Sparky Spain's page

It seems to me that, if you can't control the guns and/or spellcasters, it'll end up being left to police bots to keep law & order. Shoot down any grenade flying through the air (military grade robots, right?), "pacify" anyone using guns, spells, etc.

Of course, their AI should usually be smart enough to not attack anyone fighting to defend the station against a random monster or cultist. *Usually* ;-)

gigyas6 wrote:

bookrat wrote:

Seriously - there are freaking lazer rifles! Why would you play a melee focused PC when there are lazers and particle beams?

Because charging guns are expensive when a sword cuts through armor and flesh just as well.

A sword won't do you much good if you're shot to death before you get close enough to use it.

True, but you can be pretty far away and still be dangerous with a blade: Tueller Drill, even verified by MythBusters!

For anyone who didn't make it in time, Mr. Poots now has a place to request a late pledge on the Kickstarter page.

Late pledge request link
Kickstarter page with the above link (in case it changes)

From his 2/14 update: "We will invite late backers into the fray after all the backers are settled."

What's the penalty in PFS when you stack mistakenly?

Went through a game on +20 and not +19 on Disable Device....in the spirit of honesty what's the penalty?

Right before you go to bed...

There, your penance will be taken care of around the time Drandle Dreng would normally wake you for a mission.

John Compton wrote:

I'll just need to write a few double negatives first.

Please don't not get on with not putting that off. ;)

Ain't no way that's gonna happen. :-P

Anointed (five goals): You gain a +2 sacred bonus on Charisma-based checks made against good creatures and saving throws against spells and effects with the evil descriptor. Once per scenario as a swift action, you may grant a weapon you wield the benefits of bless weapon for one round.

So, an Anointed Silver Crusader gets...

* a +2 bonus to bully (Intimidate) good people and outsiders into submission.
* a +2 bonus to the opposed Charisma check to bargain with the angel they just cast planar binding on. (You know, the spell that tears them from their home plane and traps them here?)

Neat! ;-)

(Yes, I understand the intent of the boon, I just thought these were funny.)

I just want to see an adventure where Drandle Dreng wakes the party up at 4am, to go recover the bodies of the Pathfinders he sent out at 2am...

With regards to a "GM credit baby", here's my question:

Said credit baby had never been played, but has chronicles from July. You get the protege (or similar) boon now, in October, after the valid races have changed. Can you...

a) create an aasimar with the protege boon without needing a race boon?
b) create a nagaji (*) with the protege boon without needing a race boon?
c) none of the above

(*) assuming nagaji doesn't need a race boon in season 6. PFS leadership has said they don't need one, but Additional Resources says otherwise.

Here's a quick "after action" report on our group's defeat at the hands of Krune on hard mode. I figure our experience might give future GM's some ideas...

Our group: barbarian/fighter, fighter (archer), hellknight signifer, oracle, rogue and wizard (me). Buffed sky-high, including freedom of movement, see invisible, heroism, hero's feast, hightened continual flames, etc, etc.

Since Kurshu knew we were coming, the GM had her use a limited wish to cast a permanent image just west of the altar, so we couldn't see Krune's chamber. No surprise round for her, and I got a 45 to ID her, so I got one question (as usual for my wizard, "resistances and immunities please.") Kurshu dropped a fireball on us and then went down to a hail of arrows and backstabs. The signifer animates Kurshu's remains as a skeleton.

All of the runes are taken out fairly easily, and the Lashmistress and company go down in a few rounds, then the fun starts. :-)

We spend a while playing with the refuge tokens, giving Krune (still behind the permanent image) at least ten rounds to prep. He starts by wishing for a prismatic wall just behind the permanent image, in case we see through the illusion. He then summons lots of stuff (bebilith, nalfeshnee, shadow demons and a chaos demon at the very least) and starts buffing.

A few lower level summons attack us while we're still in area A4, which we dispatch pretty easily. Then an unholy nimbus covers us and we immediately have to make Will saves. The oracle fails and gets dazed for seven rounds, preventing any future healing. The first horrid wilting hits, and we start deciding we'd be better off outside the room. The archer heads out, sees Krune at the entrance of the A4 hallway (with the bebilith right behind him) and calls for help. The bebilith hits him pretty hard.

