So I really dislike wording in the rules that creates ambiguity. While listening to the Glass Cannon Podcast some issues with Fascinated condition came up that really made me start thinking about how it's used. On two separate occasions The DM Troy used the fascinate ability of two creatures (Frost Worm and Yuki-onna) in ways that did make sense, but because of the wording of Fascinate pretty much everyone on the forums disagreed with how Troy used the ability.
Really digging into the wording of Fascinated most of the reasoning used as to why it is an ability that can't be used in combat comes from the line "drawing a weapon". Most arguments I've read basically boil down to "you can't know who you're drawing a weapon at so it must be to everyone who can see it", followed up by "that action is more threatening than drawing a weapon so it would also break Fascinated".
So to maintain the spirit of what I believe to be a fun way to use this ability in combat (since it seems to me that it's rarely if ever used outside of combat anyway), without it being abused I think I'll home brew the wording from this:
Original wording:
Fascinated: A fascinated creature is entranced by a supernatural or spell effect. The creature stands or sits quietly, taking no actions other than to pay attention to the fascinating effect, for as long as the effect lasts. It takes a –4 penalty on skill checks made as reactions, such as Perception checks.
Any potential threat, such as a hostile creature approaching, allows the fascinated creature a new saving throw against the fascinating effect. Any obvious threat, such as someone drawing a weapon, casting a spell, or aiming a ranged weapon at the fascinated creature, automatically breaks the effect.
A fascinated creature’s ally may shake it free of the spell as a standard action.
To this:
New wording:
Fascinated: A fascinated creature is entranced by a supernatural or spell effect. The creature stands or sits quietly, taking no actions other than to pay attention to the fascinating effect, for as long as the effect lasts. It takes a –4 penalty on skill checks made as reactions, such as Perception checks.
Any potential threat, such as a hostile creature approaching or someone drawing a weapon, allows the fascinated creature a new saving throw against the fascinating effect. Any obvious threat directed at the fascinated creature, such as someone raising a weapon, casting a spell, or aiming a ranged weapon, automatically breaks the effect.
A fascinated creature’s ally may shake it free of the spell as a standard action.
So what does everyone think? Does this make Fascinated too powerful of a condition just waiting to be abused, or does it make it just somewhat more useful which makes classes and creatures with this ability a bit more interesting?
TLDR: Can a player choose the Additional Traits feat for an Eidolon to gain the Trap Finder trait to gain the Trap Finding ability?
So I'm running Curse of the Crimson Throne. We're in Chapter 3: Escape from Old Korvosa. One of my players is a Summoner who took the Shadow Summoner archetype and has really played up the idea that his Eidolon is his shadow, even to the point where his shadow is an actual Shadow creature that's lost its powers (some backstory I've been working with him on). So his Ediolon is built as basically a sneaky skill monkey. He's taken Dampen Presence and Skill Evolutions for Stealth, Disable Device, etc.
Now here's my question. He wants his Eidolon to take the feat "Additional Traits" and take the trait "Trap Finder" from Mummy's Mask campaign. I have two issues with this.
First, can non-player characters have traits? I had never seen any rules on this or examples in other games so it seemed like traits were always a special PC thing.
Second, I'm not terribly keen on players picking traits from other campaigns with the exception that its a campaign that we as a group had at least tried to play in the past (which Mummy's Mask is not).
So the other relevant detail is that there are no Rogues in the party, which is his main argument and really the only reason I'm considering this. On one hand I understand its a niche not being filled at the moment and that building his Shadow this way is an effort to fill this roll. On the other hand my players know they may change characters between chapters or in the case of a character death. This player in particular already changed from a Rogue to a Summoner. So I feel that allowing the Shadow to gain Trap Finding does take away a special incentive for anyone to choose a Rogue if they wanted to.
I know according to Pathfinder Society rules he would not be able to take it, and I know since its a home game I can change the rules as needed. I'm just a bit on the fence about it, leaning towards saying no, but would appreciate some advice. What does everyone else think?
