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I can't find anyone else asking about this so I started a new thread. Geist, doesn't list the type so I'm not sure. The only other similar monster I could find is the CR 5 Wraith which does a constitution drain but has a save.

Thoughts?

It seems to me that the Cruoromancer is taking damage while casting a spell and would need to make a concentration check, is that correct?

Blood Infusion (Su): When a cruoromancer casts a spell of the necromancy school, he can opt to infuse that spell with his undead-tainted blood as a swift action. As he increases in level, the power and effects of such infusions become more potent. Each time a cruoromancer uses blood infusion, he drains a portion of his own blood either by cutting himself with a blade or by opening a scab from a previous wound. When he does this, he takes an amount of damage equal to 1d4 + the level of the spell being infused. A cruoromancer can only affect a spell with a single type of blood infusion. At 1st level, he can infuse his necromancy spells in either of the following ways.

Some general confusion on if this is a -3 or a -2 penalty.

The player is a Level 1 Titan Fighter using the Giant-Blooded Campaign trait and is wielding a Large Quarterstaff.

Hey Everyone!

I've been thinking about starting one of these for a while now, and just now finally got around to it. I've got a group of 5 PCs, and we play for about 6 hours twice a month. For the most part I've made very minimal adjustments to the book but I'll cover what I did in later posts where relevant.

We just wrapped up the first book after 6 sessions, and are looking forward to starting the second book next week.

Character Creation:
-15 Point Buy
-Average Starting Gold
-1 Campaign Trait
-Medium XP track (and tracking XP)
-1 Custom Trait (kind of meaty)

Here are the characters along with their custom traits:

Artorus Orzhov - Dhampir Necromancer 4/Fighter 1

Eternal Slumber - Once per day you can still the spirit of a creature you've just slain. As a swift action you can place your vow of the restful dead on a creature you've slain in the last round, and in thanks its spirit lends you its strength. For 10 minutes per level you gain, 1d8 temporary HP, +2 sacred bonus to strength, +1 sacred bonus to AC. This is considered a good act, and also sends the spirit along more favorable paths to be judged.

John - Human Druid 5

Lost Childhood - The harshness of your childhood forced you to grow up quicker than most but have also granted you with a deeper insight to life than others. You receive a +2 bonus to all wisdom-based skill checks.

Raegar Thunderkeg - Dwarf Ranger 5

Improvised Combat - Your family's generations of toil against innumerable undead has given your lineage a rather impressive well of inspiration in battle. Three times per day as a free action you can gain the benefits of a combat feat which you do not posses for one minute, as long as you meet all of the feat's prerequisites.

Nobnog - Goblin Cleric 5

Firewielder - Ever since you were young you realized that you were different than other goblins. Clearly smarter, and though like others you were fascinated by fire, you also discovered you could control it. Once a day you can use control flames with a caster level equal to your own.

Rasmus - Halfling Sorcerer 5

Truth Expert - You've got more secrets than you can keep straight, not to mention you're constantly having to cover for your friends as well. Years of doing this have made you particularly glib, and as such you're particularly good at lying. Bluff is a class skill for you, and you gain 1 rank in Bluff every level. Furthermore you gain a +10 trait bonus when telling lies, er truths.

Hi,

I emailed about this yesterday, but no one has responded and it seems people on the forums are getting responses. I've been trying to purchase Dead Suns #1 but I can't make it past the purchase screen, let alone make it to the download section where it seems everyone else is having problems.

Any help?

Specifically I have a player using a Double-Barreled Pistol which says:

Pistol, Double-Barreled: This pistol has two parallel barrels; each barrel can be fired independently as a separate action, or both can be shot at once with the same action. If both barrels are shot at once, they must both target the same creature or object, and the pistol becomes wildly inaccurate, imparting a –4 penalty on each shot.

That was fine until I saw the Double-Barreled Musket which says (bolding for emphasis):

Musket, Double-Barreled: This musket has two parallel barrels; each barrel can be shot independently as separate attacks, or both can be fired at once as a standard action (the attack action). If both barrels are fired at once, they must both target the same creature or object, and the gun becomes wildly inaccurate, taking a –4 penalty on each shot. Each barrel of a double-barreled musket uses either a bullet and a single dose of black powder or an alchemical cartridge as ammunition.

