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Immunity to Death Effects: You're immune to death effects. This keeps you from being automatically killed or from having your dying value automatically increase, but it doesn't make you immune to other parts of the spell or effect. For example, you can still take mental damage and become frightened by a phantasmal killer, you just don't instantly die from it.

I recently learned that Phantasmal Killer only targets 1 living creature. Same for Vision of Death. Meaning that even if PK didn't have the death trait, it would still fail to target nonliving creatures. Did the author of this rule not know? Or are "Targets 1 living creature" spells supposed to work against the undead?

RAW if a target is immune to paralyzed but not stunned, then it is advantageous for the target to fail or critically succeed a saving throw against the Paralyze spell. The only bad result is a noncritical success, which inflicts stunned 1.

How do you handle this situation? Should the target be able to ignore the success effect, too? Should the target suffer stunned 1 on a failure?

When I run #4-11: Prisoners of the Electric Castle, the complex hazard in the first encounter (listed as Trivial; solo PL+0 complex hazard) always seems to give my players a lot more trouble than the adventure suggests. When I think about it, the hazard is rather strange.

The trap is unavoidable, but the reaction itself is harmless, and its statistics seem reasonable for its level except for an obvious and easily fixed typo in the high tier version's Broken Threshold.

But it gets weird when it starts its routine. The hazard's facets don't appear to move after the reaction (in which they simply emerge from the wall), but each facet still forces a PC to make a basic Will save vs mental damage. The same effect can also inflict grabbed or unconscious as it tries to snatch the target's soul. Is it actually grabbing PCs from a distance (which doesn't seem too farfetched since it's clearly using magic to grab their souls), or am I supposed to be moving these facets into melee so the PCs can more easily disable them?

Additionally, the unconsciousness states that the PCs can recover from it with a successful skill check as a three-action activity (which they can presumably take despite being unconscious). I've been ruling that it doesn't allow a free Perception check to wake, since that would make the three-action skill check hardly ever come up. But the effect doesn't actually say it prevents the Perception check, so now I'm wondering if I've been making it too powerful by not allowing the Perception check.

Another weird thing is the difficulty scaling. My understanding is that most PFS encounters scale with the PCs' total Challenge Points, using the principle that a creature two levels higher than you is twice as strong as you. But this encounter scales both with the number of PCs and their Challenge Point total, the latter of which already factors in the number of PCs. So a party of six level 9 characters (4+4+4+4+4+4=24 Challenge Points) will encounter 6 facets, each with 10 extra HP, but a party of four level 10 characters (6+6+6+6=24 Challenge Points) will encounter 4 facets, each with 10 extra HP. Both parties are the same strength, but one is facing the harder encounter simply because they have more members.

Lastly, the scaling seems to affect the facets' HP but not their BT. Is this intentional, or should I be increasing the BT to half the facets' new HP?

Wall of Force stops incorporeal creatures from moving through it because it's made of force. But there's no option to shape the wall or create a sphere to trap them in. Can't they just Fly around the wall, through the environment?

Some actions such as Sneak and Sudden Charge allow you to replace a subordinate Stride with Burrow/Climb/Fly/Swim "if you have the corresponding movement type." Does this mean you need the actual Speed associated with the action, or do you just need to be in a situation that allows the action (underwater to Swim with Athletics, on a wall to Climb with Athletics, etc.)?

Quiet Allies applies to Stealth checks to Avoid Notice and Follow the Expert who is Avoiding Notice. But it doesn't apply for initiative rolls? What does that mean?

When Avoiding Notice, the same roll is used both for initiative and becoming unnoticed. So what roll is Quiet Allies applying to?

Are all four party members still using separate Stealth checks for initiative, but only a fifth, shared Stealth check with the lowest modifier is determining notice?

Or does the feat just not work if the GM calls for initiative? I can't think of many uses of Avoid Notice that don't.

Tiny PCs are stated in the rules to not gain automatic lesser cover from being in a larger creature's space, just like other Tiny creatures. But I can't find this general rule for Tiny creatures. Where is it?