I go ahead and pop an antimagic field and head over to Krune, but he disappears as soon as I get within 15 feet of him (contingency? immediate action?). I continue on and suppress the bebilith. Then the nalfeshnee (the GM's favorite level 9 summons) teleports into the room. The signifer tries to dismiss the nalfeshnee and fails. Archer heads back and gets hit down to 4 hit points. Black tentacles appear in the room but we all have freedom of movement going. I zip back and suppress the nalfeshnee. Another horrid wilting comes out for 108 damage and kills the barbarian/fighter. The archer stays in my antimagic field.

Only a few round of oracle dazing left, so we figure we can try to hold out in area A4. Unfortunately, Krune sends in his spear. First round it comes around the corner and double strikes the archer (one hit for about 25 and a crit for 56) to very dead. Next round it does the same to me - comes around the corner and hits once for 26 and then crits for 78.

The oracle comes out of daze, goes invisible and when Krune enters the room tries an empowered slay living, only to have spell turned back on him (he made his save). At this point everyone retreats through the portal, getting all the bodies except mine (I'm still in my own antimagic field). Half gold, no prestige (5pp for body recovery for me), and Shiela Hiedmarch lambasting us for doing such a pitiful job.

In the end, we never got a single attack on him. Getting all that prep time and dazing the oracle were definitely the deciding factors. Still, it was fun getting smashed. Looking forward to running this for other folks later.

After finally getting the module (*), we ran it with the following:

* The pregen warpriest
* A witch (white-haired) 1 / magus (hexblade) 3
* An alchemist, level 3
* A magus, level 3 or 4, throwing Harrow cards

In the end everyone had fun and no one died, but mainly because they realized they could rest. The main highlights:

- The pyramid was really tough - without the high damage of the warpriest, I think they would've been in trouble. The alchemist was clever - he used Enlarge Person to stop the trample attacks cold (can't trample something your size or greater). Ten wand charges used.

- The mimic grabbed the witch and the warpriest, but went down pretty quick. It actually died to a coup de grace Harrow card (LOL).

- The false pharaoh got grabbed and pinned down by the witch's hair, and died an embarrassing death. Party rested then went south. The scarabs melted to alchemist bombs.

- They all saw through the zombie lords' illusion, but still played along. A few lucky Diplomacy rolls and I let them through after they choked down the "food" and "drink".

- On the big fight, everyone got paralyzed, but the warpriest only got one round worth, and the pharaoh and sphinx were too far away for a coup de grace. Warpriest used his remove fear scroll on the alchemist, who (again) melted the mummy with his bombs. Magus and witch wiped out the sphinx after that.

Add poor ole me to the list. Sooo close to three stars too. :-(

There's an old guide, "Mastering the Malconvoker", written by Treantmonklvl20, that has lots of good planar binding and summoning advice. Specifically, the section about binding a succubus lists a lot of tricks to make the called creature do whatever you say.

One of the original issues though, was using wish, as listed in the spell description, for inherent bonuses to ability scores. As other posters hinted at, there are other PFS-legal ways to get wish cast (granted, usually at the post-retirement level). So...

* Is this use of wish allowed?
* Will the inherent bonuses stay between scenarios?
* If the bonuses don't stay, would a PC also lose any bonuses gained from reading one of the inherent-bonus-granting tomes (which are consumed on use)?

Would that also apply to characters past level 2, who are built purely on GM credit?

Since I've seen this issue come up a few times down here - what's the official PFS policy when a player realizes halfway through the scenario that they've played it already?

Are they allowed to continue replaying for no credit, or should they be told (politely, mind you) to leave the table immediately?

(Assuming they're a fifth player, no GM replay stars, etc.)

I noticed that the Demon Mother's Mask is now available under Inner Sea Gods additional resources. It used to not be available when it was only in Gods and Magic. Is this intentional?

If you're planning on having a lot of spells as a wizard, don't forget to start saving up for a Blessed Book, then all you have to pay is the NPC rental fee.

One quick bit of help for Sumedocin, since my wife's necromancer has the same issue...