I'm wagering this was an intentional discrepancy (unless someone can point out otherwise), which means that the Double-Barreled Pistol can fire each barrel at once as part of either the Full-Attack or Standard Attack actions?

I also want to clarify this point. It says the both can be shot at once with the "same action." Does that mean if I'm a 6th level Gunslinger and I take the Full-Attack Action and I chose to double fire my attack array would go from +6/+1 to +2/+2/+1? And more importantly that I'd be unable to Double Fire on my iterative attack?

So to recap:

-Can the Pistol be double fired as both a Standard and Full-Attack Action?

-Assuming it can be double fired as part of a Full-Attack action, I only apply the -4 Penalty to the split shot and *not* to the iterative attack.

-Most Important. I can only split one shot per action? Which is not the same as splitting any shot I fire.

I just want to make sure I have this right, as one of my player's asked about it recently.

This can be achieved a bunch of different ways, but for now lets assume a loaded Blunderbuss on a character that has Snapshot.

I think you only make an AoO against the creature that provokes, but I'd like to make sure.

Here are the relevant bits, I'll bold what led me to that conclusion.

Scatter Weapon Quality: A weapon with the scatter weapon quality can shoot two different types of ammunition. It can fire normal bullets that target one creature, or it can make a scattering shot, attacking all creatures within a cone. Cannons with the scatter weapon quality only fire grapeshot, unless their descriptions state otherwise. When a scatter weapon attacks all creatures within a cone, it makes a separate attack roll against each creature within the cone. Each attack roll takes a –2 penalty, and its attack damage cannot be modified by precision damage or damage-increasing feats such as Vital Strike. Effects that grant concealment, such as fog or smoke, or the blur, invisibility, or mirror image spells, do not foil a scatter attack. If any of the attack rolls threaten a critical, confirm the critical for that attack roll alone. A firearm that makes a scatter shot misfires only if all of the attack rolls made misfire. If a scatter weapon explodes on a misfire, it deals triple its damage to all creatures within the misfire radius.

Making an Attack of Opportunity: An attack of opportunity is a single melee attack, and most characters can only make one per round. You don't have to make an attack of opportunity if you don't want to. You make your attack of opportunity at your normal attack bonus, even if you've already attacked in the round.

And Snapshot only changes melee in that bolded section to allow ranged attacks as well.

Since Scatter makes a separate attack roll against everyone, and attacks of opportunity only allow a single attack, it stands reason you only attack the person who provoked.

Thoughts?

Does a +1 Keen Evil Outsider Bane Longsword bypass DR 5/Cold Iron on a Fey?

Question: Can you make a 5' step out of Grease?

The immediate implications are if your wizard casts Grease on an enemy so that you can 5' step away. If you can't make a 5' step out of grease, then they're blocked from making a full attack on you. If you can make a 5' step out of Grease then assuming they pass the DC 10 Acrobatics check they can make a full attack.

The discussion for this question is here.

A grease spell covers a solid surface with a layer of slippery grease. Any creature in the area when the spell is cast must make a successful Reflex save or fall. A creature can walk within or through the area of grease at half normal speed with a DC 10 Acrobatics check. Failure means it can't move that round (and must then make a Reflex save or fall), while failure by 5 or more means it falls (see the Acrobatics skill for details). Creatures that do not move on their turn do not need to make this check and are not considered flat-footed.

The spell can also be used to create a greasy coating on an item. Material objects not in use are always affected by this spell, while an object wielded or employed by a creature requires its bearer to make a Reflex saving throw to avoid the effect. If the initial saving throw fails, the creature immediately drops the item. A saving throw must be made in each round that the creature attempts to pick up or use the greased item. A creature wearing greased armor or clothing gains a +10 circumstance bonus on Escape Artist checks and combat maneuver checks made to escape a grapple, and to their CMD to avoid being grappled.

A creature can walk within or through the area of grease at half normal speed with a DC 10 Acrobatics check.