If all three Strikes of Godbreaker succeed, the target remains grabbed or restrained. Is there any point to that, though? This is a three-action activity, so there's no opportunity to Grapple the target to renew the grab. Once your turn ends, the condition is over. I guess if you're hasted, you could Strike the target again while they're grabbed or restrained, but the target is presumably already prone after the Godbreaker.

The wyvern's Savage reaction is triggered by a creature grabbed or restrained by the wyvern critically failing a skill check to Escape. Does that mean the target is safe if they use their unarmed attack modifier to Escape instead of a skill check?

At the higher levels of the game, PCs have more tools at their disposal, so the creatures they face need to hit back harder! At higher levels, give each creature more extreme statistics. Having one extreme statistic becomes typical around 11th level. A creature of 15th level or higher typically has two extreme statistics, and one of 20th level or higher should have three or four. Keep in mind that these should be relevant to the encounters you expect them to have—extreme social skills aren’t much use to a combat-focused creature. Be careful about giving multiple extreme statistics that are closely linked: a creature with extreme damage and Fortitude saves is one thing, but having an extreme attack bonus and extreme damage allows the creature to apply both extreme statistics to each attack.

According to this guidance in the monster building rules, a level 20 creature should have three or four extreme statistics, yet the ancient diabolic dragon doesn't have any. Why is that? Did a general lack of low/terrible stats lead the devs to decide it didn't need any extreme stats?

Mind Swap has the possession trait. How much of this trait actually applies? For instance, would half the damage dealt to one body be dealt as mental damage to the other body? Can the primary caster be immune to mental effects as long as they are not a target of the spell?

The Fly action says you fall at the end of your turn if you didn't use a Fly action this round. Maneuver in Flight doesn't appear to use a subordinate Fly action, so does it not satisfy this requirement?

One of my players replayed a scenario with the intent to spend a replay. They only realized afterward that they didn't have any left, and they don't have enough Achievement Points to buy another. Do I now need to wait for the player to save up enough points before I can properly report their results?

My understanding is that adventure paths (i.e. Gatewalkers) come with a Player's Guide to advise the players' character creation and give an idea of what options will work very well for the campaign and what options will likely be unhelpful.

Does Pathfinder Society have anything like that? Something to help players avoid dead options like Group Impression or Carryall? I think that would be very useful.

One of my players has 6 replays and wants to consume one, but the replay box is greyed out when I try to report the session. Any idea what would cause this?

"The GM must cross off the high level range items on the Chronicle Sheet if the party did not play in the high level range. The GM also must cross off items that the PCs did not encounter."

Let's say the players are in high tier. They explore a room that normally contains a certain item in low tier, but since this is high tier, the adventure replaces it with a greater version of the same item, which the players find. Does that mean I'm supposed to cross off the weaker item from the Chronicle since the players never technically encountered it? Or does it get to stay because it's not exclusive to high-tier and the players didn't "miss" it, per se?

Alice is controlled by Bob. Bob decides how Alice acts and controls all her actions without spending any of his own.

Bob is controlled by Charlie. Charlie decides how Bob acts and controls all his actions without spending any of his own.

Does Charlie control Alice's actions through his control over Bob? Or does Bob still control Alice's actions since it doesn't require any of the actions Charlie could force Bob to use?

Intelligent items usually activate themselves as they please, using their own actions to do so. Could a creature with an intelligent item also activate the item with the creature's own actions?

The Hallajin Key intelligent item has imprecise hearing 60 feet but no precise senses at all. Does this mean all of the key's single-target abilities require a DC 11 flat check?

My PFS party fought a morrowkin yestersay, and we noticed that the crit fail effect of Swallow Future inflicts doomed 4. The effect even mentions that this is likely to cause an instant kill.

Fortunately, it's not a death effect, so it's susceptible to Breath of Life. How does this work? Does the creature now have doomed 4 and will die if it increases or they gain the dying condition?

I uploaded the examples on Reddit. I get the feeling they are not allowed since the entrapped creature would have to break down the wall twice.

