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My players are currently fighting a Dread Wraith.

The creature is incorporeal, and says only magical weapons can hit it.

One of my players has a crossbow +3 with the sonic (+1d6 sonic) affix on it, and a greater crystal of fire attached (+1d6 fire). If I'm understanding the descriptions of the affix and crystal correctly, they add elemental damage respectively, but not magical damage, such as with fireball. This says to me that the most the player with the crossbow can deal is 1d8 (crossbow damage) +3 per fired bolt.

Is this correct?

But then I got to thinking, and the actual damage from the bolt is physical. So technically, only +3 damage would be inflicted with each hit.

But then I got to thinking even more, and technically, the bolt itself is non-magical, only the crossbow...

Help! Not sure what to do!

The feat says:

As a standard action, make a single unarmed melee attack

This can be understood in one of two ways:

1) That if you have, say 4-attacks per round, that ONE of these four attacks must be a Gorgons Fist if you so choose to use it, thus you *could* technically use 3-Scorpion Styles and 1-Gorgons Fist on your 4-attack standard action round.

2) It could also be understood as it is the ONLY attack you get that round.

I'm designing a monster who uses these feats and really need to know which way this is to be interpreted. Thanks.

...if cast on someones nose? Back in AD&D, we used to have a wizard who abused this spell to no end. I see in Pathfinders, it gets no saving throw, but what about if you made the focal point on someones nose? The obvious side-effects being temporary blindness.

I want to include the AD&D version of Greek fire in my campaigns, but on a much more realistic level! Greek Fire was similar to how Napalm works now, a thick gel-type resin that burned for a long time before extinguishing, unable to be put out by water (rumored to actually react violently to water). It was mostly used in navel battles and is historical fact.

As a DM, I want to include Greek Fire in a historical campaign setting, but instead of naval battles, I want to have the stuff above the catwalk surrounding a castle, near the entrance where boiling oil would be poured. I need some rules ideas for damage to characters trying to use a battering ram to break the castle gates when this stuff is sprayed at them!

Thanks for suggestions ahead of time.

Please help me! On the surface, this spell seems totally useless, but I'm sure its not!

Pathfinder has no Concentration skill, so casters need not worry about loosing their casting spell, and no damage is listed, nor any mention of any negative effects the swarm might have on characters within the swarm, such as lack of vision, -attack rate, -movement, anything...

Also, the Area of Effect is a Swarm... what does that mean? How big is a Swarm on the battlefield? one 5'-square? If there is no limit, why can't a wizard make it 100' and keep concentrating to summon more critters until the cloud of vermin is enormous in size?

This spell seems very poorly worded to me and in its current state, is very confusing.

Another thing.

The spell Web uses a Reflex save to avoid getting stuck, but as a DM, I will rule that you NEED traction to push off the floor to "free" yourself from the web. Does this not seem logical? To continue my point, I'm going to have an NPC caster "quicken" Grease and Web together in the same round on the PC party when they get too close. I need a Reflex DC to break free that makes sense for the situation.

Also, if the Grease will light on fire, this would be the perfect trap because the webs also burn causing damage. I honestly can't think of a better low level spell combo.

...I'm looking for a system that has the following criteria:

1) All characters have access to all skills, thus no real classes, but perhaps arch-types
2) When you level up, you can gain "skills" every X amount of levels
3) Also when you level up, you get a certain amount of "power" which you can put into your "skills". In this fashion, spells and attacks are all equal in power without requiring class levels because their power is derived from how much "power" you invest into each skill, but do you choose to invest into your attack, your dodge, your health?

I know I've played a system similar to this in the past. Was it Battletech? I have no idea. Thoughts? Suggestions?

I read through the PF CR twice when I first got it (when it first came out), and have been playing with it's rules ever since. Recently, some problems with Sneak Attack have left me on the fence:

1.a) I thought Sneak Attack could be performed by Rogues to opponents they were flanking, but I just checked the SRD online and found nothing about that. Is this an error on my part to of allowed this?

