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I've had a longer break from pathfinder and never properly transitionned into 2e and now the parties where I've played other systems are having a GM burnout..so I considered GMing myself, with only one or two scenarios in my resume

So I'd be facing a situation where I'd have probably 3 players new to pathfinder(not to mention new to 2e), myself with a slow thinking issue (thus the need for printed material rather than making something up), also only just reading up on how to even make and play characters in 2e, and very little experience on GMing..and yet needing something potentially more than a one-shot

Biting more than I can chew? Probably

The saviour that comes to my mind are adventure paths, but which one to pick for a good start?
In 1e I read through Legacy of Fire and absolutely loved it, but that's left in 1e.
The party used to do Legend of the Five Rings previously, so I though Season of Ghosts, but I'm getting hints that there's some additional things like reputation with factions and downtime to activities to keep track of? Might not be a good idea if something will require an excel sheet and tons of notes from both me AND the players..though..will it?

I'll probably be joining a new group and they mentionned they've always been missing a healer..and at the same time commented how the climate of the campaign might not suit a cleric very well. Apparently they're leaning towards chaotic with not much attention for gods.

The group mentionned consisting so far of a "warrior, thief and mage"..with the "mage" apparently being a druid really

I've thought of a life oracle with my self-made race, that would have a neat look together, but there's a question mark on whether or not they might accept the race.
On the other hand I just can't "see" myself playing an oracle with anything else..not enough feel for the class i suppose.

What else could I have to fill in a healer role, look cool with a race from the books and hopefully not be just a healbot? And not be a cleric/oracle/overly lawfulness-enforcing creep?

and while at it, problem nr.2: they mentionned starting around level 10..and my parties so far never made it further than 7, so..yeah I'll be needing help actually building that character with feats and gear

So I've read some of the gm reference sticky..and Im one of the players in my group.
What I read there only has me worried how the heck are we supposed to survive that battle? We got 3 melee dwarves and a more buffy/healy than combatty caster and we just got out heavily bruised from the old church outside trunau. Skreed got away if he was even in there, GM said someone did.

I thought about covering up the white crosses with canvas and running around with a similar picture on a makeshift banner to trick that catapult into firing at the invaders already inside and later takng the cat over without breaking it to lb a rock at a giant, see how he likes his own medicine.

Any player or GM whose party managed to live through the whole battle got any more ideas of what can be done from the players perspective to avoid making new character sheets?

If I have to ask then the answer is probably the one I don't want to find, but I have to ask anyway. One of my teammates is running a dwarf paladin. Charisma below 10 obviously. Can he use Lay On Hands at level 2 or does he have effectively 0 uses? (1/2level = 1 -1 from cha = 0)

Somehow I managed to make my decision.- for my groups upcomming giantslayer ap I'll be making a dwarf stonelord paladin with a rolled array of 18, 16, 13, 13, 10 and .. 9 (sigh) I thought Id start with
Str 18
Dex 13
Con 16+2
Int 10
Wis 9+2
Cha 13-2
Have to pick one campaign trait and one from a GM-prepared list, not so important
Will probably start out with heal and craft(armorsmith) trained for fluff reasons

Still no idea what first feat and maybe a third skill feom favored class to pick

But how to progress it past lev 1?

Any advice?
Was considering upping intimidate and getting Call Out at some point but thats a few feats

So one of my friend that's been GMing so far got tired and anoher will be stepping in with a different campaign.
We've decided on Giantslayer and will quite likely be running a dwarf only team. I've already read that's going to make things icky, but that's how we roll :)

Anyway, I've got a few concepts, but all are rather weak and I just can't decide what to pick. Thus I'm hoping to learn some more about what things might come in useful in the campaign, or even some minor spoilers on what to expect (minor, please).

We're hoping at least a major part of the team are going to be dwarves from a pre-estabilished group. Perhaps mercenaries, perhaps on "holy duty" in the region.
One already semi-decided he's going to play some sort of artificer-priest with his life mission to create an artifact..though in practice - to turn into one. He's also thinking about running around with a gun, as out of place as it may seem

And me..I'm a bit undecided. I had ran a heavily group-support cavalier in a one-shot adventure before and was thinking on that..though making aerial charges on a wingover abusing roc might not be very climatic here and the priest fellow is sceptical about mounted combat.
Another problem with the cavalier might be that..we're not sure if his group support will come in useful at all (like a bonus on charges if the rest of the group turns out ranged)

The GM-to-be came up with the idea of a stonelord paladin. The whole archetype looks a bi odd to me though - it changes so many things, the paladin won't even have his divine grace.

My general idea was to be a sort of party leader, at least in battle, or at least a heavy avant-garde of the group, someone who leads and strengthens the others in crisis.

Any thoughts about these concepts? or perhaps anything else that might match the general idea and fit more into the campaign?

Side note - the GM-to-be insisted on using an alternative magic system called spheres of power. Not sure if he was aware the stonelord turns the paladins normal casting ability off. We also rolled stats and I got:
18, 16, 13, 13, 10, 9
one campaign trait, one dwarf trait..the GM has some list of those I didn't see yet, so there's not much chosing traits outside of that.

What should I build to fit best into the party-player heavy melee role?