The old spell, Resilient Sphere, gave the force field AC 5. The new spell, Containment, doesn't provide the AC at all. What should its AC be treated as?

I'm planning on GMing my first PFS scenario soon. I'm also planning on reporting the event. Is there anything in particular I need to do to be an Event Organizer?

I've gotten conflicting answers from a few threads about whether a GM can or must use the legacy or remastered version of a creature in an adventure.

On the one hand, GMs are prohibited from altering any mechanics presented in the adventure. On the other hand, GMs are also required to use the remastered rules where possible.

So which stat block is the GM supposed to use?

I'm preparing to run a PFS scenario that includes harpies, and I'm told I have to use the legacy harpy stat block, which has this ability.

[one-action] (auditory, concentrate, enchantment, incapacitation, mental, primal) The harpy cries out an eerie, compelling melody. Each non-harpy creature within a 300-foot aura must attempt a DC 21 Will save to avoid becoming captivated by the harpy’s song. The effect lasts for 1 round, but if the harpy uses this ability again on subsequent rounds, it extends the duration by 1 round for all affected creatures. Once a creature succeeds at any save against Captivating Song, that creature is temporarily immune to Captivating Songs for 24 hours.

Success The creature is unaffected.
Failure The creature is fascinated, and it must spend each of its actions to move closer to the harpy as expediently as possible, while avoiding obvious dangers. If a captivated creature is adjacent to the harpy, it stays still and doesn’t act. If attacked by the harpy, the creature is freed from captivation at the end of the harpy’s turn.
Critical Failure As failure, but if attacked by the harpy, the creature can attempt a new save at the start of its next turn, rather than being freed at the end of the harpy’s turn.

Since the effect lasts for 1 round, it ends at the start of the harpy's next turn, so there is no effect to extend. I guess I can treat this as an exception and let the expired effect be extended anyway?

But more importantly, when the harpy does extend the effect, are the affected creatures still able to attempt a saving throw to become unaffected and get temporary immunity?

I'm planning to run a PFS scenario containing a battle with legacy harpies (the ones that had Captivating Song). I thought it would be as simple as just using the remastered harpy (the one with Stench), as normal for implementing the remaster rules. But upon closer inspection, these encounters also contain variants of the legacy harpies.

The only differences between legacy harpies and these variant harpies are that the variants have higher levels, higher stats to match, and one extra offensive ability.

Should I have the remastered harpies fight alongside these legacy variants? Or should I do with the remastered stat-block what the author did with the legacy stat-block to create the variants?

Hostile Actions

Sometimes spells prevent a target from using hostile actions, or the spell ends if a creature uses any hostile actions. A hostile action is one that can harm or damage another creature, whether directly or indirectly, but not one that a creature is unaware could cause harm. For instance, casting fireball into a crowd would be a hostile action, but opening a door and accidentally freeing a horrible monster wouldn’t be. The GM is the final arbitrator of what is a hostile action.

Is harm just any adverse effect? For instance, say a creature under invisibility casts slow on a pursuer to flee them. The caster has no intention to fight the pursuer.

Would a GM typically consider slowed to be harmful in and of itself, therefore making slow still a hostile action in this case?

I'm reading through a scenario I plan to GM, and I see that the first combat encounter is against a Rolling Incant. It seems to have an ability invalidated by the remaster and another invalidated even before then.

The first is its immunity to evocation magic. It can also replenish HP whenever a non-cantrip evocation spell runs afoul of this immunity. The evocation trait no longer exists, so this immunity does nothing. And seeing has its AC is low and its own spells are fueled by its HP, this monster seems to really need that evocation immunity.

The monster is from Bestiary 3, so it's probably not getting remastered for a while. As GM, I am apparently empowered to address errors that arise due to rules updates, but I'm not sure how to address this. Replacing references to "evocation" with "spell damage" might make the monster too tough, but ignoring the immunity entirely might make it too easy.

The second issue is with its Engulf ability, which allows it to Stride twice and try to gobble up anything in its path. This monster has no land Speed to Stride with, and unlike a fighter's Sudden Charge, the Strides can't be replaced with Fly. I guess I could just allow it to use its fly Speed instead, so this issue isn't as bad.