TLDR: Does Academy of Secrets spoil the story in Curse of the Crimson Throne?
So I've been running a Curse of the Crimson Throne campaign for my group for the last 2 years or so. We're about the finish the 3rd chapter, Escape from Old Korvosa, and one of my players has suggested running a one shot module to give me a break and a chance to join the rest of the players. While talking about this he had an idea I thought was pretty good. He suggested the module be set in the City of Korvosa and that the characters everyone builds could be the rest of the players backup characters in case someone had a player death. I thought this would work pretty well and that we could slot these new characters in as NPCs that could easily be called upon if ever the need arose.
So looking through the adventures set in Korvosa I found the Academy of Secrets. I have already been doing my best to really make the Korvosan setting as detailed and rich as possible, so all the players were already aware of the Breaching Festival. We have even been keeping pretty close track of time passing in our campaign with a Golarion calendar, and I have even made it a point to insert some of the other Korvosan specific and general holidays into our game (such as, the King died while everyone was celebrating Merrymead, and the plague in chapter 2 started spreading right after Taxfest). So everyone generally knows that the annual Breaching Festival is coming up, but considering everything that's happened in the city it makes since that the festival wouldn't happen during the events of the campaign. Instead the idea is that they will do it as a sort of flashback to one year ago where all the backup characters will be introduced.
Ok, so here is my question. Are there any spoilers for the Curse of the Crimson Throne Adventure Path in Academy of Secrets that would ruin my players experience if he ran the module? Since he has offered to run it and invited me to play as a PC in the module I can't really look for myself without spoiling the module. So I'm in need of some advice from someone who has run both who can help me and my player avoid the story spoilers of both.
Specifically I want to avoid spoiling the main plot of Curse of the Crimson Throne and all the things relevant to the Queen. I'd be more open to some spoilers for Lorthact as long as they don't give everything away (preferably just some tantalizing tid-bits that would make the players aware of the existence of other evil forces in Korvosa). I had thought of trying to incorporate his presence into the main plot, and perhaps use the suggestion of Lorthact as a story hook for a short post campaign adventure. If the spoilers are very expansive then we may need to look at some of the other modules, but if they are pretty limited then I was hoping to create a modified document for my player with the spoilers omitted (hoping that I can do so without spoiling the module to much for myself).
So I'd like to get some clarification regarding how much damage the Mesmerist's Painful Stare ability is supposed to do. I found the following thread which asks the question quite well, but didn't want to necro the thread so I'll link it here.
Duskblade wrote:
Okay, I have a quick question about the 'painful stare' ability for the Mesmerist:
When an attack that deals damage hits the target of a mesmerist's hypnotic stare, the mesmerist can cause the target to take an amount of additional damage equal to 1/2 the mesmerist's class level (minimum 1).
The mesmerist can use this ability as a free action, and can use it even if it isn't his turn. If the mesmerist uses this ability to increase his own damage, the additional damage increases by 1d6 points for every 3 class levels the mesmerist possesses. This damage is precision damage and is not multiplied on a critical hit. A mesmerist can trigger this ability only once per round, but a single creature can take damage from multiple mesmerists' painful stares in a round.
Alright, for this example, let's assume that the mesmerist is 20th level: which of the following options represents how much damage the 'painful stare' ability would do if the mesmerist used it on himself...
a) 6d6 + 10 extra damage
or
b) 6d6 extra damage
I only ask because the wording almost seems to imply that the 'd6' precision damage replaces the previous 'flat bonus' to damage.
The two replies seem to agree that in the example provided the Mesmerist should deal a) 6d6 + 10 extra damage. If this is the case it would put the Mesmerist only about 1d6 damage behind the Rogues Sneak Attack progression (10d6 at lvl 20) in terms of average damage (3d6 being 10.5 damage on average).