1.b) If the Sneak Attack can indeed be performed on an opponent that is flanked, is each attack from the Rogue a Sneak Attack, or only the first attack? (i.e. a 6th level Rogue has 2-attacks per round, both get Sneeak Attack?)

1.c) How to missile attacks work with Sneak Attack? What I read into the SRD says a melee character MUST be next to the enemy being flanked, but in the example picture on the SRD, it shows a Sorcerrer ten feet back who is "Threatening" the enemy, thus flanking him. I ask this because my players will use a common tactic of having one of their members engage an enemy up close while two hang back about 15-30 feet on the opposite parrellel side shooting with crossbows. Technically, crossbows threaten up to their Range in distance, correct? My reading of the SRD makes it clear that only one enemy need engage in melee, and the others can be missile, caster, whatever. Is this a correct assumption?

2.a) If being flanked will not cause a Sneak Attack, then if the Rogues don't go first on Initiative, how does a Rogue get to Sneak attack other then using a Feint maneuver? The SRD says anytime an opponent is denied his Dexterity bonus to AC, but other than being flat-footed (which only happens on the first round), or helpless, I see no way of causing this.

2.b) And why would a Rogue even bother doing a Feint maneuver when a Feint maneuver is a two-step proccess giving you only one attack the following round, as opposed to three solid shots (via Rapid Shot) per round, which is potentially much more damage than a single sneak-attack?

2.c) If there is another method for getting a Sneak Attack I somehow missed where the target remains flatfooted for the entire round, does each of the Rogues attacks count as Sneak Attacks, or only the first one (same as question 1.b, except for other methods of Sneak Attack, such as Helpless condition)?

Thanks for all the help you guys have given me in the past! This community has been great for out game. Also, thanks for any and all replies ahead of time. Sorry I didn't do a Search first for this stuff, but I'm in a little bit of a time crunch and will check this when I get home.

One of my players is a Bard. I have him keep track of his spells on sheet music like a wizard keeps track of his spells in a spell book, but this is irrelevant to what I need help with. He wants to get Knock as a Bard spell, and considering its only components is "V", for vocalization, it's a rather perfect fit, however I have no idea how to do this?!? Back in 2nd Edition, there were all kinds of rules for creating your own spells, but I can't find a thing in Pathfinders, such as range and damage guidelines, etc. Not to mention, length of research time, possible added material components (like how Players Option had it with the size of your laboratory and library), and so forth. I'm sure there has to be something in the Pathfinders books I am missing. I have the Core Rulebook, Game Mastery Guide, and Advanced Players Handbook. HELP!

One of my players wants to build a house with all the amenities and I have no idea where to find this information? Something in Pathfinders I'm missing?

One of my players (Bard) just got a Circlet of Persuasion. This item says it grants a +3 "competence bonus" on the wearer's Charisma-based checks. If I'm reading this correctly, its like having +6-extra points into Charisma, because it grants a +3 bonus to all Cha-based rolls (i.e. skills)! That's very powerful! Am I understanding this correctly?

Also, I can't find anything on Competence. I know that most magical modifiers which are similar do not stack, however ones that grant bonuses to skills do, so do Competence bonuses stack with other Competence bonuses?

Thanks for the replies ahead of time.

Q: What happens to a Paladins Mount and a Wizards Familiar when their masters die?

I have two characters from 3.5 that converted to Pathfinder that are caught in an epic duel to the death last night (still unfinished). One is a 13th level Paladin with a Special Mount. The other is an 11th level Wizard with a Familiar and some other PC's helping.

Last night, the Paladin used his mount to kill the wizard (a little past -10). He then argued that the Familiar should disappear, or at least have to roll a Fort save of some type because of the shared-link. I hadn't decided on what to do that round (we ended the evening there), but I noticed that the Paladin himself is almost dead, yet his Mount is still at full-hp! His mount is very powerful, perhaps capable of killing the rest of the PC party if he retains his same skills, but the paladin can only keep his summoned mount for 2-hours a day, so would it not make sense that the mount would simply vanish back to where it was summoned from the second the paladin was killed? One other note, the wizard has an ion stone of Regeneration, so even though he's well into the negatives, his damage was not from fire or acid so he will regenerate - dead yes, but DEAD, no. How does this affect his familiar?