Bit of a lead in before I get to the point - I'm playing what might be in some circumstances be called the most despicable thing in a Way of the Wicked campaign - a True Neutral character. Lately my main weapon (a wakizashi) has been tainted with evil from slaying good outsiders, bit later we started running into some rather wacky stuff with aligned artifacts and mystical power sources (yeah the campaign went haywire and got a life of its own, those things aren't from the original books), which made me plan out on making my own artifacts (my character is quite a tinkerer for a ninja by main class, but tainted with uneven gestalting with a wizard and even a bit of investigator..long story).
Thus I considered making a pair for the evil blade by aligning a different one with good by doing a mirror action and ridding the multiverse of a potent evil outsider (there's a good chance we might run into a devil that will be more interested in fighting us than helping, despite serving the same cause..we've already started to cause some bad blood with one) and then utilising the mystic sources to meld those two blades into a potent artifact more in line with my alignment

- A Blade of Balance

..right..just..I'm going all the way HOW to get that done, but it hit me that I don't actually have an idea WHAT should the result actually be.

Besides some wonky obvious things like being a Holy Unholy Axiomatic Entropic weapon @_@ what would you think such a Blade of Balance should actually do, being an artifact with some nice, though as of yet short history?

So out of the blue my group came up with WotR tomorrow, a campaign I've only heard bad things about and never given much thought as to a character concept I'd like to play it with.
And now I need one when I'm rather low on ideas and not even sure if I'll make it to the game.

I suppose I could go cheap with a paladin/fighter, but maybe some kind soul here might propose a concept I'd be able to put more spirit in?

side note if anyone goes as far as adding a build to the concept:
heroic point buy (that's..25pts?)
gestalt
no crafting, probably no leadership, GM said PFS rules, but I don't think he fully knows what else is forbidden (still means paizo material only)

Basis forth topic question is that - I like the idea of a robe of infinite yarn for my caty character, but a few cg adventures with a grappling..what's it called, windlass? Hoist? The thing that used in the Just Cause series, thats what google translate tells me, made me want the yarn to be a little stronger.
I was thinking of using major creation instead of the minor one for making the object, but I'm at a loss on how to price the new item. Would it work if I wanted the thread to be effectively mithril or adamantine wire? Would there be a difference in pricing between a robe producing iron/steel thread and its mithril version?

My character obtained a few gestalted wizard levels by accident and..well he didn't get his arcane bond along with it, so now I'm trying to decide on it, but some details are not exactly clear to me.

Specifically this part:

A wizard can add additional magic abilities to his bonded object as if he has the required Item Creation Feats and if he meets the level prerequisites of the feat. For example, a wizard with a bonded dagger must be at least 5th level to add magic abilities to the dagger (see Craft Magic Arms and Armor feat). If the bonded object is a wand, it loses its wand abilities when its last charge is consumed, but it is not destroyed and it retains all of its bonded object properties and can be used to craft a new wand. The magic properties of a bonded object, including any magic abilities added to the object, only function for the wizard who owns it. If a bonded object's owner dies, or the item is replaced, the object reverts to being an ordinary masterwork item of the appropriate type.

Does this mean I can enchant the item for free or is the only gain from this that I don't need to have the item creation feat..with the con side that nobody else can benefit from the item. Effectively this doesn't make much sense to me in particular as the most sense for a bonded item for me would be either from an amulet or weapon, but I'll probably want to get craft wondrous item and craft magic a&a from bonus feat anyway to help make other party members their gear as well. The gestalted levels might turn out difficult to raise later, so I doubt I'd benefit from a ring in any sensible time

So my grieving character is trying to hit two birds with one stone with an item working as follows:

Soul Mirror
From afar thi seems to be just a normal mirror, however on closer inspection the image it display is twisted by the onlookers feelings - his desires, worries, his love and hate, his happiness and his sadness. The mirror also produces a feedback of the same thoughts and pushes them back into the viewers mind as if by a wordless suggestion spell.
In a way this could be viewed as a curse as the amplified feelings could lead a depressed mind to suicide or captivate a vain person for as long as his body manages to keep his obsessed mind watching.
The feedback effect doe not work on felines, as if it was supposed to only draw negative feelings out of the mirrors creator and his kind, but fails to disperse them for others.

So my initial thoughts were of course - create wondrous item, silent image, detect thoughts and suggestion. But what about the base price and thus the cost to make it? Would it actually require me to go low, maybe even into negatives if possible, on the skill check to create the thing, since it could in some context be viewed as an effectively cursed item?

P.S.: the genesis for the need for such an item is two motives:
- my catty character just lost a friend he had a sort of constant telepathic connection with, now he's very sad and depressed and wants to throw these feelings out of his mind somehow..but the party is evil to boot so no psychologist nor tap on the shoulder is comming up. The character likes tinkering with all sorts of stuff so maybe that would help get things off his mind
- the party obtained an artifact swelling with soul power and is supposed to use it somehow to implant evil feelings into the local populace - ambitions, greed that sort of stuff - so that people are easier swayed into the worship of Asmodeus. When the artifact is open it makes quite a noise, spiritually speaking. Thus I thought of channeling the stream of souls through the mirror and back, with one of the evil party members feeding the mirror with his own evil thus infecting the flow and sending out a malicious soul-echo to everyone in the area of effect.

