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I would say your estimation of 8th level is a bit generous considering the AC and attack portion are assuming this character has no bonus in their melee attacking statistic. If you have even a 16 and a masterwork weapon you reduce this time by four levels. It is not uncommon for a second level PC to have an 18, weapon focus and a masterwork weapon so this potential slayer at 2nd level using the aid another action could automatically succeed other than rolling a 1 which is always a failure. (+4 Ability Modifier, +2 Base Attack, +1 MW, +1 WF for a total of 8)

I am looking at the text of Slayer's studied ally talent and it seems to me this talent takes your swift or move action to increase the chance of succeeding at the aid another action for attack, ac, and skill checks. It mentions scaling like studied target but the bonus it provides is to the check not to the +2 provided by succeeding at the check. If I am not being clear, it seems like the only effect RAW is to make a DC 10 skill check or an attack against AC 10 easier while making the action economy of that action worse. That can't be RAI right?

I failed my skill check,but sadly it is what it appears to be. The lore oracle succeeded with an overwhelming knowledge check in the forties. Well potent illusions not withstanding, it is a diabolical invasion.

I appreciate the answers from everyone, and I already suspected it was more plot element than combat encounter.
Duiker, I understand your intentions but the reason I presumed there will be an initially hostile encounter is because the GM indicated he expected such to happen. We have spent a lot of time rallying the citizenry to be helpful to each other in times of crisis. However if this situation happens in rounds of combat I want advice about what toto do. If I can stealthily gather intelligence because they do not intend to do immediate violence I will develop a guerrilla resistance movement. I however can't initiate any of the strategies you discuss immediately. The sewers in korvosa are grated and locked heavily because of Otyugh they use, which also makes them dubious evacuation routes even if forced open. A football field sized contraption of iron isn't on hand and coordinate a siege weapon sized net isn't going to happen spontaneously in the campaigns that my group runs. Collapsing a building isn't an option because they are filled with thousands of people in this area and an evacuation will take time. The percentage of spell casters in korvosa is fairly large but the Acadamae has had its doors shut for three weeks (and could very well be responsible for this) The other large group of mages Thaumenexus (I think) is already coordinating with a depleted watch because of our efforts. The resources of the city I would imagine will be taxed dealing with the other 7 CR 14 encounters. I appreciate the sentiment but we are fairly saavy at dealing with situation using diplomatic and dynamic solutions.

I will roll with situation and had already planned to come at overwhelming force with an oblique or cerebral solution, but at the end of the day my ranger is a big d@mn hero to the people of the neighborhood where no one else gives a d@mn and if they start killing innocents in that area he will give it a go combat even if he dies. I have a limitless supply of characters in my head luckily. I was looking for advice if the worst happens and have gotten some pretty solid ideas that for the most part reinforce my own assessment.

I will let people know how it shakes out.

We are a 5 character party, though one character has leadership.

I appreciate the insight that it is most likely a railroad, and I agree. I hope they have a goal other than murdering people, my concern is dying before I have a chance to figure it out or a chance to flee.

We are all level 8. An Erinyes is CR8 and Barbed Devil is CR 11. It is in fact insanely tough. I know if ran immediately I could likely get away, but my character doesn't know the relative power levels. Also I will probably try the sniping style just because it is in my wheelhouse, but the respective bonuses don't put that in my favor. The four lesser devils have +16 to their perceptions. In my mind I take shot, at least half see me and open up with their bows in a full attack, and the other start the next round. At least half will probably beat my initiative too.

My hippogriff at this level has a fly speed 110 good at this level (it has the strong wing feat)

Ok my paizo people, I play in city based home campaign. We left off at a cliffhanger that went like this: all the characters are in different parts of the city during downtime (aka shopping etc) A giant red summoning circle appears overhead in the sky and sends down 12 columns of light one of which lands near each of us. Out of each light appears a barbed devil and four erinyes.

We have just reach level eight after a brutal dungeon crawl in some a noble family that were secretly raksashas. I am playing a Sable Company ranger with the hippogriff rider archetype. The place I am in is Bridgefront in Korvosa, think ultra population dense slums. This is a neighborhood I have been trying to protect the entire campaign. The GM and I believe it would metagaming to flee with out trying to fight.

I in no way believe I can win this fight because of meta knowledge as a player of the monsters. My character however flubbed his Knowledge: Planes. How do I survive this? I am a switch hitting ranger, max stealth +23, perception +21, and ride auto a 20. I have a +14(+11) to hit in melee and power attack, I have +14(11) to hit with my bow rapid shot, manyshot, deadly aim. Urban is my favored terrain. I do not have a good aligned weapon.

I would appreciate ideas for maybe levels 1-5 with 1 tier. *Just learned that I also have two levels of expert per our humble beginnings in the campaign.