HELP! Combat resumes tonight!

I'm pretty sure this has been asked and answered before, but I did a Google search and checked three pages and came up blank for my exact question so here it goes:

I have an NPC Dwarf Fighter whom I'm making 3rd level. He has an Intelligence of 7, giving him a -2 INT penalty. Under his skills, it says, "Fighter 2 + Int Modifier". Does this mean he NEVER gets skill points ever? That seems a bit harsh.

Also, what would happen if one of my players had a typical, "dumb-Orc Fighter" type character with a -3 Intelligence modifier? Surely he would not loose -1 skill points per level until what, all his skills were zero or negative?

I seem to remember somewhere that the in the equation " 'X' + Intelligence modifier," that 'X' could not be changed by a negative Intelligence modifier, thus you still received 'X' amount of ranks regardless, however I could find no such text in the Pathfinders Core Rulebook under the Class description sections, or the Skills section. Any help would be appreciated.

I'm currently running this adventure in an underground dungeon (are they any others?), and one of the rooms states the following:

The passage back to this small room is barely big enough for a human to squeeze through (reducing movement to 1/3 normal and negating all bonuses for high Dexterity). Although after going about half way a small light source can be seen in the next room. Just before entering the next room, a blinding beam of light flies down the passage and a shrieking alarm goes off.

A beholder guards this room, having been tasked by an evil wizard. Fortunately the wizard remembers to feed his captive guard and since the wizard resides in the city above, is quite close by, and will undoubtedly hear the alarm spell that the character triggered.

Looking into this room reveals five floating round beings, one that is unmistakably a beholder, the others possible related monsters. The beholder is in a perfect position to attack anything that tries to squeeze into the room through the narrow passage.

The passage is 20' long, from the start of the main room to the chamber at the end of the passage. A beholders attack is a touch based Ray attack +9; additionally, if the ray actually hits, there is a save DC of 17 to avoid the ray's effects using Fortitude or Willpower (not Reflex). However, it does have 10-attacks. So my question is, if a human-sized character is inside this passage, would they would be considered prone or helpless? I mean, there is a 100% chance this ray will strike whoever is in the passage so I'd consider the character helpless, thus the auto-hit. And what about the saving throw? I don't think the characters save would be affected because it's not a Reflex based save. Am I correct? Finally, how many of the ray effects would you allow in this narrow passage? I'm leaning towards only one per round, however making it auto-hit. Am I correct in doing this?

What a horrid job you did running this encounter.

What type of action did the beholder use to fly into the center of the party? Answer: Move action.

When did the Beholder do this action? Before initiative was rolled.

Next Question: If they were all standing around arguing, how was there enough space in between them for a Large (10'x10') creature to fit? DM wanted a dead beholder, so he made sure his 4 rogues were flanking it.
EDIT And even this is wrong, as Beholders have all-around vision and CANNOT BE FLANKED

Why does the Beholder get a move action before initiative is rolled?
Because the DM ran the encounter not in accordance to the rules he is now questioning/complaining about.

What was the result? Dead Beholder.

Surprise!

Oh, and Beholder has a +12 to Hide . So you were wrong about that too. If you gave the bonuses for being Invisible (behind the cutain) +20, and the +5 for the perceiving characters being distracted, you would have had a total result of 47 with your 10 roll. As in, the Beholder gains surprise. Even with their perceptions at +21, the best they could have rolled was 41.

So, to answer your initial question, no the rules aren't bad, they just weren't being used very well.

Suggestion: go back and re-run the encounter according to the rules and see how it actually plays out. You may find it's actually a pretty dangerous fight for a bunch of rogues, what with all the Fort and Will saves involved.

Are you sure about this? Because Under Combat Modifiers, the SRD says the following:

Flanking

When making a melee attack, you get a +2 flanking bonus if your opponent is threatened by a character or creature friendly to you on the opponent’s opposite border or opposite corner.