For a lawful evil campaign our last session tend to end up rather..chaotic. Due to that I've now got a few things I could use ideas for

1)A construct we highjacked got his own mind, but he's following us kindof like a free cohort. I need ideas how to build his 4 PC levels in a 7th level environment. Due to story he needs to have at least 1 level of fighter. My character was showing him the wonderful world of alchemy and creating weird stuff, plus stuff that goes boom, so I figured the remaining 3 would work as Alchemist-grenadier. That means 3 feats to choose (2 from lecels 1 from fighter bonus)
Easiest way to go would probably be to just pick power attack and furious focus, but what else? And is there any point looking over archetypes for just 1 level of fighter?
GM defined his stats as
18str
15 dex
12 con (duh! He has a con score)
15 int!
8wis
7cha
..and english manners

2)3 levels of universalist wizard (+1 investigator).. Unequally gestalted on a 1swashbuckler/6ninja
With only 13 int there's not going to be much wizarding to do, but some utility/trickery spells will come in handy. Was thinking what to do with that 3rd level.
Considered going with the subschool specialising in item creation. Id get a free item ceation feat this level then, but create wondrous items is already taken by another party member. Should I just double the output with the same or perhaps stall the feat until I get another caster level and take craft magic arms and armor?

3) living leftovers of a horror from beyond..which ive brought to this world unwittingly when I took a short trip to a dimension of insanity and..stole a sun from there. It shrunk to a big purple meteor when I threw it through a gate back to the material plane, made a big crater, burned down a village that got in its path (oops)..and when I finally found it again to salvage materials I noticed something had hatched from it..the thing caught up with us on our ship, temporarily messed up the minds of most of everyone there and finally got smashed by an instant fortress Ive triggered to have a place to talk to the thing peacefully..instead it turned the monster into pulp, almost did the same to me, ripped a hole in the ships side..and killed another accompanying npc who failed his reflex.
Anyway, after the whole affair Ive found a strand of flesh with an eye and a mouth left over from the monster..still alive.
Think I should try turning it into a cacodaemon familiar (it is friendly..just insane and hungry for souls, not his fault we were carrying around an artifact full of them he wanted to devour and that hugging him is rather risky) or rather stick with a bonded item? Didnt have time to get that arcane bond get.
4) a dead companion..actually something Ive lost not gained. One of the party members decided to murder my other companion when I was out cold. Seems as revenge for the one that got smashed by my instant fortress. I didn't witness it, only one other party member did..and probably the construct, but my character felt it like the loss of a familiar before passing out. Im the only nonevil PC in the party. How should I react if I find out my "friend"s death was a rather irrational fault of another PC?
5) most of the purple sun-meteorite shell is still where it fell..wondering if its worth borrowing an ant haul spell to drag it all to ship. What might a purple mineral from a horror world be useful for?

A while ago I was considering gestalting my ninja character with archeologist bard to have more options of trickery and not stand out so much in my party. Since then me and my GM were experimenting a bit with getting that gestalt to work, not get over the line and make sense storywise..turned out I had a trip through some rather crazy dimension and picked up a few lost travelers along the way..as part of myself.

Yet we're still missing details and some of those are that the impossible sorcerer bloodline seems to fit more than some features of archeologist bard. Thus I was wondering how to perhaps trade in some parts for the bloodline..

..and now there's Pathfinder Unchained around, fresh out of the oven, but not yet at my table. Thus a question to those who did have a look already - it was mentionned somewhere that there'd be an option to pick up another classes feature. What options does it give me then to take a sorcerer bloodline and how do they work? What would I have to trade in for that, will I get the bonus feats and add spells to spells known as part of another sponateous casting class with a different spell list?

I was thinking what feat and trick to pick for my now 1swashbuckler/6ninja and was considering the trick that caused bleed damage from the number of sneak attack dice.

Buuuut..we're at a point where any old bum can get some form of healing cast on him. So my question - is there any way to at least temporarily stop an opponent from healing so that bleed damage can reap its toll? We've got a spellweaver and some melee sort of summoner to help in the party that could perhaps pull off what i can't and i myself can tempirarily use gestalted 1investigator/2wizard as well. Plus an npc 2lv wizard

TL;DR - I need help devising trials for a petitioner in a Nethys-themed maze

Ive been preparing to run a Legacy of Fire campaign..although it will probably never happen..and stumbled upon the thought that one of the PCs might meet an untimely end a bit too early.
And instead of pondering upon how to get a new character into the party in his place I came upon the idea of having both the party and the dead person get a small, two-sided adventure. 
Remembering how there's a nethyssian ruin near the main site of book 1 this is the concept I came up with:

The party will find the means for their friend to come back to life at the end of the nethyssian ruin..along with someone they may, or may not have to fight, but the main part is up to the dead guy

The dead person ends up as a petitioner at the entrance to a maze. If he accepts its challenge he can win his life back and more..although the life he will get might as well end up different from the one he'd lost.
All the fun with Nethys being a double-faced entity.