I already know about the onyx cost, because I will have to buy different value onyx gems ahead of time and guess at a creature's HD when I want to raise it.

If you're a wizard, the arcane discovery Yuelral's Blessing will let you substitute random gems for arcane material components, so you won't have to guess what size onyx gems you need ahead of time.

James Krolak wrote:

Here's the crazy thing about Evangelist's Aligned Class ability: it doesn't state that the class has to be a core or base class. So, conceivably, you could be Wizard 3, Cleric 3, take 1 level of Mystic Theurge, and THEN start on Evangelist--choosing Mystic Theurge for your Aligned Class. And this is how you end up double-dipping (or is that triple-dipping?), in a sense, on class abilities.

actually this create a tiny problem: what if you use Aligned Class on the Exalted or Sentinel prestige class? you get boons for both classes?

I think by RAW, you would get both sets of boons.

Running evangelist off of a prestige class in general seems extremely powerful, and almost a "no-brainer" option (*). I wouldn't be surprised to see an errata/FAQ limiting Aligned Class to non-prestige classes in the near future.

After tonight's game, yet more questions...

If Alice the wizard is in a scenario with Bob the wizard, and Bob is replaying the scenario for no credit, can Alice copy spells from Bob's spellbook?

Can Bob copy from Alice? Can Bob copy spells from a dead enemy's spellbook?

Thanks for the quick responses! "Bob" wasn't sure they could copy the spells, so I figured I'd ask.

In case you're wondering, the "chronicle only" spell was...

...which doesn't even show up in HeroLab. At this point I'm likely to hunt the spell description down just to see what it does.

Had this situation come up in my last game - Alice the wizard lends Bob (also a wizard) her spellbook, which contains "Summon Cacodaemon", a spell found only in the "Horsemen of the Apocalypse" source book. While the spell is listed as available in Additional Resources, Bob hasn't bought that source book yet. Similarly, Bob has a spell you can only have access to through a chronicle, a chronicle that Alice doesn't have.

Can Alice and Bob copy these spells into each other spellbooks? They'd obviously be unable to memorize them (cast them through an arcane bond, etc.) until they acquired the sources, but do they need the sources to add them to their spellbooks?

(I'm kinda hoping they can, since otherwise we'd be forcing Bob to buy the source book on the spot.)

in a home game the aasimar counted as human counted as half elf is completely legit, but in pfs racial heritage is kinda useless. but you can do it all as a hal elf, now that half races can pick their own favored clas bonuses, or those of both parent races (half elves can pick half elf, elf, or human favored class bonuses now)

(bolded for emphasis)

Where's a link to this ruling/FAQ, if you don't mind?

I'm not sure myself. The stickied thread at the top has this:

Q: Can I upgrade my headband of vast intelligence +2 into a headband of mental prowess +2?

A: Yes. You can spend 6,000 gp to upgrade your headband as long as you have enough fame (27) to purchase the final item price (10,000 gp)

So, you might be allowed to go from a flaming to a flaming burst.

It doesn't matter if it has a language or not. You still need to make handle animal checks.

Yep, in PFS you can boost your celestial mount's INT to 12 and give it Linguistics to understand Common, but you'll still need to push it to have it Smite Evil on a creature you specify (*) or drop its SR...

* - According to the GM, "just because an animal companion knows how to use its abilities, doesn't mean it knows when to use them. You'll need to make a Handle Animal check to push your horse to Smite Evil when you want it to." Yay...

If I use the starting 150gp to buy a compact spellbook, can I put my initial allotment of spells in it instead of the free spellbook, or do I need to pay the scribing cost?

No longer allowed to...

1) Attempt to give the Paracountess a sponge bath.
2) Attempt to give Torch a sponge bath.
3) Wake Drandle Dreng up at 3am demanding he give our Pathfinder group a mission.
4) Attempt to use Misfortune on a roll-off for a table boon.
5) Make a painting of Sarenrae in a compromising position with two succubi.
6) Give my oracle with Clouded Vision command of a pirate ship.
7) Have my oracle with Tongues speak in Pig Latin.