To me that means whatever movement you make is halved. So if you tried to take a 5' step you'd move 2.5 feet, which effectively blocks you from taking a 5' step, even though grease isn't technically difficult terrain.

The reason I'm asking is you're in a party and you cast grease on a BBEG. Your meattank 5' steps back. Is the BBEG able to take a 5' step forward and make a full attack? Or is he required to take a move action to move the distance required?

I'm a level 1 Human Druid with Eye for Talent. I'm applying the +2 to Int, which gives the Snake an Int of 3.

Because of this he's allowed to:

Animal companions with an Intelligence of 3 or higher can select any feat they are physically capable of using. GMs might expand this list to include feats from other sources.

Using common sense (which may not be applicable) I can't take Improved Unarmed Strike because the snake doesn't have any arms with which to use it.

I would expect this to mean the Constrictor Snake is forever blocked from Improved Grapple, but I find that to be a bit silly. So the question is, have I missed anything? Is there a way for the Snake to get it anyways?

Benefit: Once per day, you can make a single melee attack while taking the total defense action. You take a –4 penalty on attack rolls when making this attack. You also gain a +4 bonus on critical confirmation rolls made while fighting defensively or making an attack of opportunity using this feat.

It says I gain a +4 bonus on making an attack of opportunity when using this feat, but I can't make attacks of opportunity while taking the total defense action.

The FAQ Question:

-How many rounds does it take to open a lock?

To the community:

-Is it always one round regardless of the complexity of the lock?

-Does it vary based on the complexity of the lock?

-Or some other answer I haven't thought/heard of?

I'm going to wait for some responses before sharing my thoughts, but I'll go ahead and post the relevant section for easy reference.

Disable Device

The amount of time needed to make a Disable Device check depends on the task, as noted above. Disabling a simple device takes 1 round and is a full-round action. A tricky or difficult device requires 1d4 or 2d4 rounds. Attempting to open a lock is a full-round action.

I wanted to start my own thread to cover some of the rulings I've made in my game. It is my hope that others can use this as a resource, perhaps helping to reign in their own games. I'll add more to this initial list as more things come up.

NOTE: These aren't house rules, as every ruling presented here rests upon other rules rather than me just changing the rule.

1) You cannot take a standard action or move action in the same round that you've taken a full-round action. This one is pretty straight forward. My group and I have discussed this at length in regards to Mythic Haste and Amazing Initiative, but the rule on this actually rather clear.

2) You cannot make any movement other than a 5' step in a round that you've taken a full-round action. This one is a little less clear cut, but only because the result isn't clean (the rule is clear, the result of the rule is messy). It came up because of the Trickster's and Champion's ability Fleet Charge. The idea is that since Fleet Charge is a swift action you can still take the action, but Full-Round action specifically bars you from any additional movement. In this case, you can use Fleet Charge on a round that you've taken a Full-Round action, so long as you're not using Fleet Charge to move.

3) Be aware that Inspired Spell and Wild Arcana have FAQs. This clarifies the intent of Wild Arcana to be a swift to expend the mythic power, but it still required the spell's casting time to cast the spell. The FAQ changes this to just be a Standard action. I've house ruled Arcane Surge to also only be a Standard action (since it has the same swift + casting time split, also with the restriction of casting time 1 standard action or less), but if we're just talking rules here it is technically a swift to expend the mythic power, and the spell's casting time to cast.

I've been wanting to play a gnome bard with some heavy investment in illusion spells for quite some time. We're going to be starting this AP in the future, and I was wondering if I should shy away from this theme, or if it'll work out alright?

I'm not looking for spoilers, I just want to know if this choice will be shooting myself in the foot every session.

I was wondering if unattended objects inside the area of a breath weapon are affected (read damaged)? I can't seem to find any rule on this.

Question is in the subject. All I've got to go on is that "use skill that takes 1 action -- Usually" entry in the combat section in the table "Actions in Combat".

I've been combing through the forums looking for some enlightenment on this, but so far have only found:

This thread

Which doesn't quite try to address the question I'm wondering (though the answer to that would certainly impact this).