The main idea is that the "maze" isn't exactly about finding ones way among twisted corridors, but more about choices made at intersections - each intersection is a small test.
Each test should optimally have 2 or 3 predicted ways of solving and choosing one way or another most often will point towards one end of a light-dark alignment scale..or not if there's a 3rd option and the character picks that one (thus Id prefer if there are at least 3 ways of solving each trial or at least that a custom solution can be categorised among 3 outcomes). Some choices may also give a small boost or swap in the characters statistics after rebirth..or other boons/banes.
Also, if the character gathers a lot of points in one direction he may end up resurrecting with a achanged alignment, or even be reborn as a different creature characteristic to the chosen end of the scale (as in - take a big chart of reincarnation options and roll, skipping races that dont fit the alignment "earned")

And here's where I need help - ideas or at least inspirations for the trials.
So far ive devised just a single complete one and two that will need some work
- a simple choice of corridors - one with a light in the end, one shrouded in darkness and one that looks like there's a fan at the end - about half of it rotating between being lit and shadowed. An obvious alignment choice, but we're not explaining that to the petitioner.

A chamber with the exit sealed by a stone slab, with magic stoneworking tools giving their wielder proffessional sculpting talents in plain sight, stone statues with one of them missing a face (easy to repair with said tools if anyone simply bothers to do so, we're not telling that either) and plenty of other stones of many shapes and sizes littering the room. I predicted a 'good' solution of fixing the statue and an 'evil' one of simply breaking the exit seal with brute force..and perhaps said tools. This room might earn a specific stat point depending on solution.
Not sure if that's complete enough about this challenge.

The last is a meeting with the BBEG of the place AND the nethyssian ruin in the material world at the same time. If it is handled well the dead person might save his living comrades a tough fight. Provoking a fight is definitely not a good idea - that thing would probably shred a petitioner and the GM should have a bypass ready (most likely ending up with the living having that fight)
That challenge could surely use some detailing as well

And I still need more trials, probably to get the whole mini-adventure to some 6-9 tests total to cover enough alignment point for a potentially complete shift

Anyone eager to share a piece of imagination?

If I have to ask then the answer is probably "no", but lets flesh out the details anyway.

My group is playing Way of the Wicked and it's..weird to say the least. And in some cases wuite powerful..quite more than the GM feels he should have allowed.

Probably the biggest problem is a skinwalker spellweaver in the party. He turns into a bat and flies around shooting several d8 of fire or some untyped darkness with an added slow effect, wihtout limits to the uses of abovesaid, plus he can cast virtually any spell with varying chances of successs quite a decent amount of time per day and he took a familiar with some template that lets it use cloudkill 1/d..while we've only just yesterday advanced to 6th levels. Oh yeah, he also catches souls to make into crafting "funds".

Then there's some kind of psionic crossbow fellow with a rangers bonus vs human..which are the most frequent opponent here. Ive never understood nor liked psionics seeingthem as unbalanced..and his shots just confirm it to me. Add in some minor artifact crossbow.

And we also have a tiefling summoner..on the plus side the guy has no idea how to run one properly. That gets balanced a bit by his inability to notice limits he should be having, but he doesn't wreck things as badly ss the other two..he wrecks plans instead, cause subtlety is a rather alien term to him. To each their own i guess.

And then there's me - a self-made, small humanoidal cat race swashbuckler 1/ninja X with a neat 22 dex, slashing grace on a single wakizashi and forgotten trick without the limit of "no rogue tricks".
And seeing the batty guy I feel like Im missing something.
So far Ive managed to plant my sneaks in quite a lot of situations and McGyvered some rather crazy stuff. Ive got a bracelet that produces me masterwork tools 2/d (for personal use only), a collar letting me shrink to a common kittycat or enlarge to medium (never used that option), stole a nerfed instand fortress the last day..basically running more on insane imagination than actual possibilites. Even cheating on the forgotten trick seems like its no much, not that I can use it an awful lot with a mere 5ki until I can get a ring of ki mastery..or a bodyglove with the same effect more likely.

Am I perhaps just underestimating my role in the party?

Or would it be fully justified to ask the GM for a gestalt with..say - bard?

Yes, wacky option. Doesn't get me any more skillpoints, hp nor bab. Just those few spells and performances, thoguh Ive been consideringtrading those in for either daredevil or archeologist archetypes

So there are a few items that let people treat their class levels as higher for select class features, useful when you only dip into that class.
I was wondeing if there is such an item or feat or..well..anything that would let me do that for swash deeds.

I.e. - i got 1 level in swashbuckler and say 5 in ninja. Any chance to use higher than 1st level deeds without dipping any more levels into SB?

My homebrew game has lately seen some minor use of a skill I''ve devised for a custom race of mine, but applicable practically by anyone else just as well.cwhat with being a skill and not an (Ex.) ability of the race

Calling the skill "tinkering" Ive thought it as a bit of a crossroad between crafting and disable device
- where crafting makes new items, tinkering works upom those already existing (even if in parts)
- where disable device is meant to break/sabotage things, tinkering is more interested in changing how they function.

Think of a cross of McGyver and The WH40k Orks' approach to technology.

Now for the most devious part of it - the skill itself is quite mundane, but I just thought how joyously wicked it would be if I could apply it to the magic of items..and other magical effects.
So there come the Pliers of Magic Hacking! A wondrous tool that allows just that.