When in doubt about whether two friendly characters flank an opponent in the middle, trace an imaginary line between the two friendly characters’ centers. If the line passes through opposite borders of the opponent’s space (including corners of those borders), then the opponent is flanked.

Exception: If a flanker takes up more than 1 square, it gets the flanking bonus if any square it occupies counts for flanking.

Only a creature or character that threatens the defender can help an attacker get a flanking bonus.

Creatures with a reach of 0 feet can’t flank an opponent.

Only under Combat Facing, an Optional Rule, would your example of All-Around Vision apply. If I may, let me quote the first paragraph of Combat Facing:

The standard d20 combat rules intentionally ignore the direction a creature faces. The rules assume that creatures are constantly moving and shifting within their spaces, looking in all directions during a fight. In this variant, facing—the direction your head and body are pointing—makes a big difference in how you move and fight.

Under this description, all characters in combat have All-Around Vision. Am I misreading something here? I know this isn't Pathfinder, but I believe the rules in this area remain the same, don't they?

I might as well add that you are correct, that I did run that fight poorly and I admit it. I rolled on the random encounter chart for Undermountain and got a beholder, but I am not too familiar with beholders unfortunately and just followed the monsters description to a tee. Lesson learned. And your right about beholders having the +12 Hide, and about the +for being invisible; had I of used those, then the Perception check would have been fine. I just messed up running the encounter correctly.

So, according to the rules a Surprise Round occurs when one party or the other is unaware of the other, in which case they are flat-footed (no Dex bonus to AC) and the surprising party gets a free action before the real battle begins. All fine in theory, however it's getting rather ridiculous with all the senses tied into Perception and most of the monsters not having any points into Stealth making their chance to sneak up on foes near nil.

In my current campaign, four of the players are using Halfing Rogues and have their Perception scores as high as they make them with Ranks, Feats, and magical items, that nothing has any chance to sneak up on them!

So here's the story, and the ire of my rant: the four halfing rogues and a hired fighter mercenary are standing in front of a black curtain of darkness in Undermountain - there are several of these in there - when they begin bickering with one another about how to approach the curtain and ignore the blackness at which point, a Beholder (CR 13) hiding behind the curtain wall waiting for it's opportunity to attack fly's into the center of the party - that's what the monster description says it does, to "sow chaos". Alright, fine, so how to handle this surprise ambush? Well according to these, in my opinion, poorly thought out rules, the halfings have to see if they "notice" the beholder in time to react before the "surprise round". The behold has no Hide (3.5) as a class skill, so with a Dex of 14, gets a +2 to its roll. I roll a 10 - about as average as you can get - with it's +2, making his "Hide" 12. These little 9th level halflings have modified Perception scores ranging between 15-21... Yeah, so they all roll their perception checks, and unsurprisingly all pass - even the fighter, so we enter the initiative phase. Well guess what, all but the fighter beat out the beholder and since the halfings are all flanking it since it charged into the center of their party, they murder the thing with sneak attack damage and their regular attacks before the beholder even gets off a single attack with its 10-eye stalks!

Vastly underpowered CR 13 monster? Or ridiculous "surprise" rules that don't allow any monster to actually "surprise" it's quarry? 2nd Edition has the whole 1-2-or-3 in 12 chance to not be surprised bit which I felt was much better than the current system. I don't know, maybe I'm just biased having played with these halfing rogues so long. Perhaps a surprise system based on Reflex saves would be better?

Thoughts on how to improve this system? Because I guess I'm going to be using 2nd edition rules for surprise checks for now on until I can find or devise a better method. It's ruining my game! I mean, come on, imagine soldiers in the battle field (think Marines here) hiding in the bushes waiting to ambush their quarry having no chance to "ambush" their foes in the Pathfinders system against a group of rogues because they don't have Stealth as a class skill, meaning even if they invest into it, it will never be high enough to surprise a Rogue of comparable level, but this is so unrealistic in terms of actually surprising someone, it's simply broken.

In the 2nd Edition adventure for Blue Alley, room #10 has a "mirror of opposition" which creates a duplicate of all characters looking into it.