So far I think this seems pretty balanced. I'd just like to confirm that this is in fact the intent of the design of the ability.
What confuses me is when we consider the Intense Pain feat, which states the following:
Quote:
Intense Pain (Combat, Stare)
You deal additional damage when using your painful stare.
Prerequisite(s): Mesmerist level 7th, painful stare class feature.
Benefit(s): When you use your painful stare ability to increase your own damage, you deal an additional 1d6 points of damage. This damage increases to 2d6 at Mesmerist level 12th and to 3d6 at Mesmerist level 18th.
When you use painful stare to augment an ally’s damage, the target of the painful stare takes 1 additional point of damage for every 4 Mesmerist levels you possess.
The extra d6's to damage are pretty strait forward, but the way its worded regarding the extra added to ally's damage makes me rethink the intent of the base Painful Stare ability. It seems like there are 3 ways you could interpret Intense Pain:
1) the +1 per 4 Mesmerist levels improves the "base" damage done when allies do damage which then also is added to bonus xd6 damage added when its the Mesmerist's attack.
2) the +1 per 4 Mesmerist levels improves the damage done by allies, but does not get added to the bonus xd6 damage. But the "base" damage done by allies is added to the xd6 damage when its the Mesmerist's attack.
3) the Painful Stare "base" damage is only applied to an allies attack, and is improved by Intense Pain as written. Then the Painful Stare damage changes from 1/2 Mesmerist level damage on an attack to 1d6 damage per three Mesmerist levels when applied to the Mesmerist's attack.
Options 1 and 3 seem relatively straight forward, while option 3 honestly seems far to convoluted to be true.
If option 1 is true it means that at Level 20 a Mesmerist would deal 9d6+10+5 damage with his Painful Stare, 46.5 on average which is just shy of 13d6. Even when considering that Rogues would be able to take Accomplished Sneak Attacker which would put them at 11d6 sneak attack damage this seems high to me. Especially when we then consider that Painful Stare mechanic is more easily achieved than sneak attack, being able to apply it at range with no extra feats required and a very strong argument that it can be applied to spells including Magic Missile.
Option 3 would mean that with Intense Pain Mesmerists would deal 9d6 damage on their own attacks putting them just shy of a Rogues sneak attack, but getting the advantage that their Painful Stare ability is easier achieve as a mechanic.
Sorry if that was confusing, but I hope some discerning GM's or Designers out there can decipher all that. I just want to make sure I understand how Painful Stare was intended to work.
TL;DR: Would removing the save from the Poison evolution, but making it only last one round for 2 evolution points be too strong?
Long Version: I'm Running a game for a player who wants to make his Shadow Eidolon as close to a real shadow as possible. Almost everything to do this is pretty straight forward with Evolutions except the Shadow's touch attack.
First off, it does not appear that any evolutions make an Eidolon's attack a touch attack.
The touch attack deals Strength damage with seems easy enough to replicate with the Poison evolution, but the Shadow's touch attack has no save. So I'm thinking of modifying the Poison evolution to do what he'd like, but don't want to make it so broken I just cause problems for myself down the road. Here's what I'm thinking:
Quote:
Shadow Attack(Ex)
An eidolon's attack deals negative energy, draining the strength from its enemies. Pick one bite or claw attack. Whenever the selected attack hits, the target takes strength damage.
Eidolon Strength Damage (Su) - This is a Negative Energy effect (injury); save Will negates; effect 1d4 Str damage.
The save DC is equal to 10 + 1/2 the eidolon’s HD + the eidolon’s Constitution modifier.
For 2 additional evolution points, this attack deals 1d6 Strength damage instead and no longer has a save. This effect can be used no more than once per round. The summoner must be at least 7th level before selecting this evolution.
I have thought about making it a touch attack for an additional 2 evolution points, but thinking about it this just seems WAY to strong. The compromise I thought made sense was actually just clarifying the Incorporeal evolution so that while it is in effect all attacks do behave like touch attacks as it would for an Incorporeal creature.