Daylight brought into an area of magical darkness (or vice versa) is temporarily negated

It's that vice versa that is throwing me off. Does that mean:

"Daylight brought into an area of magical darkness (or reverse order) is temporarily negated" That would mean that it doesn't matter which order what is brought into what, the daylight is negated.

-OR-

"Daylight brought into an area of magical darkness is temporarily negated. Magical darkness brought into an area of Daylight is temporarily negated." Meaning defender wins out.

Personally I'm so used to using vice versa to mean order doesn't matter, so I'm leaning towards the former.

So Mythic Haste grants an additional move action, but I'm wondering if you full-attacks are you able to then move afterwords?

Full-Round Action: A full-round action consumes all your effort during a round. The only movement you can take during a full-round action is a 5-foot step before, during, or after the action. You can also perform free actions and swift actions (see below). See Table: Actions in Combat for a list of full-round actions.

This would mean I can't?

Blundering Defense (Combat)

Your feverish and sometimes comical defensive techniques offer enough distraction to aid allies.
Prerequisites: Cautious Fighter, halfling.
Benefit: Whenever you fight defensively or use the total defense action, allies gain a luck bonus to AC and CMD equal to 1/2 the dodge bonus you gain from the action you are taking. Allies only gain this bonus while they are adjacent to you.

Alright, I already know I count as my own ally, but the last sentence is where I get thrown off. Normally I wouldn't think of myself as adjacent to myself, but a friend pointed out this.

With a normal melee weapon, you can strike any opponent within 5 feet. (Opponents within 5 feet are considered adjacent to you.)

Okay, so I'd count as adjacent if I were an opponent since I'm within 5 feet of myself? After some digging (only evidence supporting this is presented at the moment) I found Divine Defender's Shared Defense which seems to imply that the paladin should be included at first. At least the language at 6th level is clear that the paladin *is* included.

Now evidence that doesn't support you being adjacent to yourself.

Dropping an item says that you can drop it into your space or an adjacent space. Tiny and smaller creatures can't reach into adjacent squares. And lastly splash weapons deal damage to the square they land in and all adjacent squares. All of these make a distinction between the current square and adjacent squares.

So paizo forums, would you say the RAW and RAI are for this feat?

I'm playing a Halfling with the Blundering Defense feat. It allows you to grant adjacent allies a luck bonus to AC equal to half the dodge bonus you gain from fighting defensively. I've already spotted the +1 from 3 ranks in Acrobatics, the +2 from Cautious Fighter, and the +1 from Crane Style (for a total of +6), but I was wondering if I was missing anything else?

I haven't looked over all of the magical items, and I may have missed other feats, or obscure text like the Acrobatics blurb.

NOTE: The game I'm in will allow anything from official Paizo books, but no 3rd party stuff.

I've got a Halfling Rogue (Swashbuckler who selected Kukuris), and eventually planned on getting Desperate Swing (for the +4 confirm with crits while fighting defensively). I was wondering if that +4 stacked with Critical Focus?

I'm making an Unarmed Fighter that is going to take Crane Style as a feat at first level. However, do I need to take Dodge before selecting Crane Wing?

The PRD isn't exactly clear as the feat table says the prereqs are:

Crane Style, base attack bonus +5, or monk level 5

But if I scroll down to the feat, it says the prereqs are:

Prerequisites: Crane Style, Dodge, Improved Unarmed Strike, base attack bonus +5 or monk level 5th.

So which is it?

Hey all,

A friend of mine is going to start this AP rather soon and I'm trying to put the finishing touches on my character before game day. I was hoping to get some spoiler free feedback on my character:

Character Creation rules, 15 point buy, average starting gold, 2 traits (one of which must be a campaign trait)

Djeserit Mie
Catfolk Archivist Bard

12, 14, 11, 14, 6, 17

Racial Traits:
Low-Light Vision
Cat's Luck
Curiosity
Climber

Traits:
Devotee of the Old Gods
Civilized

Feat:
Lingering Performance

Skills
Climb, Diplomacy, Knowledge (History, Local, Nobility, Religion, Dungeoneering), Perform (haven't picked yet)