Recently, my pathfinder party looked into said mirror and fought their duplicates, however these duplicates are the exact same as the originals in abilities and I assume thought and logic, save for they cannot be charmed and are hell bent on destroying their originals. So the battle is pretty intense, but ends up coming down to one final duplicate who knew he would not win up against the other PC's alone - he is a halfling Bard - but I know he could easily devise a way to kill them all later on given the chance with his very high Intelligence score. So I had him go invisible and high-tail it out of there, knowing full well he would kill his original later on.

This all makes logical sense to me of what and intelligent duplicate would do, but does this go against what a mirror of opposition is suppose to accomplish? The description says the duplicates will, "pursue their originals inexorably, until one of the two is destroyed." This says too me that the duplicate will defy logic, and keep fighting his duplicate unto death, however the description also says they are, "exact doubles" in every way, and if the original was hell bent on destroying something, and believed he could do it with 100% certainty later on, he would.

Thus my dilemma. Thoughts? Anyways, makes for some fantastic possibilities, I promise you.

Also, does CMD factor in Dodge bonuses? And does CMB factor in magical +'s from gauntlets used to "trip" someone?

And shouldn't bolas use the Strength of the material, not the attacker? When we were kids, we used to throw bolas like devices at each other and I can safely tell you that they need barely strike you to instantly wrap around you - strength has very little to do with the object wrapping itself around you. To hit, the attack itself is much more effective. The Strength should be the tensile durability of the bolas vs the strength of the target, not the physical strength of the attacker.

And on one final note, when we were in Jr. High and High School, I used to watch people who were 4' roll into the legs of people who were 5-6' and knock them over with ease. This is a very effective way to trip someone other than using your hands and feet or a weapon. If a bowling ball moving fast enough to drop a huge man, then CMB really does not make much sense in my opinion. There has to be a better way.

I apologize if this has been brought up before, but I recently made an halfling who has a Strength modifier of -2. Under Strength, it seems to imply that ALL melee weapons add in the Strength modifier, which the rules call the "Strength Bonus". First, my daggers only do 1D3, and I know the minimum damage I can do is 1, so should I even bother rolling for damage?

Second, my halfling is starting to take feats for two-weapon use, but under Double Slice, it says "Add your Strength bonus to damage rolls made with your off-hand weapon." and, "Normal: You normally add only half of your Strength modifier to damage rolls made with..." you get the picture. So does this mean if I DON'T take Double Slice, I only add in half of my Strengh modifier, so instead of a -2 penalty, its -1? And if I take Double-Slice, it becomes -2?

The Diehards Handbook is supplemental manual filled with custom rules my gaming group and I have been using since the switch between AD&D to 3rd Edition. At its core, it is an alteration to how the Hit Point system works, but trust me when I say its much more than that; there are many more things to explore in the Diehards Handbook than just a revised Hit Point system. Anyways, read the wiki if you got 3-5 minutes. I think the wiki explains it in better detail than I ever could:

http://www.padnd.com/wiki/index.php?title=Diehards_Handbook
http://members.cox.net/meat/

Feel free to leave comments.

I should mention that my gaming group and I have been playing with these rules for a little bit over 5-years now and found they greatly increase the amount of fun we have in each session by "upping the ante". Feel free to give these rules a try for yourself, and feel free to check out the custom adventurers I made on my webpage.

I have an adventure I made long ago that I have been recently updating to 3.5, however the main bad guy is a Greater Medusa, you know, the Medusa with a snake-like lower body, ala Clash of the Titans. To further complicate the issue, in my adventure, vampires were forced into this holy temple - and in 2E, Medusa's guarded holy temples of the gods. So of course, a fight ensued with the Medusa's eventually winning, however the remaining Medusa's had become vampires. Finally, the main boss, on top of being a Greater Medusa Vampire, was a Paragon (from the Player's Option series of 2E). Here is the original stats as posted in my adventure:

Greater Medusa Vampire Paragon
NOTE: If the PC’s are doing OK so far with the other medusa’s and the entire adventure, use the Greater Medusa Vampire Paragon. Remember, these are the most powerful guardians around, and only the Paragon of the planet would be guarding the temple.
STR: 19; Sta: 17; Mus: 21
DEX: 17; Aim: 15; Bal: 19
CON: 22; Hea: 20; Fit: 24
INT: 15; Rea: 17; Kno: 13
WIS: 14; Int: 16; Will: 12
CHA: 14; Lea: 16; App:12

Broad Group in Bows, Specialist in Bow, Weapon of Choice is Bow, Expert in Bow, Master in Bow, High Master in Bow, Grand Master in Bow, Defence Bonus, Move Silently 53%, Kit is Guardian giving it the bonus of +3 reaction in it’s temple but not allowing the creature to leave the temple, Proficencies: QUICKNESS, STEADY HAND, TRACKING, SPELLCRAFT, DIRECTION SENCE, ANCIENT LANGUAGES, ENDURANCE, BLIND FIGHTING, ALERTNESS, SENCE DANGER, DEATH BLOW, HARDINESS (all ill effects and damage are delayed for 20 rounds), SIGNATURE ITEM (bow), Traits: EMPATHY, KEEN HEARING, KEEN EYESIGHT, KEEN SMELL, OBSCURE KNOLWEDGE, LUCKY; Disadvantages: BAD TEMPERED, FANATICISM (kill intruders), DEEP SLEEPER, PHOBIA OF HEIGHTS, THROAT NOT FORMED (cannot speak)

Alignment: Chaotic Evil; Race: Undead Greater Paragon Medusa; Number Appearing: 1, Armor Class: -17; Movement: 12; Flight: 18 (C), HD: (33+3 (+7 per die)) (498 Hit Points); THAC0: -19 (-29 w/bow); Number Of Attacks: 1 / (10) (w / bow); Damage: By Bow (1d10 + 15 plus poison (D) (+17 reaction) (d8 for Knockdowns and 16 or above is a Critical / Breath Weapon / or claw attack (1d6 +4) + drain) (Snakes do 1d4 + special poison; Size: Large; Moral: 20; Fatigue Score: 1010;Experiance: 60,000

These utter abominations of terror have a repetilian, snake like lower body, a scaley, female human upper body, and snakes on top of their head. These creatures are the most feared and repulsed monster on FR, and with good reason. She has a magical bow +4 and poisoned sheaf arrows (type D) which she can use at distance attacks. - She has one of the key’s to the door to room #D on floor #2. She has a magical bow +4 of Speed which allow’s her to fire at a hastened rate. Here are her powers:

Paragon Powers:
· Breath Weapon: She can use this three times a day and can do nothing else while using it the full round, but it causes 7d20+1d10 with a -6 penalty save in a line style spray, 5’ wide, 5’ tall, 140’ long, of liquid acid.
· Disease: Each round of claw attacks can infect a character with a fatal disease. Roll 1d100 and if the % is equal too or less than the damage received on the attack, the PC becomes infected with the disease. Check for disease only once a round, no matter how many attacks hit a PC. Onset is 1d4 rounds and it becomes fatal in 1d4 turns. The effects are Slow Healing, Paralization, Delirium, and Ability Score Reduction. The full effects should be read in the DM’s Option.
· Fear: In a 50’ radius, all PC’s get a -4 penalty saving throw versus the fear this creature emanates to other creatures. Creatures below 5th level run, no save.
· Innate Magic: She can cast wizard spells up to 8th level as if she were and 11th level wizard able to cast in all schools.
· Invulnerability: She can only be hit by +3 weapons or better.
· Magic Resistance: She has 100% mortal magic resistance100%, and that includes priest spells, but not psionics. Once the Phstar is recovered, she looses this magic resistance.
· and Gaze Weapon: Her gaze attack saves at -10 (see below).