Any thoughts on those? Especially what would be required to craft them? And what the cost

My group will soon be near Balentine in Way of the Wicked, I've got a few ideas, but not nearly enough and the rest of my group doesn't appear very inventive besides ways of charging a whole castle full of guards, wizards and a high level paladin into straight combat.
So I need some help, or at least something to laugh at.

Two of us had been throguh part of the campaign already (my friend was GMing then to make things worse) so the current GM will likely change some things to surprise us, but he's allowing quite more than I would on his spot and mentionned he'll probably not change the layout of the castle, just contents..also mentionned there'll be no "bird mail" room, so that makes things harder.

On the plus side..if that can be called a plus - our party is quite a bunch of weirdos:

A batty skinwalker spellweaver from 3.5 (my ex-GM friend), just took craft wondrous items too
A ninja McGyver cat (almost literally - custom, small extremised catfolk-like race, I got an item that lets me shrink myself, meaning i get indistinguishable from a simple housecat if without gear).
That's me and with a small problem - Im the only neutral char, which means Ill be rather reluctant to wade into peoples bedrooms and stabbing them sleeping.
An obvious and oblivious blue- skinned tiefling summoner who didn't yet show any talent besides charging things head-on with his eidolon
And a sociopath human..not sure, might be a bolt ace, but more likely a ranger as he has favored enemy bonuses. Quite a killer vs humans.
We've got around 5k gold worth of resources, most hard cash or crafting materials.

The ideas I had so far:
-The cat has a collar that lets him shrink with merging of magical items into the smaller form - a perfect disguise as a normal cat, though smuggling mundane stuff is an issue - so I asked thebat to craft me the smallest bag of holding possible. The bat can literally transform into a bat and fire beams of fire or darkness without limits..the GM was a little too allowing Id say, so he has an easier time. The others have those circlets of disguise I hope, but were preparing a hat of human guise as well just in case.
-Make a dust of swarm summoning, activated by contact with saliva..add to food and watch the show
-We've met a zombie-filled whaling ship on the way And took its bell as a souvenir..the ship will eventually reappear with the bell as long as its intact. i think ill just give it a little paint job and plant it in the castle mess hall instead of their meal-calling bell. Most fun if it comes alive at the same time when someone tries swarm stew..
-I'll rig the ballistae on the gatehouse To fire backwards..not fun for anyone who tries it unawares
- maybe ill manage to fix up the catapult on the main keep..and aim it directly up. Just need to smuggle a shrunk piece of rock as ammo to it and fire it at the right time to check how much of the tower survives the rock returning back down.
- fill the castle chapel with opium-infused candles. Let the guards and clergy have some fun too..and some wisdom drain.
- there was this idea of getting dust of spell storing, charging it with the castles evokers fireball wand and mix it with bird food in the rookery..good fireworks show, but im afraid it might no longer be valid

So there im out of ideas and there's still the main problem standing inside tall and glorious - the scary 9+CR, fully armed paladin lord of the keep..with most of us being evil (part for me, who might have the biggest chance of coup-de-gracing him in his sleep..but i wont since im not evil! Maybe the bat..)
Plus the wizards (GM let it slip there may be several lower ones instead of one scary), the clergy, the dwarves and circa half the lev5-6 officers if we can still put the "come see the other officer do your wife" trick

Im most afraid the summoner will just start attacking things and screw up any plan.

So any other fun ideas on how to wreak havoc in there without just stabbing people in beds? (slitting throats of guards on their posts is fine)
And probably even more important - anything that might serve as backup plan if the summoner ends some of us in the castle jail..besides firing abovementionned catapult which might collapse the jail and kill the prisoners.

When it comes to FAQs and erratas my search-fu generally fails me.

Ive devised a truly devious wondrous item - a dust of summon swarm..activated by contact with saliva. Better than poison in some environments, but I've come across a tricky issue - how long will the swarm last? The original spell has a duration of "concentration+2 turns".
How does one handle concentration durations on magic items?

Christmas is giving hiatus to our regular campaign so the remnants of the group are planning some one-shots and we've decided to go with a warrior dwarf team.
Neat, but..I'm rather crap at picking stuff for later levels.
Since the other two teamsters are planning a brawler and a warpriest I decided to go with a Cavalier, probably strategist or banner bearer to make spreading teamwork feats more fun..riding a bear into combat xD though that may change.

We're starting at level 10 so I'm looking at 6 feats and..no idea what else.
probably going to need the classical power attack, ride-by attack, mounted combat and spirited charge, leaving two more for some teamworks or whatnot.