So this was something I had been planning to buy for quite some time, but I got a bit of a surprise when I noticed that a few things that I thought were no longer in stock suddenly appeared on Paizo's webpage as available. Can you spot the mysterious and ever elusive unicorn? :)
Anyway, I wasn't planning to buy it all for another month, but when I saw what was available I just went ahead and ordered it all. A nice little late Christmas present for myself. Just got everything in this last weekend and got it all opened and wanted to share.
So this was something I had been planning to buy for quite some time, but I got a bit of a surprise when I noticed that a few things that I thought were no longer in stock suddenly appeared on Paizo's webpage as available. Can you spot the mysterious and ever elusive unicorn? :)
Anyway, I wasn't planning to buy it all for another month, but when I saw what was available I just went ahead and ordered it all. A nice little late Christmas present for myself. Just got everything in this last weekend and got it all opened and wanted to share.
So I noticed that Paizo still has Booster Cases available for some of their older Pathfinder Battles products. I've been looking through the sets to see if any have a good number of creatures I don't have, and am really considering buying a case of Shattered Star.
Does anyone have any experience buying older sets like this? I'd like to know:
-Did you still get a complete set from a case? Was the case still factory wrapped as a case, or just four separate bricks?
-Any issues with higher than normal breakage in a case?
-Did you have any other problems/delays with your order?
I'd also be very interested to know others opinions on what are the best older Pathfinder Battles sets to buy for someone just starting out buying miniatures for regular Pathfinder games?
So I noticed that Paizo still has Booster Cases available for some of their older Pathfinder Battles products. I've been looking through the sets to see if any have a good number of creatures I don't have, and am really considering buying a case of Shattered Star.
Does anyone have any experience buying older sets like this? I'd like to know:
-Did you still get a complete set from a case? Was the case still factory wrapped as a case, or just four separate bricks?
-Any issues with higher than normal breakage in a case?
-Did you have any other problems/delays with your order?
I'd also be very interested to know others opinions on what are the best older Pathfinder Battles sets to buy for someone just starting out buying miniatures for regular Pathfinder games?
So I'm (sorta) familiar with the rules for Vampires and know that unless you use...
one of the 4 methods:
- Keep him from getting to his coffin in gaseous form
- Stake to the heart + beheading + blessing the head
- 3 rounds under running water
- 2 rounds in direct sunlight
...then they are pretty much immune to death. But it is very specific in the Defensive Abilities entry that once a vampire hits 0 HP it becomes Gaseous and is immune to further damage.
Defensive Abilities:
A vampire gains channel resistance +4, DR 10/magic and silver, and resistance to cold 10 and electricity 10, in addition to all of the defensive abilities granted by the undead type. A vampire also gains fast healing 5. If reduced to 0 hit points in combat, a vampire assumes gaseous form (see below) and attempts to escape. It must reach its coffin home within 2 hours or be utterly destroyed. (It can normally travel up to 9 miles in 2 hours.) Additional damage dealt to a vampire forced into gaseous form has no effect. Once at rest, the vampire is helpless. It regains 1 hit point after 1 hour, then is no longer helpless and resumes healing at the rate of 5 hit points per round.
Weaknesses:
Vampires cannot tolerate the strong odor of garlic and will not enter an area laced with it. Similarly, they recoil from mirrors or strongly presented holy symbols. These things don't harm the vampire—they merely keep it at bay. A recoiling vampire must stay at least 5 feet away from the mirror or holy symbol and cannot touch or make melee attacks against that creature. Holding a vampire at bay takes a standard action. After 1 round, a vampire can overcome its revulsion of the object and function normally each round it makes a DC 25 Will save.
Vampires cannot enter a private home or dwelling unless invited in by someone with the authority to do so.