UMD dose not let emulate Class level... only Decipher a Written Spell, Emulate an Ability Score, Emulate an Alignment, Emulate a Class Feature,

Emulate a Race, Use a Scroll, and Use a Wand, Staff, or Other Spell Trigger Item. That is it.

That clears up a lot, actually. Thanks everyone for the replies.

One more question I forgot:

If the PC uses a ring of revelation with Channel coded into it, are they allowed to take channel related feats, like Selective Channeling?

I thought I knew how this ring worked, but not anymore...

1) If the PC is an Oracle with the Nature mystery, and they have a Ring of Revelation with a non-Nature revelation (like Combat Healer), can they use the ring by making a Use Magic Device check?

2) If they can make a Use Magic Device check, how do you interpret the result?

Example: A level 9 Oracle of Nature "UMD's" a ring with the Combat Healer revelation.

* They roll a 20, making their "effective level of the emulated class" 0. Can they even use the ring ("must be 7th level")?
* They roll a 31, making their "effective level of the emulated class" 11. Can the oracle use Combat Healer once per day or twice?

3) Again, assuming "yes" to #1, when would they need to make the UMD check? Is it dependent on the revelation? Some revelations are a permanent bonus (like Skill at Arms), and some are limited uses per day.

Thanks in advance!

I'm not sure if this is the right place to put this, but I noticed on page 9 of the new guide, the link to the traits page (paizo.com/traits) is broken. It just takes you to the main page.

Noticed that too. For the record, the current link is http://paizo.com/download/pathfinder/CharacterTraits.zip.

Todd Lower wrote:

But does it say anything that you want to hear?

Yeah actually, it was a former Pathfinder. :D

So, does the former Pathfinder keep whining that they wouldn't be in an ioun stone if they had gotten an extra 83 gold per scenario? ;-)

You get either the Fool Me Once or Unexpected Prestige Boon. Fool Me Once boon is not automatic. You don't get both.

Escaping "off screen" is not the same as escaping from the PCs who are directly confronting him.

If the party kills or captures him during the last encounter, they receive the Unexpected Prestige Boon.

If Torch escapes the party in the last encounter, they receive the Fool Me Once Boon.

Thanks for clearing that up, much appreciated!

I don't see how any reasonably played in tier party at 3-4 takes Torch down. 6-7 you can probably one round him, if your get decent initiatives. Outside of that, torch probably gets away.

Well my memory's not the best, but I think it went something like this:

0) Torch rolls a 5 (total) for initiative.
1) I dropped a pit on Torch (he dodged it of course). Two people activated Flight, and a druid became an air elemental. Everyone else engages the bodyguards. Torch heads to the balcony and poofs away.
2) I cast Burning Gaze on my familiar, who burns Torch (and he even caught on fire!) and hops onto a flyer. Flyers follow out the balcony, and the ranger with min-maxed Perception (and humans as a favored enemy) spots him on a roof top. Torch becomes invisible.
3) The dwarf fighter/wizard casts Glitterdust where Torch "went see-through", and catches and blinds him. Ranger charges over and does 30+ damage. My familiar burns him again. Torch attacks (I think).
4) Ranger crits Torch - game over.

Okay, I know that if Torch escapes, the PC's get the "Fool Me Once" boon, and if Torch is captured/killed, they get the "Unexpected Prestige" boon. However, if Torch is successfully captured/killed, do the PC's also get the "Fool Me Once" boon?

We weren't sure after the game, since the module says that Torch escapes from prison or gets a resurrection, which implies that he "escapes" in any scenario. Quite frankly, if it's one or the other, but not both, some of my fellow players said they'd would've preferred to let him go, rather than have the two flying PC's each bring back part of him...

The cost on the Ghost Salt weapon blanch is actually 200 GP. And I agree, definitely worthwhile. I have 20 arrows (for my Ranger) that have been ghost salted.

Silbeg, or anyone for that matter, do you recommend getting a standard (steel) weapon and enchanting that instead of the cold iron? And just bring out the cold iron weapon when going against the specific creatures weak to it (i.e. Fey, Devils, etc.)?

For enchanted light and one-handed weapons, I prefer bronze over steel:

* Same cost, damage, hardness and hit points.
* No "fragile" quality when enchanted or made masterwork.
* Rust proof.

i see it in ultimate campaign but nothing in additional resources.