Wizards get a feat called Irresistible Magic.

You’ve studied ways of overcoming the innate defenses against magic that dragons, otherworldly beings, and certain other powerful creatures have. Any creature that has a status bonus to saving throws against magic reduces that bonus by 1 against your spells.

Plenty of legacy dragons have the entry "+1 status to all saves vs. magic" written next to the save modifiers. But many of the dragons in Monster Core instead state "+1 status to all saves vs. {specific magic tradition like arcane or primal}". Does Irresistible Magic still work against these less wide-ranging defenses?

The Axe weapon group has this critical specialization:

Choose one creature adjacent to the initial target and within reach. If its AC is lower than your attack roll result for the critical hit, you deal damage to that creature equal to the result of the weapon damage die you rolled (including extra dice for its striking rune, if any). This amount isn't doubled, and no bonuses or other additional dice apply to this damage.

So if I use an Axe weapon with Hand of the Apprentice and I crit a faraway enemy, can I damage an adjacent creature, or is that creature disqualified because they are beyond my character's reach?

To receive Credit for running a scenario, I have to pick a character to receive the Chronicle as though I had used them to play the scenario. This allows the character to gain any and all rewards that the players could have achieved in a single playthrough.

Then to play the scenario as a player later, I would have to use a different character that doesn't have a Chronicle for that scenario yet to receive Credit. And if I had already played that scenario as a player, I'd also have to use a Replay.

Alternatively, after running the scenario, I can forgo receiving a Chronicle (but not other rewards for running the scenario), but I would have to earn it again to acquire it later.

Is my understanding correct?

Effects that happen when a creature "first enters" the area usually don't have a stipulation for how else the effect happens. Effects that happen when a creature "enters" the area usually also say "or starts/ends its turn in the area" or some other way the effect can happen.

Is "first enters" meant to be interpreted more liberally than "enters?" For instance, would Frightful Presence or an Ice Mummy's Great Despair activate when the monster approaches the creature, while Stench or a Cinder Rat's Fedit Fumes would not?

If you want to disable a hazard with Thievery, you use the Disable a Device action. If you want to disable a hazard with a different skill listed in the hazard stat block, you use an unnamed 2-action activity that does the same thing as Disable a Device except using the chosen skill.

It technically works as written, but why didn't they just write Disable a Device as a general skill action like Recall Knowledge or Identify Magic?

Reddit Thread

Sorry if this not the sort of question you will be awnsering but I've always been baffled by this mechanic.

The Incorporeal trait says "An incorporeal creature can’t attempt Strength-based checks against physical creatures or objects—only against incorporeal ones—unless those objects have the ghost touch property rune. Likewise, a corporeal creature can’t attempt Strength-based checks against incorporeal creatures or objects."

And attack rolls say "When you use a Strike action or make a spell attack, you attempt a check called an attack roll."

Me and my group have assumed that this made Ghosts and the like immune to strikes using Strenght and one requires Finesse or Ghost Touch to hit them in a sort of "Martial Golem" , This however is not the concensus online as people use this only for Manuevers such as Grapple and Trip.

When I heard that Golem would be changed I tought that so would the Incorporeal trait but it remained the same.

Could you provide us with insight on how this is intended to work?

While it's my policy not to wade in on ambiguous rules, especially those that cause significant debates, in this case I feel that there's a genuine community consensus that the wording is a bit off and it would violate the "too good / too bad to be true" rule by being too bad to be true if you can't use Strength-based Strikes so I recommend allowing them. This is not an official FAQ or errata or anything, but I feel so strongly that not allowing Strength-based Strikes will cause huge problems for you and whatever few groups are denying Strength Strikes that it's worth saying something in this one case. It certainly does literally say what you quoted though, so an erratum or change in the remaster wouldn't have been remiss.

Thanks you so much for the response!

I'm very grateful that the game is easily readable and that ambiguities like this are very rare.