And there's my problem
1 - what to fill it with?
2 and what gear to pick? I can never even remember the WBL rates.
3And what to do about the mount (no experience with druids or that stuff)
4..should I perhaps pick some flying mount instead to offset the nearly total lack of range we're going to face?
5..what cav order (was thinking hammer or shield, but haven't yet checked all of them) and perhaps archetype to pick to be an asset to the team as a whole and not just another slapper

side note - I rolled stats getting me 17,17,15,15,14 and 10, obviously both 17s are going into str and con :)

So many character concepts, so few chances to try them out. So after a neat idea for a succubus-like character that will probably never see use it's time for another fun idea..which maybe will if something irrevocably bad happens to my stealthy character in my current Way of the Wicked campaign

And that would be The Overlord, ripping off the video game of the same title (and sequels).
I'll send those of you not knowing that ingenious evil meanie theme to youtube if you want details

but for the impatient let's try to sum it all up:

Big grim guy in dark heavy armor swinging something heavy, spreading destruction and his his own tyranny all over the place (surprisingly also saving those he "subdues" from other bastards pretending to be the good guys, but actually causing trouble themselves)

Has some limited magical capabilities mostly comming down to
- a short range blast with the added possibility of estabilishing mind control over a target that doesn't get killed by it
- a heav damaging burst
- and mostly area buffs for his minions around him

Most iconically though - Minions - a pack of gremlin-like creatures blindly following the Overlords command with sadistic glee
- small by pathfinder standards
- evil
- probably some kind of gremlins (at least by the look)
- 4 types:
+ browns are simple combat brutes looting and equipping anything they can find
+ greens are stealthy poison-themed backstabbers
+ reds can do fire - throw it onto others while walking around through it without care
+ blues are aquatic weaklings with a single thing they're good at - preventing other minions from dying (or actually - bringing them back form the "dead but not gone yet" state)

Now then. How would we go about porting that into pathfinder? Possibly minimising any 3rd party/homebrew elements, but not completely avoiding them.

I know some things:

Antipaladin dread vanguard/lrod of darkness (FMG archetype)
Human most probably
feats:
lv1: ?, ?
lv3: ?
lv5: ?
lv7: vile leadership
no idea what else

Minions - most problematic is that we'll be limited to level 1 PC controlled NPCs, so what can we pick?

browns - ? Jinkins have the right look and feel, but they're tiny. Giving them the giant creature template would raise them to CR 2 which kicks them out of leadership at low levels and greatly reduces number on higher ones, Vexgit have the right attitude for breaking things, but they look like bugs and again - they're tiny. Settle down for Frog God Games' Gremlins (CR1/2) with a fighter level?

greens - ? Jinkins have sneak attack, but again all the above problems

reds - no idea at all

blues - most problematic, there are some aquatic gremlins, but none can do anything near healing or raising dead. Biggest problem here seems to be the raising part - even if we limit that to other gremlins how would we be able to give anything any sort of raise dead, even if just once a day, at level 1?

Seems like the Frog God Games gremlins (https://sites.google.com/site/pathfinderogc/bestiary/monster-listings/fey/ gremlin-tohc) fix up most of the problems (just paint them the right colour and give them fighter/rogue/fire bloodline sorcerer/cleric? levels), but not all

Any thoughts how to fix up the holes in that?

I'm up to no good and I could use a fireball out of the blue. Problem is - I'll probably not be having my partys spellcaster nearby when on the job and it's quite likely he won't have to level to cast one anyway..not to mention I'm not sure if any of them actually CAN do that.
I do know however that at least one of them will be taking Craft Wonderous Item and there's a good chance I'll be able to borrow an npcs wand, use it and put it back before anyone notices I've been doing something I shouldn't.

Now our resources will be limited, so I'm looking for the cheapest way to get a spell storing item. So far best I found was a ring costing 9k to make (+scroll cost for Imbue with spell ability)..quite a bit and it's a ring, but maybe we can craft something with the same functionality.
Any cheaper options? It's fine enough even if the item in question would be one use (funnier even if I can do that with bird feed or a similar dastardly thing ot just leave behind for someone else to activate by accident)

So I've got a homebrew alien race that very quickly (taking effect on a single specimen rather than comming up through generations and thousands of years) evolves to adapt itself to local conditions as part of its backstory. Now I've got a chance to run it through Way of the Wicked and me and the GM got a little lost as to one thing - we've come up with a backstory to my character that's totally unfit to any of the normal campaign traits.

The GM proposed to come up with something representing that racial quik evolution as a trait, but we're totally unsure as to what that trait should do mechanically.

Perhaps the lovely community here could come up with some ideas?

There are plans at my place to run a WotW campaign and I volunteered to take part if it goes live, but I'm having a problem choosing a single character concept..and an even bigger one making a build for it. Ive had 3 ideas all of which have a little problem of being on the chaotic side, but that's a thing to make an agreeement with the GM.

One character I was thinking about was an antipaladin with dark lord and that no-spells archetypes, but then another one sprang up that's just too yummy eevil to just pass up like that

- a succubus-like tiefling

Problem is..how to go about building one?
Polishing up the race itself has little to do left - might try to mix a little between abyss and div born (somehow i think the dex might come in more handy), but what class? What feats?

Note a friend of mine also volunteered who likes mages, knowing him probably something illusion-heavy, so that's covered. I was wondering maybe a sorceress or swashbuckler, but maybe you people have some other (or at least more detailed) ideas?
Also, last time the campaign proved darn hard on us, so I won't be ashamed to take any heavy optimisation advice (or spoilers, since ive already been through some of the starting books)

Well i've developped a hype to get myself a harrow deck, but have come across a little problem..two actually. One being that the normal one is not available, another being that the deluxe version is both pricy and it's description doesn't say anything at all about what's deluxe about it.
In fact it doesn't say what is in the deluxe version at all besides uglier cards.