Vampire / Medusa Powers:
· She can hit creatures with her claws that normally cannot be hit unless by +4 weapons or better.
· These monsters can cause petrifaction (turn to stone), and charm as a charm person spell together in one powerful, 30’ gaze attack that also affects the etheral and astral planes. This gaze functions at all times and does not hinder the monsters normal attacks, nor can it harm the monster itself in any way.
· These monsters also have snakes on their heads that automatically hit and cause a poisons bite, at a -1, when the victim is within 1’. This poison kills players if their saving throw is failed, and does 25 damage if passed. Their blood is very poisonous and has the same affect if touched.
· Their blood act’s as acid and all objects that attack and harm the monster must save versus disintegrate or be destroyed.
· The regenerate 3 hp per round.
· These monsters drain 2 levels of experience per touch if a successful attack is made with the fist. They also receive a +2 to hit and +4 damage.
· They Regenerate 3 hp per round.
· They are 20% Magic and Psionic resistant.
· These monsters posses these undead powers: immune to sleep, charm, hold, cold, paralyze, poison, and 1/2 damage from cold and electric based attacks.
· These monsters can turn into a green gaseous form at will, can turn into a large bat at will, and can summon a lesser creature for aid (a Lesser Medusa Vampires) at will. The summoning will bring a group of 1d4 that will show up generally in 1d10 rounds. She can do nothing in the round she is summoning or transforming.
· These creatures can also spider climb at will.
· These creatures are sickeningly repelled by garlic, cannot pass a holy symbol unless it is removed, and are repelled by their gaze.
· If struck by lawful good holy symbols, or holy water, the monster takes 2-7 points of damage
· Sunlight kills the monsters instantly.
· If the monsters are submersed completely under water, the monster looses 1/3 of it’s hit points each round.
· A wooden stake through the heart will slay the monster until the stake is removed.

Any ideas how to convert this thing?

Hi,

I'm looking for an overly easy, simplistic map-maker utility. I have tried using Campaign Cartographer 3 by ProFantasy and I cannot for the life of me figure it out. Basically, what I want is so simple; map is automatically the size of a legal-page, the grid is set - no messing with grid sizes, when you draw walls, they snap to the edges of the grid, and I'm looking for a program that does this without looking like stick figure lines, but I'm not expecting pro graphics either. I just need a quick and dirty way to make maps on my computer when I'm out of graph paper.

If anyone knows of such a program, I'd love to hear of it, and if it were freeware, it'd be that much better. Thanks for any replies ahead of time.

I'm currently creating an adventure where two mature adult white dragons lie in wait to ambush the character party when they pass by them. The characters will have to travel up a steep mountain to its peak where there is gusty winds and snow constantly falls. The difficulty I am having is believing the dragons chance to hide is so low... White dragons have a Dex of 10, which equates to a zero bonus to hide. An mature adult white dragon has 21-HD, so assuming half his skill points went into Hide, he'd have a 10 for hide. Now I just got threw reading concealment, and it does not provide a bonus to hide, so a white dragon completely covered in snow several feet deep with gusty winds that obscure the outline of the dragon, his chance to hide is still only 10 + D20? I understand that the characters will suffer penalties due to the snowfall and the wind, but I think the 100% concealment should be providing a better chance to hide, not just a chance to miss because once the dragons rear up out of the snow, they will no longer be concealed, so what good is the concealment for anyways if it does not improve their ability to blend in with their surroundings? I'm going to have to house rule this saying that the dragons are effectively invisible granting them a +20 to their hide attempt - even though they are not moving, they are large enough to say that they're breathing is equivalent to moving slightly.

Anyone have a better idea?

I bought my copy of the Pathfinder Beastiary months ago from Amazon.com. I was very excited around mid-October because I knew Amazon promised to ship my book on the 15th. I checked my mail box every day in anticipation, however a few days ago, I got this email from Amazon saying something to the effect of, "Sorry, but the release date for this book has been pushed back to November 11th." I went to Amazon's website to verify this and make sure my email wasn't bogus or anything, and it's legit!!! I preordered months ago! WTF? Am I the only one that preordered that got boned on this, or did the books just get delayed for everyone?

In the Pathfinder RPG, there is a list of the total number of magical items any character can wear at the same time, however this list does not mention the following:

*) Enchanted Skin Tattoos via the spell from Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting. The spell limits you to three skin tattoos, but in Pathfinder, would a skin tattoo on say your chest interfere with the enhancement from magical armor?