You're welcome!

I think of incorporeal creatures as supernaturally antithetical to Strength itself, which is why Strength-based Strikes don't work for or against them but Dexterity-based Strikes do. Vampires have a similar thing going on, in that they're so averse to light that they don't have reflections.

Additionally, incorporeal creatures tend to have abysmal HP. The Building Creatures rules recommend giving incorporeal creatures terrible HP (or low HP at higher levels), and the ghost adjustment even says not to alter the monster's HP even though its level is increasing by 2. So taking away their immunity to Strength-based Strikes might cause them to be destroyed too quickly.

Having been the one to write the Building Creatures rules guidelines where I recommended to give them terrible to low HP, I can tell you that we assigned them the lowered HP to deal with the effects of their having resistance all (except force/spirit/maybe vitality, double vs nonmagical).

That said, if incorporeal creatures are easy for your group even with making them immune to Strength Strikes, I guess do what works for you? Or maybe have a dream sequence that's not for keeps where your level 5 party with a Strength character or two fights an animate dream and see if they get a wipe?

Does this game account for relative motion? For instance, if an effect depends on someone entering an area, what should that motion be relative to for it to count?

Snake Fangs allows the caster to Swallow Whole, sending the target to an extraplanar space resembling the inside of a snake's stomach. So it's not the caster's real stomach. Can damage dealt to the stomach still affect the caster, or does it only matter for Rupturing the stomach?

The target becomes undetected, not just to sight but to all senses, allowing the target to count as invisible no matter what precise and imprecise senses an observer might have.

I've heard that since it says the target "counts as invisible," see the unseen can't reveal the target because the target only counts as invisible rather than actually being invisible. Why does that matter? There's no restriction on for what purpose the target counts as invisible. How is that not functionally equivalent to being invisible?

One for All lets you prepare to Aid with the same action, allows you to replace the usual check for that Aid with Diplomacy, and gives that Aid the bravado trait.

But the "usual" check is decided by GM fiat. If I were using words of encouragement to bolster an ally's efforts, I'd imagine the GM would tell me to roll Diplomacy for the Aid. None of the other skills make sense.

Was this feat written under the assumption that the usual check would be more set in stone?

The Leap action states that for a horizontal Leap, you land in the space where your Leap ends, and for a vertical Leap, you're jumping onto an elevated surface. Many interpret this to mean that the action doesn't end until you hit the ground, so you can't use any remaining actions until then. But I think this interpretation is too rigid and causes a number of features to not make sense.

Leshy Glide: A single action that lets you glide while falling. It's not a reaction, and the description reveals that it's not supposed to be a reaction. The intent seems to be to Leap off a cliff then Leshy Glide to fall more slowly.

Wall Jump: This feat only does anything if you end your Leap next to a wall with no ground to land on.

Soft Landing: This spell from Dark Archive tells you it can be cast while falling and even cites noninstantaneous falling as the reason you can do this.

The Angoyang can inflict fascinated with Slow Blink. If the Angoyang attacks the target, they can make another save at the start of their turn. Fascinated ends if a creature uses hostile actions against the target or its allies.

Some creature families have a set of rules that can be used to turn other creatures into members of that family. This usually entails increasing level by 1 and increasing most of the check and DC modifiers by 1.

What's confusing me is the increases and decreases to Hit Points. The werecreature is straightforward enough. The creature gets a massive amount of HP, and the explicit reason for this is to offset the silver weakness. Likewise, the vampire has its HP lowered by a massive amount, and this is explicitly to offset its new fast healing and nonsilver physical resistance.

Then I look at the ghoul adjustments and I see that HP does not increase at all. And the divine warden gets the same HP as an elite adjustment. And I don't understand the reasoning behind either decision. The divine warden's abilities don't look much weaker than the ghoul's. Is the ghoul's stench (or paralysis for legacy ghoul) really so powerful that the HP couldn't be increased? Does it have something to do with the immunities and becoming undead?

And the ghost creation rules say "Do not modify the ghost's Hit Points due to its new level." Huh? Was I supposed to be doing that for the ghoul?