It's also in the Pathfinder Character Traits Web Enhancement (free download), which is a legal source.

You can register the free change whenever you want to as long it's before August 14th. That way if you want to get in some older modules as your old faction before then, you can.

How do you "officially" register the free change?

Also, keep in mind that skills like Disable Device, Sleight of Hand and Linguistics are "trained only". I've started putting at least one point into each skill like those. That way, I at least have a chance at a skill roll, rather than auto-failure. Plus, you can make "aid another" checks to help fellow Pathfinders.

Otherwise I agree on the Perception/Diplomacy bit. Just a warning, there are some "surprise" skill checks in a few modules, requiring things like...

(Also, glad to see "Greyhawking the bodies" is still a phrase people use. Brings back fun memories.)

Thanks for the help, puts my mind as ease.

(...and my mount being smarter than a PC is hilarious!)

Thanks everyone for the help. :-)

(Here's hoping I'm reaching the wrong conclusion...)

I'll be playing an aasimar nature oracle with the Bonded Mount revelation, and the Celestial Servant feat. So, that should get me:

* an animal companion (a horse, of course) with a 6 Intelligence
* I give it one rank in Linguistics (Celestial) so it can understand me
* Celestial Servant gives my horse Smite Evil once per day

So far, so good, but then I start looking at PFS specific rulings...

* From the PFS FAQ: "Also note that raising an animal companion's Intelligence to 3 or higher does not eliminate the need to make Handle Animal checks to direct its actions..." (uh-oh)
* Since you need a specific trick for specific actions (like flank needs the Flank trick), and no "Activate Special Ability" nor "Smite Evil" tricks exist, I'd have to use the "Other" trick from Handle Animal to tell my mount to smite evil.
* Since the "Other" trick is purely up to GM discretion, PFS doesn't allow it.

Putting all that together, am I correct that I can never get my mount to use its Smite Evil ability, per PFS RAW?

Also, would the above change if the animal companion was a Totem Guide? At level 6, a totem guide animal companion can "speak with its master as though the two shared a common language".

Thanks in advance to everyone who's read all of this.

Did you copy/paste the Halo text? Go back and see if you left out some italics; if "light" is actually "light", then that would mean that it's referencing the spell of that name.

Ah, my aging eyes missed it - thanks! The word "light" is italicized, and even links directly to the light spell, so that answers at least the first two questions.

As for #3 (and effectively #4), what caster level would the aasimar be casting light as? I'm thinking it's either level 1 (the minimum to cast light), or it's the aasimar's character level. Not sure which, since it's a spell-like ability.

A few questions about the aasimar alternate racial trait, Halo.

1) How much light does Halo create?

2) How far can an aasimar see with it?

3) What caster level is the Halo spell-like ability?

4) How would Halo interact with Darkness? Deeper Darkness?

As it is, the summoner's player will probably have to play Way of the Kirin and Rivalry's End with a pregen instead of her own character, unless we manage to sneak in a First Steps marathon.

Not to derail the thread, but something the summoner player should be aware of (spoiler'd, just in case):

First off, thank you all for the replies!

Seems like, for the animal companion, you might as well stop putting favored bonus into it at 12, since any more wouldn't benefit. Now if only Hero Lab would work with the favored class bonus correctly, sigh...

(Maybe Paizo can expand the animal companion chart in Mythic Adventures?)

If an aasimar (or elf) oracle puts their favored class bonus into a single revelation every level until 14, they'd have an effective level of 21. How does work with the following revelations?

1) Spirit of the Warrior (Ancestor mystery) - Does the oracle's BAB become +21, or does it remain at +20? If it goes to +21, Do they gain a fifth attack?

2) Channel (Life mystery) - Does the oracle go to 11d6 worth of channeling ("...plus 1d6 points of damage for every two cleric levels beyond 1st..."), or do they remain at 10d6?

3) Bonded Mount (Nature mystery) - With an effective druid level of 21, how does that work with the animal companion chart? (Technically, this would also affect humans with the Huntmaster feat at level 20.)