*) Ion Stones or other floating devices (my son got a "Globe of Light" from a 2nd edition campaign which increase/decreases brightness at will). How many "floaty thingies" can you have above your head at once? And would these items interfere with the enhancement from helms?

*) Charms (one of my gamers has a "Charm of Protection +1" which is basically a small charm you carry in your pocket or backpack, like a lucky-rabbits foot, which by just carrying it provides the magical enhancement). How do charms fit in with the Maximum magical item list?

*) Many spells can be made permanent with the permanency spell (just check the SRD). Perhaps the ones on the eyes interfere with goggles and objects that cover the eyes, but what about “Tongues” and similar spells? How many spells can you have made permanent? How do these spells interfere with currently worn magical items?

Thank you ahead of time for clarifying these questions of mine.

Question #1) On page 86, it says, "You can never have more ranks in a skill than your total number of Hit Dice." Can someone please explain to me what exactly that means? It that the number of hit points you have? The number of combined character levels? Your actual Hit Die (i.e. d4, d6, d8, etc.)? The way I'm reading it, it means you cannot have more Rank in any one skill than your Combined Levels, thus a level 3 Rogue 3 Fighter would have a combined level of 6 making his max rank 6. However at 1st level, some classes with a high Intelligence score will not even be able to use all of their Rank points with this cap in their class skills - which brings me to question#2;

Question #2) It also says, "You gain a +3 bonus on all class skills that you put ranks into." However, it does not mention a penalty for cross-class skills. Am I to understand Pathfinder did away with cross-class skills? If so, then I suppose you really wouldn't have to worry too much about having "too-many" Rank points left over, but to me, it really seems to dumb down the skill tree. One of the main reasons back in 3.0 and 3.5 that I never bothered taking some of the skills I really wanted for my characters was because of the steep penalty in Rank points just to get it. This was especially true for "trained-only" skills. In essence, this preserved certain skills for certain classes. But if all the skills are going to be free for any class, why not just make each class generic with a "point-buy" system for purchasing class abilities you desire instead of having actual classes at all? I don't personally like this method much, but if I'm understanding the way the skill points work, then this seems the natural progression for the next edition of Pathfinder.
EDIT - after a little bit of thought, there should at least be some sort of penalty for putting points into cross-class skills that are "trained-only", like 3-6 months of intense training costing "x" gold or something to that effect!

Thanks for any replies ahead of time.

Hello all. I was wondering if you could help me with a question I had about all companions (i.e. animal companions, familiars, mounts), but more specifically, a Paladin's Mount.

Question: On the table for a Paladin's Mount in both PHB 3.5 and Pathfinders, it lists a column called Bonus HD. As your Paladin levels progress, the Bonus HD increase in increments of one. I'm wondering if those HD stack with each other, thus an 11th level Paladin's mount would receive +2 Bonus HD at paladin level 5, +4 Bonus HD at paladin level 8, and +6 Bonus HD at paladin level 11 for a total of +12 Bonus HD for the mount? Or does the mount only get whats on the row for the corresponding paladin level, i.e. an 11th level paladins mount would only get +6 Bonus HD? If the latter were true, then this implies your mount looses the "Special" qualities it had from Paladin level 5-7 when you reach 8th level because it does not mention anywhere the special properties being continuous while the +HD are not. My argument for the former is in the Monsters Manual 1 v3.5, page 291 lists a similar table for Changes to Statistics by Size. On this table, the bonuses/penalties stack for each size difference, thus if your mount was "Advanced" from a Medium creature to a Huge creature, he would get +8 STR from Medium to Large, and another +8 STR from Large to Huge for a total of +18 STR. Now I searched and searched all over the net, but couldn't find any definitive answer to this question. I'm forced to conclude that if the number has a "+" next to it, then the bonuses stack, but if it does not, i.e. INT 7, then it's static meaning it is what it is. This doesn't really explain the "specials" because there is no "+" next to each entry, but it's all I can figure out.

Anyways, thanks for any help you guys can give me.

Much confused.