Also, I remember that the elite adjustment increases the creature's level by 2 when used on a level -1 creature. Do similar precautions need to be taken when using a -1 monster to create a ghoul? Would such a ghoul be level 1 instead of 0?

There's a player character in my campaign with Constitution -1. That means if he goes 0 days without food or water, he starts taking damage. Is it supposed to be a minimum of one day before the damage starts?

Nonlethal Attacks

You can make a nonlethal attack to knock someone out instead of killing them (see Knocked Out and Dying on page 410). Weapons with the nonlethal trait (including fists) do this automatically. You take a –2 circumstance penalty to the attack roll when you make a nonlethal attack using a weapon or unarmed attack that doesn’t have the nonlethal trait. You also take this penalty when making a lethal attack using a nonlethal weapon. Spells and other effects with the nonlethal trait that reduce a creature to 0 Hit Points knock the creature out instead of killing them.

The lack of any mention of spell attacks getting a penalty is usually interpreted to mean that nonlethal spell attacks aren't a thing. But could it be that nonlethal spell attacks simply don't have the circunstance penalty? It says that weapons and unarmed attacks suffer a penalty when used for nonlethal attacks, but nothing about spell attacks being disqualified.

I don't see anything in the vampire creature abilities about the vampire turning to ash if destroyed. Does a destroyed vampire leave a body behind?

The remaster turned the belt of giant strength into the bracers of strength. The old item allowed you to catch a rock as a reaction. The new one gives you the Bear Hug action, which has you Grapple and deal a minor amount of bludgeoning damage if you succeed.

More importantly, a critical success with this Grapple causes the target to suffocate until freed. Not "has to hold its breath or start suffocating." Just unconscious and making saving throws to stay alive (though the DC starts at a measly 20).

That's effectively a -6 to AC, and since the target can't act, they can't Escape. The only way the target can get out of this is if an ally of the target foils the Grapple or the user fails to renew the Grapple.

And some creatures CANNOT fail to renew the Grapple. Suppose Grendel himself got his hands on some bracers of strength. He has a fist attack with Grab. So if he uses his hand to Bear Hug someone, he can use Grab to extend the restrained condition forever. Against a single creature, it's game over.

I'm not saying it's broken or anything. At these levels, a critical success being an instant kill isn't out of the question. I just thought it was interesting.

Trying to wrap my head around how bane works. This is my current understanding.

If I cast the spell, all enemies in the area when I cast it need to pass a Will save or take the penalty until they're not in the area anymore.

If an enemy that isn't in the area ends up in the area, they need to pass the Will save or take the penalty until they're not in the area anymore.

If I Sustain the spell, the area gets bigger, and any enemy in the area that isn't already taking the penalty needs to pass the Will save or take the penalty until they're not in the area anymore.

If a bane area starts overlapping with a bless area, both spells try to kill each other. The bane caster rolls a counteract check against the bless effect and the bless caster rolls a counteract check against the bane effect. The success of each check depends on the rank of the opposing effect and the opponent's spell DC, so both spells might end early or both could stay up.

Is my understanding mistaken?

This table gives the Bulk of a creature for the purpose of carrying a creature. Does this include the Bulk of any equipment on the creature's person?

Lightning Swap lets you Interact to stow any number of things you are holding then draw up to two weapons or one weapon and a shield.

I know detaching a shield strapped to your arm is one Interact.

Is strapping the shield to your arm also its own Interact, or is it done as part of the Interact to draw the shield in the first place?

Change; Hands; Action

...
Retrieve an item from a backpack 3, sack, or similar container; 2 hands; Interact
...
Retrieving an item stowed in your own backpack requires first taking off the backpack with a separate Interact action.

Actually taking off the backpack doesn't seem to be required anymore, though it still takes 2 actions to get a stowed item.

You can use the Interact action (page 416) to:

...
Retrieve a stowed item from a backpack, pouch, or similar container (or put one away). You'll often need to Interact to open or close the backpack or container.

Is there any consequence to just leaving the backpack open?