Reducing a vampire's hit points to 0 or lower incapacitates it but doesn't always destroy it (see fast healing). However, certain attacks can slay vampires. Exposing any vampire to direct sunlight staggers it on the first round of exposure and destroys it utterly on the second consecutive round of exposure if it does not escape. Each round of immersion in running water inflicts damage on a vampire equal to one-third of its maximum hit points—a vampire reduced to 0 hit points in this manner is destroyed. Driving a wooden stake through a helpless vampire's heart instantly slays it (this is a full-round action). However, it returns to life if the stake is removed, unless the head is also severed and anointed with holy water.
But what about Vampire Spawn? From what I can tell they do not get the Defensive Abilities entry of Vampires, just the Weaknesses (which also indicate they are pretty much immune to death). So if a Vampire Spawn hits 0 HP would it become Gaseous? And if not, does additional damage take it into Negative Hitpoints? How many Negative Hitpoints could it take since it doesn't have a Constitution score? Would it just continually heal until its HP is back to 0 or higher, even after millions of points of damage, and then just wake back up?
Also, does Silver stop its Fast Healing? Would this allow the it do die similar to how one would kill a Troll with fire? (or am I misunderstanding something about Fast Healing?)
And I'm sure someone will mention it, I do agree that once its unconscious taking its head off and blessing it would destroy it, but I'd like to figure out what happens if a group of adventurers didn't know this and just beat it into a puddle of goo.
So after preparing for an encounter that includes both Tanglefoot Bags and Caltops I realized that the speed reductions for both of these items do not have any specific type and could arguably be due to different sources. One entangling your legs with the other impairing your feet.
So the question is, do these two speed reductions stack? For example:
A human with a move speed of 30 ft. steps on some Caltrops which successfully injury him, reducing his movement speed reduced to 15 ft.
Then someone hits him with a tanglefoot bag, and on a successful Reflax save becomes entangled reducing his speed by half of his now 15 ft. movement speed to 7 ft., which would then be rounded down to 5 ft. following the rounding rules.
Tanglefoot Bag:
A tanglefoot bag is a small sack filled with tar, resin, and other sticky substances. When you throw a tanglefoot bag at a creature (as a ranged touch attack with a range increment of 10 feet), the bag comes apart and goo bursts out, entangling the target and then becoming tough and resilient upon exposure to air. An entangled creature takes a –2 penalty on attack rolls and a –4 penalty to Dexterity and must make a DC 15 Reflex save or be glued to the floor, unable to move. Even on a successful save, it can move only at half speed. Huge or larger creatures are unaffected by a tanglefoot bag. A flying creature is not stuck to the floor, but it must make a DC 15 Reflex save or be unable to fly (assuming it uses its wings to fly) and fall to the ground. A tanglefoot bag does not function underwater.
Caltrops:
A caltrop is a four-pronged metal spike crafted so that one prong faces up no matter how the caltrop comes to rest. You scatter caltrops on the ground in the hope that your enemies step on them or are at least forced to slow down to avoid them. One 2-pound bag of caltrops covers an area 5 feet square.
Each time a creature moves into an area covered by caltrops (or spends a round fighting while standing in such an area), it runs the risk of stepping on one. Make an attack roll for the caltrops (base attack bonus +0) against the creature. For this attack, the creature's shield, armor, and deflection bonuses do not count. If the creature is wearing shoes or other footwear, it gets a +2 armor bonus to AC. If the attack succeeds, the creature has stepped on a caltrop. The caltrop deals 1 point of damage, and the creature's speed is reduced by half because its foot is wounded. This movement penalty lasts for 24 hours, until the creature is successfully treated with a DC 15 Heal check, or until it receives at least 1 point of magical healing. A charging or running creature must immediately stop if it steps on a caltrop. Any creature moving at half speed or slower can pick its way through a bed of caltrops with no trouble.
Caltrops may not work against unusual opponents.
I could also see where a character affected by multiple speed reducing effects only applies the single worst effect similar to how non-stacking bonuses work, but I haven't found anything that specifies this from a source in a book or on the forums.
