated. Right now, the party has proposed some sort of neutral mediation in Absalom (they have teleport).

1. Party's dwarven fighter is dominated and has orders to "kill the paladin"- the non dominated members of the party know he is dominated and he's standing next to the non dominated cleric. The dwarf has a warhammer and a heavy shield out.

2. The cleric has a light shield and a weapon and has been mostly casting each round. We've always ruled that with a light shield you can shift your weapon into that hand and cast with the other. We've never really had to figure out if- the second after you cast- you shift the weapon back into your casting hand.

3. Dwarf decides that he wants to sheath his weapon, use quick draw to pull out a net and throw it at the paladin.

4. Cleric decides he wants to AOO the dwarf by attempting to initiate a grapple. (which would happen a second before the net throwing, right?)

5. Dwarf decides he wants to AOO the cleric with a regular attack.

So here's my mess.
1. The dwarf has sheathed his weapon and pulled out a net. So he no longer threatens, right? He has no shield bashing feats and does not have a spiked shield, so I wasn't sure if his shield- which he has only ever used for defense- would still give him an AOO.
2. The cleric either A. is holding a shield and weapon in one hand and nothing in the other or B. is holding a light shield in one hand and a weapon in the other. If A. I'd rule he could attempt a grapple with his one free hand, but does not threaten because he has no threatening weapon readied, so no AOO. If B. (He shifted his weapon back into his hand after casting)he has no hands free to grapple, right? Or could he drop his weapon as a free action within the AOO and then attempt a one handed grapple?

Anyhow, I just winged it and everyone disagreed with various rulings.

Ugh. One of my many questions above there is whether casters shift weapons BACK to their primary hands after shifting away to cast.

I'm planning on running the "boss" half of the military district next week and I'm looking for some ideas on how it has played out for other people.

My party is a paladin who does an absurb amount of damage w/ smite, a rogue, a sorc and a ranger. Oh, and there may be a barbarian playing next week.

So far, I've thrown one regular patrol at them and one self-designed "carau-ka" kitchen (in which the monkeys threw halfling brains and other items out the window at the party). I've burned maybe 20 percent of their resources. They've killed all the escape attempts, but I'm assuming spells like fireball have attracted some notice.

My guess is they are going to send the rogue and the ranger up the side of the castle's hill while the other party members wait. This gets interesting considering everything there has scent. Did other people have a lot of messengers and patrols running to and from the giant hill? I want to make the place feel alive, but I don't want to spend the entire evening fighting CR 4 guys.

I'm going to add a few traps to Olujimi's fortress, but keep it fairly simple. The hard part for me is going to be the Olujimi runs to Akkituk, who runs to Grugonoth part.

Assuming the paladin doesn't kill Olujimi in the second round, which he might, I assume by about Round 4 he'll dim door outside and then dim door to the island. He'll then drink Akkituk's healing potion while the old cleric lady spends a whopping four straight rounds buffing. (I'm not sure why evil clerics never seem to take healing spells). My party's sorc does have D-door, so they can probably spot Olujimi a round or two after he flees his fortress.

From that point on, I'm not sure how best to play it out. It says she does a "fighting retreat" but most of her spells are summons which take a full round to cast. Realistically, she's gonna get gunned fairly quickly if I have her leave the island and race to the ziggaraut. She probably already buffed and left the island after she saw the fireball go off, but I did like the idea of the party having to chase down some old monkey lady headed across the zone while chuka-kara's take potshots at the party. (I was picturing hit and run axe throws at this point).

Anyhow, any stories of how this encounter played out would be appreciated. Did you role all three encounters into one big instance-like event, or keep them unique? I'm trying to keep it challenging, original and balanced all at once. I suppose I could also just have Akkituk "activating" the demon statue right as the party arrives at the base of the zigg. She then sticks around and joins that fight while the 4 thugs either die or run off.

I'm afraid to use it as a GM because spending one round knocking one character over means the other three characters all basically get to wail on me that round without me really doing anything. It's really only worthwhile if you happen to be standing on a cliff or next to an acid pit or interning for a former president...

Wouldn't it make more sense to have Awesome Blow (giggle-worthy name, btw) be an attack action and not a standard action?

Logical argument 1: It doesn't really require any more energy for a big creature to knock someone over than to bite at them. I see no reason why a dinosaur couldn't bite then blow or blow then bite (heh) in a single round. It doesn't really take any more time than disarming them, for example.

Logical argument 2: The mechanics would work just fine. Big creature uses his main attack for damage, then his tail attack to attempt to send someone sprawling.

Balance argument: Against a single monster it would just make the combat a little more interesting. I suppose it could get hard if you were, for example, fighting a squad of fire giants who took turns knocking over the entire party, but if you are fighting a squad of fire giants you should be high enough level to get around this.

Please consider my interest in "awesome blow" becoming an ability monsters can use as an attack action, not a standard action.

After 15 years or so of gaming, I've decided to break down and play a character who uses a shield. I've opted to go all-in and take a bunch of shieldy type things- so I'm looking at a dwarven ranger with a bunch of shield bashy type feats and abilities.

Here are a couple things I'm confused by:
1. Do double slice and two weapon rend apply to off hand shield attacks?
2. Is the free bull rush attack with shield slam automatic- or can I opt not to use it?
3. Can I do a shield bash with a single attack, or does it have to be off hand? (I know this has been debated- but I'm looking at my shield actually doing MORE damage than my waraxe).
4. If a spiked shield is +1 to size and "bashing" is +2, does that mean a +1 heavy spiked shield of bashing is 2D6+1 (plus strength) damage? and with lead blades that goes up to 3D6? (I know I'll be looking at -4 to hit if I use heavy)
5. Since shield master basically counts your shield as a magic weapon too, what happens if you also enchant your spikes? (I love that I'll have a better to hit w/ my off hand due to shield master also).
6. Does a +3 (to defense) heavy spiked shield then get around cold iron/silver DR if wielded by someone with the shield master feat? (since it would count as a +3 weapon)

Thanks for any shield answers you can provide!

I've always avoided "save per round" spells, so it hasn't come up until recently, which I noticed that my beloved glitterdust is now a save per round.

So I'm init. 20, baddies are init. 18 and everyone else is below that.

I cast glitterdust. They fail the saving throw on my init. Do they instantly get their "second save" on their init. turn, or on my next turn? And at what point has "one round" of the spell actually passed?

Sorry if this was one of those questions that has been asked 5 million times.

So a L1 rogue jumps out from behind some rocks and throws a dagger at my L1 diviner (with a surprise attack), but I beat him on the initiative roll due to my super duper divination school power.

Would this be how it breaks down?
1. I go first and attack with a standard action. He's flat footed.
2. He goes first and attacks with a standard action. I'm not flat footed.

The suprise round is over, and everyone else rolls and we all go accordingly?