So here is the situation forum friends. I am playing a mythic game where the character generation session happened with out me due to my work schedule. And when things shook out after the mythic event, my gentle giant apprentice brick maker landed the role of a homebrew divine bard (exactly the same including spells, but divine powered. No arcane strike) of a restored to sanity zon kuthon. We have 15 build pts, must take two traits and drawbacks, and can only play humans or aasimar. I need some ideas, as I have never conceived of a strong man type bard, nor do I know marshal very well. I will probably come up with something but I wondered what some of you would do.

How about head to toe armor with a helmet? I think that a disguise, some perfume, and a cloak on top with a good bluff skill and you're pretty set. Tell people they are vow of silence bodyguards or have had their tongues cut out depending on how vicious you want to be perceived. I mean armor can get pricy but not in comparison to hats of disguise. Also a game master and party who want to be a part of this. If they don't want to buy in you will be thwarted at every turn, if they do then just find out what is considered enough for the majority of gameplay. And to be fair there will be a big blow up where your crimes against the natural cycle of death are exposed. It is too juicy to not happen with that character.

In my current campaign I am playing a Sage, and somethings I find adds a lot of adaptability are metamagic rods. Intensified, Elemental, Rime, Toppling are all very cheap (3000 GP) and can serve to make up for precious feats, and save your higher level slots.

Intensified has been covered, so need to extol its virtues.
Elemental spell will allow you take fewer blast spells by diversifying damage and increase damage by hitting vulnerabilities.
Rime adds strong mobility control effect to your damage increasing the uses of your spells with cold descriptors.
Toppling adds another layer of control to any force spells you do similar to Rime.

The key to all these metamagic rods is they are good effects that probably aren't worth a feat but are definitely worth the gold for allowing you to get versatility out of your blasting.

Also I highly recommend the 3rd level spell Ice Spears. It is conjuration which will dovetail nicely if you decided to go Spell Focus Conjuration, Augment Summoning. And it does damage, a trip combat maneuver, creates terrain for cover for funneling movement or hiding, with the Rime Rod adds the entangle effect, and offers no spell resistance. Also unlike most trip effect as you level it gets more effective against larger creatures as each additional spear you hit with adds +10 the maneuver. And if the area is covered with snow (such as a Sleet or Ice storm spell)the save is -2 and the trip at +4.

Thanks for the logical assist. I had the solution just needed a viable chain of reason to back it. I would have created a house rule, but I feel the ambiguous language credibly supports the ruling I made. You rock.

I had a situation in my Reign of Winter game last night where a player had a very literal interpretation of the phrase "when thrown as a splash weapon, the mixture has the effects of both component substances and creatures are affected as if hit by both" He takes it to mean that his alchemist hits with the mixture his INT modifier is applied twice since that is what would happen if he had with both items not mixed. I ruled against saying the extra d6 and two damage types is the only benefit. Did I make an accurate RAW judgement or am I only in the land of DM fiat?

Also a lot of the feats you need for the build are rogue talents /ninja tricks so I don't see the multi class as necessarily superior if single class rogue is preferable to you.

Also you could two weapon fight with armor spikes which are compatible with weapon finesse and save the shield proficiency feat on your way to get improved shield bash, by getting a dark wood heavy shield. Better AC from the heavy shield and all your weapons are still dex based. I might use half elf to get the prof to pick up low light and some nifty extras too since you will already be skill heavy.

Honestly, It sounds like you have a solid handle on this. I would skip spell sunder, and definitely wouldn't multiclass. Since you are going to be lower on bab than a normal front line furious focus to ignore the penalty on your first hit will make the first attack of the round hit as well as most full bab classes. Just a thought.

I would pay for this, probably like 5 dollars for it, but I am thinking of that as an app style program that every person at the table would buy. It would be nice to have the DM have a collated sheet of skills from the party that they could roll in secret as well, and a note sending function to secretly pass messages all with in the setting. It sounds like a more interactive version of the Pathfinder Toolkit app for android. And a way to get everyone uploaded from their device instead of one person having load everything. Sounds pretty awesome though.

Well the assumption is there because all of the mechanics that govern proactive social interactions are Charisma based, but if you can get the skills or role play your way through (thanks to an understanding DM) then do it however works for your group. Honestly I don't think most skills need to be maxed or astronomically high values to get the job done, but it will be easier for a character with the stat that represents force of personality. Also I hope most groups don't have a face role that does all the talking either since that seems like it would be terribly boring.

Good topic. I like making a distinction between party leader and most persuasive person. They are often not one and the same especially if you consider the capricious nature that many of the high charisma class sometime encourage. I'm not saying sorcerers, bards, and oracle by definition are whimsical or chaotic but they can be. Just because you can sell books to a goblin doesn't mean you should be planning the missions or making the tough calls for the party. Then again I also like there to be an independent foil to the leader role to keep things dynamic.