Some Gear:
Lamellar Leather, Heavy Wooden Shield
Whip, Silvered Gauntlet, Sling
Hot Weather Outfit, Parasol, and then pretty much ran out of money

Spells:
Detect/Read Magic, Ghost Sound, Prestidigitation
Grease, Silent Image

Hey All,

We noticed a pretty large issue last time we gathered. Our Summoner doesn't appear to have any method for overcoming demon DR with his Eidolon. On top of that the spell selection for him this early on doesn't offer much either. Lastly the monsters he can bring in with Summon Monster I have no chance of overcoming DR, so when his Eidolon is gone for the day there is next to nothing he can do except pass out healing potions like an intern does coffee.

Has anyone else dealt with this, or better yet know of a way around it?

Thanks!

Hey Everyone!

Not sure what the interest would be in me starting one of these for the boards to peruse, but I'll post the party setup and see what kind of interest this gets and depending on that I'll continue to up date this.

As I've mentioned in another thread on this board we're a 6 person group (5 players and 1 GM [me]). All of my players (save for one) have a decade+ of experience with tabletops, but in the past have emphasized RP over combat. With this AP that has all changed, and for once we've decided to play things by the book.

Our group meets up twice a month (trying for the 1st/3rd Saturdays) for 6 hours.

Rules:
-15 point buy
-Average Starting Gold
-1 Campaign Trait
-Slow XP Track
-No House Rules (We have/had a lot)

Player Characters:

Demitrius Thac(Stolen Fury) - CG Half-Elf Barbarian
Plays a hot headed half elf that believes the best defense is the best offense. He's over protective of his friends, which has already landed him in hot water a few times.

Eb Oriax(Touched By Divinity) - NG Tiefling Rogue
Hired himself out as a scout before the attack, but has always wanted to aspire to having a larger impact on the crusades. And it seems that fate agrees, as there is no better time than now to do just that.

Galvak Mortak(Exposed to Awfulness) - NG Dwarven Cleric of Torag
Superstitious dwarf that sees value in everything. Refuses to get near "borrowed" things until they've been deemed righteous by his peers.

Marcus Blackbarn(Child of the Crusade) - CG Human Ranger
Paranoid fanatic that was kicked out of the Eagle Watch for acting too rash. Realizing he's strayed, he's hoping to find himself again.

Zack(Riftwarden Orphan) - CG Gnome Summoner
Traveled to Kenabres just before the attack to study conjuration magic with his peers. So far he's hit it off with Aravashinal.

Subject is pretty self explanatory. We're attempting to run our current game as close to RAW as possible (something we've never done before) and as far as I can tell there is nothing stopping an archer from firing down a hallway full of PCs at an enemy.

(Waste of space for pic)

E = Enemy, A = Archer, P = PC

E
P
P
P
A

If the archer in that diagram fires, does the enemy get any bonus other than Soft-Cover? The archer has Precise Shot so firing into melee isn't a concern here.

I've got an upcoming scenario where the players will be approaching guards in the dark and they'll likely have torches out. I need to know when the guards spot the players (or their torch light) so I knowish how many rounds/minutes they have to react to the encroaching players. I don't need a specific rule, just something that can get me in the ballpark.

I seem to have opened a can of worm and can only hope that I'm missing something rather glaring.

First let's start with the definition of Ranged Weapon:

Ranged weapons are thrown weapons or projectile weapons that are not effective in melee.

This means that Daggers aren't Ranged Weapons. However, this causes an avalanche of problems.

-Daggers can be thrown without penalty while prone.

-Daggers can be thrown into melee without penalty.

-No penalty throwing a dagger while mounted.

-Point-Blank Shot doesn't work, even though Charging Hurler does?

There are a number of more issues, Returning enchant may not work on a dagger. The Superscript for the enchant says it only works on thrown ranged weapons. You threaten AoO, but can only make a melee attack when one is provoked. You can technically flank the opponent and get a sneak attack from a thrown dagger. And the list goes on...

Edit: This post talks about daggers specifically, but this applies to all melee weapons with a ranged increment.