So a Summoner in my game is pretty frustrated by how "clunky" it feels to have to dismiss his Eidolon as a standard action before he can use his Summon Monster class ability. He is primarily building his Eidolon (a Shadow with the Shadow Caller archetype) as a scout and skill monkey to act as a replacement for the lack of a rogue in the party. He's picking up the non-combat/movement/shadow evolutions over combat evolutions and the Shadow Form evolution reduces all damage his Eidolon does to corporeal creatures by half, so I understand why he'd like to just dismiss his Eidolon asap when combat breaks out.
We haven't found anything from any core or 3rd party books that do this, so I'm open to creating something. My question is what would be appropriate for the ability to dismiss an Eidolon as a swift action? It doesn't feel quite right as a feat so I was initially thinking of a trait like the following.
Quote:
Born of the Planes
You were born on a plane other than the material plane and have always felt a special connection to it. Your Eidolon is considered a native to this plane and as such you are able to dismiss him back with great ease. You may dismiss your Eidolon as a Swift action instead of a Standard action.
I was also thinking about making it so he can summon his Eidolon in 30 seconds as opposed to a minute since it fits thematically.
Would this be a bit to unbalancing as just a trait to a Summoners action economy since the Summon Monster class ability is already a standard action or is it about right for the strength of a trait?
I received my Pathfinder Battles subscription a few days ago and the entire set is amazing. The distribution of miniatures in the case was spot on as I received a complete set just as with Crown of Fangs. I continue to be quite impressed with the Pathfinder Battles line.
The only issue (fortunately only one) was one of the two Minotaur Clerics figures I received was pretty severely warped. The link below takes you to the photos showing how one was bent back pretty drastically, near to the point of breaking from how the base feels.
So my group just about to finish Edge of Anarchy. They are currently looting the Dead Warrens by email after a pretty long set of battles clearing it out in person. While we go back and forth in our emails I've been wanting to drop in some clues about what Rolth has been doing in the Dead Warrens and some foreshadowing for him and possibly some of the events that will happen in the next chapter, but I'm afraid of being too heavy handed with it. I don't want to give to much away and ruin some of the surprises. Here is what I was thinking.
Spoiler:
1. I wanted to drop some references to "The Patterns of Killers" paper written in Horror Realms Campaign Setting book since it has some interesting references to the Key-Lock killer. I mostly wanted to do this to reveal a little more about Rolth and set him up as a pretty despicable villain. Its a pretty interesting read and sets up a possible ominous evil force that might have been influencing Rolth. I was thinking about developing this into possibly being Kazavon the same way he influences Salvator, even suggesting that Rolth viewed his bloody tableaus as the same kind of artwork Salvator does as well as Rolth's attempt to solve the pattern, that is if Rolth does become a recurring villain.
2. One of my players is a Mesmerist and wants to use Psychometry on the broken key-shaped dagger. This is another spot I thought would be a good place to fill in some hidden history of Rolth to start characterizing him more. I wrote up short story a few paragraphs long about when Rolth was almost caught by the guards before he gave up being the key-lock killer. Pretty much him breaking into a house, killing someone and being caught by an unexpected family member who screams and alerts a nearby guard before he can deal with it. Even threw in a little explanation as to why his dagger is broken for flavor.
3. As the players are searching the Dead Warrens I told them they found a number of documents, letters and notes on Rolth's writing desk in his bed chambers, but described it as being scattered and disorganized with some of the writing in other languages that would require time to piece together (probably a linguistics check). This where I wanted to put the reference to "The Patterns of Killers," but I was also thinking of them finding a letter from a contact of Rolth's so they can discover that he has been making these golems to sell. I was also thinking of dropping some hints that this contact may be connected to a local religious cult and maybe drop some clues its a follower of Urgathoa and that he'd like to meet up to discuss some new "plans" to foreshadow some of the plot in the next chapter.