I'm left with no choice but to ask questions, and not necessarily nice ones:
What is there with the deluxe harow deck? All I've managed to learn is different size and back picture..uglier one too. Is that's what we're charged more for? Uglier, larger cards and nothing else? are there any books added at least like to the normal deck or are we indeed supposed to pay more to get less? Or maybe there's something else in the pack that's not with the normal deck?

And is the normal harrow deck practcally gone for good? What is that backorder thing? I can spend money and wait until *MAYBE* it gets rereleased..or not rereleased and I've just give paizo money for nothing?

We're running a Council or Thieves campaign and I just got myself to experiment a little with going all-out support'n'heal making use of Adamants Priest class (cleric with more spells and skills and d8 channeling but a caster bab/hd progression)

Now making our way to the 3rd level and preparing to assault some thiefling gang I started to wonder how to actually advance her (yes it's a girl)

What i've got:
Priestess of Milani, domains restoration, freedom, knowledge (that one i got free)
Str 13
Dex 15
Con 13
Int 13
Wis16
Cha 16
(all rolled)
Traits +2 initiative, +1 perception and it makes a class skill
Feats Selective channeling, harrowed

What I've considered
Channel hope (+2 morale bonus to those hit by my channels)
Achievement feat that maximises healing (counting progress somewhat over 110 out of 1000 needed to qualify so far)
Maybe 1 level dump in harrower (we'be got a bit of a hype about using harrow decks any way we can)
Prestige classing into evangelist

And that' where my ideas end

Anything you'd propose me? Perhaps even what stats to progress, what spells best to prepare (note i got 2 domain slots instead of one per spell level), but most of all feats..and perhaps what items to seek, I'm a little hyped about the milanite stuff from Gods of the Inner Sea

One thing to add - dice hate us, especially the d20s and the GM loves when things go totally random (and harrowing)

So my search-fu failed me.
If a creature has frightful presence activated during a charge, when does the effect kick in and where does it spread?

assume 20ft movement (common humanoid turned into a nightmare creature in heavy armor)

a)at the start of the charge and 30ft from the starting point
b)at the end of the charge move so 30ft from the landing point
c)all the way through the entire thing, effectively 30ft around both starting and landing point + the 60ft wide charge distance long rectangle inbetween?
d)?

my logic suggests point c, but both me and my GM feel something wrong with a 30ft radius turning into a 60x100 rounded rectangle

a weird title hiding a rather simple issue that made me wonder..

there are things that give bonuses to tripping and against getting tripped

then there are things that can trip without going through the trip manouver (like overrun..or failing your own trip attempt badly)

question is - do those trip bonuses apply to getting tripped by something that's not primarily used to trip? i.e. if someone has a +2 bonus against getting tripped and is subject to an overrun - would the attacker need to beat his CMD by 7 instead of the normal 5 to trip him as a result of the overrun? and would that person be tripped if he fails his own trip attempt by 10 or 12+?

Browsing through some feats I came upon chokehold, noticed the limit of pinning a creature of only up to one size larger and recalled a situation, where my whole party was immobilized by a bunch of overgrown mosquito "monks"..the "" being key
made me wonder if me or the GM missed something in the rules, namely:

-is there any size limit (not just penalty) on what you can grapple and/or pin?

it just seems silly that a singlet tiny creature like a stirge can pin/displace/whatever a grown man with little difficulty, or is pathfinder based on Discworld?

Do effects that change effective class levels for the purpose of using some class abilities affect abilities from archetypes that get substituted for the original target ones?

for example: the Sash of the War Champion lets you act as a fighter 4 levels higher than you are for the purpose of having armor training and bravery. How would it work for an armormaster archetype which substitutes deflective shield for his bravery?
if the other part gets wasted should the armormaster seek out a cheaper item that only works towards the abilities he has?

Not sure if this should rather go here in Advice or in Rules Questions..

So I've rolled up a warrior with decent dex and somehow gotten an advancing magical full plate armor..neat, but while the armor itself gives nice AC Iive got an uncomfortable feeling that my dex is just getting wasted (and the GM seems to like making things hard for us..not to mention the dice are not on our side, rolling three 1s for three consecutive attack rolls, failing high saves and so on)
Last time we had a little arguement on whether something that decreases armor penalties should increase the max dex factor as well(masterwork quality, traits..). GM is a bit of a hypocrite getting mad at me for trying to get AC higher than the rest of party (mine being the only frontline character in the party..duh), while serving us monsters with same if not higher AC, mad saves and, lately, - simply ones that can harass us while keeping out of our reach (or a ton of grapplers knowing that 3/4 of the party has 8 Str)

whining aside
What can I use to get that max dex up without stirring an arguement? only thing I know so far is mithril
oh right..and I'm stuck with an antipaladin so getting that fighter armor mastery isnt in reach much either..shouldn't have tried that class it seems

I'm trying to figure out how to get a grapple attempt without proviking an attack of opportunity vs a target that is not flat-footed and came by a situation that poses a bit of a rules question. Consider this:
the combat occurs in a tight 2-square-wide corridor, my character stands right in front of mr. Enemy, gets hit and pretends to get knocked out. mr. Enemy is supposedly a good guy (boo) and there's the rest of the party further in front so he'll probably just move over to them leaving the (fakely) unconscious character behind him. Now the character stands up and attempts to grapple mr. Enemy from behind.