This came up in my latest game and I'm trying to find some clarification on the issue:

I ruled that the movement which occurs during Charge doesn't provoke an Attack of Opportunity(AoO) because of the entry on Table: Actions In Combat in the combat section of the book. Which simply says "No".

I am assuming that the No must refer to both the movement and the attack, because the movement is part of a Special Attack (as opposed to a Combat Maneuver). And after reviewing the text of charge:

I can't find anything that says the movement provokes an AoO. Furthermore the section on AoOs only says that movement out of a threatened square only usually provokes one.

Even will of this evidence that Charges don't provoke an AoO my gut still tells me that they do, and that there must be something somewhere that says the movement does. Thoughts?

Quick question about this one. I was wondering if you're able to share spells through your Animal Companion while this spell is active.

After reading and rereading the relevant entries it appears as though you can't, but I just want to make sure.

Meld into Stone

Relevant Part:

You remain aware of the passage of time and can cast spells on yourself while hiding in the stone.

Share Spells (Ex): The druid may cast a spell with a target of “You” on her animal companion (as a spell with a range of touch) instead of on herself. A druid may cast spells on her animal companion even if the spells normally do not affect creatures of the companion's type (animal). Spells cast in this way must come from a class that grants an animal companion. This ability does not allow the animal to share abilities that are not spells, even if they function like spells.

Hey all,

I'm currently running a game set on the island and was wondering if anyone knew of a Paizo product that contained a detailed map of the island? I tried a quick search and nothing turned up.

I was wondering if by RAW these two stack under this circumstance. Say a character has large arrows and drops them as a free action. Then casts enlarge person and then picks them back up as a move. Then casts gravity bow. Since the arrows are naturally large they shouldn't shrink and Gravity Bow doesn't actually enlarge the arrows. Thoughts?

When designing an encounter do you apply traps that a kobold makes towards the CR of the encounter? Or because kobolds are known for traps and they have the crafty ability do they not count?

And, what about traps that fall below CR 1? There doesn't seem to be any 1/2 or 1/3 increment? Do those count towards CR?

Hey All,

This is my first post on this board, but I've been playing Pathfinder and reading for a long time.

Anyways, I've been playing pen and papers for 17 years, and Pathfinder since there was only the core rulebook. For the vast majority of that time I've enjoyed being a DM. One thing though I've always felt a struggle with is combat. Be it encounter building and design, combat descriptions, or even just running it.

Below is an example of one of the more recent combats I've run:

The PCs were aboard an airship in the elemental plane of air, the how, why, and whatever aren't too important. Anyways, their ship was besieged by lighting elementals during the height of a tempest. They had spotted the elementals closing in on their ship from a distance, and as they boarded it began to pour. I can't remember if I borrowed these elementals from somewhere or if they're custom. But, I had decided in advance that if they went into a square with rain they'd dissipate. I mentioned that as it began to rain the sparks seemingly took refuge under overhangs on the ship, where it was dry. The elementals were immune to metal weapons (so I made sure stash some mops and brooms and other cudgel like weapons around) and they'd receive a free attack that was an automatic hit against anyone hitting them in melee with a metal weapon.

The fight was supposed to be an easy one. I knew in advance that the Cleric had Create Water memorized, as I mentioned the backup weapons were already present, they were long time players as well so they knew the rules for Bull Rush, I had clearly marked on the battlemap which spaces were dry and which were wet. I guess it was partly my fault for having straight forward fights up until this point. Anyways, they went for around 5 rounds of not changing tactics to meet the threat (that means using metal weapons in melee, and running over to the elementals in the dry spaces), before I had an NPC step in and toss a bucket on one of the elementals.

I guess what I'm most curious about, is what do you do when you run into situations like this? I wasn't going to let my players just die, but did I let them off too easy? Afterwards they admitted that they felt I had spoiled the fight for them.

Also, what about random encounters. Do you have a system for making these fun and engaging? I don't think my players know the difference, but I always feel like there is something missing when I run these.

Lastly what kind of language do you use to describe the combat. I try my best to use every adjective I can think of, but after 3 rounds I find myself saying "you take 5 points of damage" or "and elemental number 3 misses". Any tips for avoiding that?