I like the ideas, but I just can't tell if I'm being too heavy handed with it since I know what happens later, especially #3. I don't want to ruin the mystery of finding everything out to easily, but do want to drop some fun puzzle pieces my players can play with. I'd appreciate any advice or suggestions.
So one of the players in the game I'm running is creating a Fetchling Shadow Caller loosely based the character Shikamaru from the anime Naruto. I'd like to help him by finding or creating some spells to suitably mimic Shikamaru's Shadow abilities.
For this characters signature ability "Shadow Possession" I felt that the Wizard ability Binding Darkness (Sp) fit pretty well though it doesn't allow the caster to move the person like the ability in the anime. Would this ability as written be strong enough as a first level spell? I kinda felt like it might be a bit weak due to its duration.
Beyond the above would anyone have any suggestions for spells that use shadows to cause one or more opponents to become trapped/stuck, choked, and even force a subject to copy the casters exact movements? If not I'm open to creating some custom spells and would just appreciate some help making them balanced.
So I have looked as thoroughly as I can in the rules and around the internet, but haven't found any specific answer.
A player in my game would like to find a spellcaster in the city whom he can contract to cast the Permanency and Reduce Person spells. Following the pricing in the book of Caster Level x Spell Level x 10 gp I've come to a total of:
Reduce Person spellcasting service
9 x 1 x 10 = 90 gp
Permanency spellcasting service
9 x 5 x 10 = 450 gp
Additional cost described in Permanency for Reduce Person
2500 gp
Total: 3040 gp
To provide some context, the player is a level 3 rogue in my Curse of the Crimson Throne campaign in the city of Korvosa which is a big enough city he should be able to 9th level caster without to much trouble.
My main question is should there be any kind of level restriction for game balance sake on characters finding and paying for spellcasting services for spells that only characters 6 levels higher than them would be able to cast?
My initial thought is that this is addressed by the fundamental limitation of gold characters have access to at any given level. So the spellcasting services and the Permanency spell were designed with the players buying power according to the Wealth by Level table in mind.
Would there be any other considerations that should be made specifically regarding these effects and game balance?
Prerequisites
Con 13, Wis 13, Improved Unarmed Strike, base attack bonus +8.
Benefits
You must declare that you are using this feat before you make your attack roll (thus a failed attack roll ruins the attempt). On a successful hit, the attack deals damage normally and you can choose to push your target 5 feet or attempt to knock them prone. If you decide to push the target, it is moved 5 feet directly away from you. This movement does not provoke attacks of opportunity, and the target must end this move in a safe space it can stand in. If you decide to attempt to knock the target prone, the target receives a Fortitude saving throw with a DC of 10 + 1/2 your character level + your Wisdom modifier to avoid the effect. You may attempt a punishing kick attack once per day for every four levels you have attained (but see Special), and no more than once per round.
My big question is why is this a Fortitude save and not a Reflex save? To me it makes sense that Stunning Fist is a Fort save. The way I see it its impacting a person's internal bodily systems. Possibly hitting a pressure point or simply disrupting the persons mind body connection, like taking a huge hit might do. But with Punishing Kick I feel that it makes sense that a character is hitting them in just the right way to throw off their balance and use their momentum against them.
Also, looking strictly at the mechanics of the game we also have a stunning fist type ability that targets Will saves with the feat Touch of Serenity. Would it not make sense to have Punishing Kick target the Reflex save, providing players and especially Monks with 3 nice options each targeting the 3 different saves. It just surprises me this wasn't how it was written in the first place.
So my next question follows this up. If I houserule that Punishing Kick does target the Reflex save for my players would those of you with more experience DMing than I tell me: are there any unfair interactions that would make this an unbalancing change to the game?
Hi everyone, I'll be GMing CotCT pretty soon with my monthly game group and this question has come up.