Question is how to treat this? normally being on separate sides of an opponents only counts as flanking - he's still supposedly fully aware of enemies on both sides.
-Should he become aware of my character standing up?
-suppose he doesn't look behind him - does he still get an AoO against my characters grapple?
-does he count as flat-footed against my charater?
-I assume I need to pass an opposed bluff test to fool mr. Enemy, do I get any bonus (or does he get any penalty) because of the heat of battle?
-should/can I be making some stealth checks after the bluff?

Here's an interesting piece of lawyerism: I compare darkvision traits on half-orcs and dwarves and see
-half-orcs can GAIN 90ft darkvision at the cost of ferocity; NO mention what about their normal darkvision
-dwarves can INCREASE their darkvision to 90ft at the cost of the normal darkvision + getting dazzled by bright light

important issue for me is - is that an intentional difference? mainly the one concerning GAINING 90ft instead of INCREASING (and REPLACING), since that would mean we can take another alternate trait that replaces the now-redundant normal 60ft darkvision..like skilled.

Just going to start an 8-int half-orc antipal so this becomes an issue to solve

p.s. where did the alternate racial traits on d20pfsrd.com come from? wondering if it's a mistake in transition or is it the same in the original source

For those who don't like to read a lot the question is in the topic.
For the rest - a little fluff to have fun with.

I've been playing around with the Advanced Race Guides custom race building mechanisms and well..not really keeping with all the boundaries and wanted to make something neatly playable, but not pointwise overpowered (that is - keeping near the 10RP)
There I saw one trait I just had to see - See In Darkness - 4RP? I take it!
And then started playing around to make an actual race and not just a bunch of statistics and abilities, connected some dots..and came to the concept of the ancient egyptian deity Anubis - guardian of the underworld.
Somehow it fit nicely, but I wanted a common race, not a god..so here's what I got:

It is not that common perhaps for gods to band together and atually create something for the common good. A long time ago there was such a case however - Sarenrae and Pharasma agreed they could use a guardian to watch over the peaceful slumber of the dead. Not just one guardian in fact, but a whole kin of dedicated guards and ones that would not be dependent on their creators, but live and serve by their own will and heritage.
They based off the few gnolls that sought redemption from the destructive ways of their kin, evolving them into a more civilised form, but expanding on those traits that befit their new divine calling.
The beings in fact preferred to perform their role starting a bit from the other end - they could of course stand vigilant over a site, keeping watch that none enters a tomb or temple with evil intent, but they've noticed it's often better to take an active approach and hunt down those that already made it in - on the guardians own terms.

In fact, ac two entities were involved, they did indeed create effectively two kinds of creatures, though both being subtypes of one race, without a clear separation what causes a child to go one way or the other - both parents of one subtype could well raise a child of the other.
Both kinds are sturdy and relentless, being able to carry out their chase without need to rest, and thus also depriving rest from their victims. Some however are better suited to meeting their prey on the scene of the crime, the darkness of underground corridoors being no barrier to their senses (unlike for most perpetrators), while others excel in seeking out prey in the open, even tracking them over large distances.
Obviously following the Anubis reference they appear physically nearly as humans, but with thick short fur ranging colourwise from pitch black to sandy brown and with heads the shape of desert jackals' heads.

Statwise:
a slightly modified kind of flexible -> +2 Con, +2 to either Str or Wis - they're sturdy, relentless and fit for purpose, be it as warriors or clerics [2RP]
static bonus feat - two weapon fighting [2RP]
native weapons: proficient with whips + choice of one kind of swordlike bladed weapon (usually khopesh or falcata, but never proficient with scimitar except for clerics of sarenrae) [RP]
light and darkness - once a day for 1 round as immediate action positive/negative energy work reversely on them [1RP]
and of course either
See in Darkness[4RP] for the Tombwalkers subtype, or Darksight 60ft and Scent [2+4RP] for Sunwalkers

for a measly total of 10 or 12RP

and two things still bother me about it..
-how to name the race?
-isn't it still not complex enough? Maybe some things should be changed/added to better suit the role i presented for them as tomb, temple and necropoli guards?

and of course - would you allow such a race in your game?

Admittedly I'm a bad lil drag'n and been spoiling myself on what's to come in my friends game of CoTC (playing the role of an "englightened" guy, tutored by the temple of Pharasma, who sees a bit too much and then starts rambling something weird of which dangerously too much turns out to be true..getting us that harrow deck only made things worse :D ). We're quite early on with plenty of non-book sidequests and even downtime fun, but our first meeting with Trinia is comming soon enough and I was wondering just what would happen if we started from the back and actually approached her home from the shingles.

There's to say shingles seem to be providing some fun of their own even without going through the chase routine. I thought I saw somewhere a note on what to expect there, perhaps even along with some random encounters, but now that I look through it again I can't find it. Not very convenient for my divine precognition line in the party, especially if I should warn them that it's way too bad of an idea.
So main question - was I imagining things or is there some random encounter table specially for the shingles?
If there is none then some ideas for my GM friend would be useful as well. The more choices he'll have the less he'll have to worry about my characters "prophecies" being too precise :)