One of my players will be Ratfolk, which I thought would work pretty well in Korvosa considering as a culture they are pretty heavily described as merchants and traders and what I believe to be quite comfortable in a city setting. But as I've read through the Adventure and seen that there is a pretty decent presence of warerats in the city with a nice little quest focused on this population in Book 2 this had made me second guess where Ratfolk would fit in the city and what their relationship to the warerats would be like if I didn't make any sweeping changes to the Adventure as written.
I'd like to ask if anyone might have some suggestions to how these to groups would exist and maybe some suggestions on how I can really give my Ratfolk player some great connection to those story lines.
So we're a few sessions into a new game, levels 1-20 in 20 sessions, and we've loosely recreated a group called the Akotski from the anime Naruto. I've created the character Kisame for those who are interested/familiar with the series. Our GM has given us all 1 special ability to further help us recreate these characters, so to the point.
I'm an Aquatic Orc who's an Invulnerable Rager. The special ability I've been given is what allows me to travel around on land without suffocating. I basically carry the water around with me (10 cubic feet / Character Level magically compressed inside me), though in the roleplay I do look for sources to replenish it quite often. As a full-round action I'm able to unleash the water into a bubble around me forcing any enemies we're facing to fight me underwater. I can do this roughly once per week, the bubble can follow me, and lasts for 1 round / character level + con mod. After its over I've got just enough water to survive, but am pretty dehydrated and vulnerable till I find a new source of water. (I'll need to double check that duration with my GM).
I am pretty much the only melee fighter so I'm trying to make this guy rather tanky but still able to put out SOME dps.
My question is what feats, rage powers, gear etc would help help me take advantage of putting enemies in my natural element to fight? I've got a few ideas already, but any and all suggestions are welcome.
This is probably pretty obvious, but I couldn't find anything confirming it.
When casting a spell from a scroll the rules read...
Pathfinder SRD wrote:
Activate the Spell: Activating a scroll requires reading the spell from the scroll. The character must be able to see and read the writing on the scroll. Activating a scroll spell requires no material components or focus. (The creator of the scroll provided these when scribing the scroll.) Note that some spells are effective only when cast on an item or items. In such a case, the scroll user must provide the item when activating the spell. Activating a scroll spell is subject to disruption just as casting a normally prepared spell would be. Using a scroll is like casting a spell for purposes of arcane spell failure chance.
This begs the question. Do you HAVE to read the spell aloud? It doesn't really specify, though I'm sure most GM's would say this is a given. Is there a rule somewhere that I'm missing that actually mentions this?
So we're starting up our first horror oriented campaign and this has given me the chance to try out the Inquisitor Class (I love me some Vampire Hunters). We're starting out at Level 9 and I'm going with an (almost cliche) ranged Crossbow wielding character. I'm really loving the overall backstory to the campaign and my character specifically, but would love some advice on the build itelf, specifically Spells, Teamwork Feats. Would appreciate any advice.
--Feats
Point-Blank Shot
Precise Shot
Rapid Shot
Rapid Reload (Light Crossbow)
Great Fortitude
Exotic Weapon Prof. (Bolas) -
Bolas might look kinda funny, but this was taken to give me some better combat utility since I discovered I couldn't take Ranged Pin. Thought True Strike could help make it worth it.
--Teamwork Feats
Coordinated Defense
Coordinated Manuvers
Duck and Cover
Didn't see many good options for Ranged so I went for defense. Seen several people suggest keeping some ability to go into Melee and make use of Out Flank and Precise Strike, but wasn't sure how hard that would be.
--Spells
0: Acid Splash, Create Water, Detect Magic, Light, Guidance, Stabilize
1: Alarm, Detect Undead, Divine Favor, Expeditious Retreat, True Strike
2: Flames of the Faithful, Follow Aura, See Invisibility, Silence
3: Blood Biography, Dimensional Anchor, Magic Circle Against Evil, Magic Weapon Greater
A number of these I picked for RP reasons (Blood biography), but am pretty unsure of the spell selection.
