The Black Horde's page

So after reading a few threads, it seems like everyone has a different view of this. What does every one think "meta-gaming" is? Where is the line between playing the game and Meta-gaming?

"Improved Empathic Link (Su): The pack lord gains an
empathic link with all of her animal companions. This
functions like an empathic link with a familiar. In addition,
as a swift action the pack lord can shift her perception to
one of her companions, allowing her to experience what it
sees, hears, and so on. She can maintain this connection
as long as she likes (as long as the companion is within 1
mile) and end it as a free action. The druid can only use
this ability on one companion at a time, and cannot see,
hear, or smell with her own body while maintaining this
connection. This ability replaces the 6th-level additional
use of wild shape." -UM

With out the "at 6th level" that almost every other features have, does this mean you get it at first? If not that seems really silly, since the ranger (beastmaster?) ability would kick in at the same level as the druid. Any official ruling on this? As far as I am concerned, with no level marker given, it should be a first level feature.

Ok, is there any official info on the aklys besides what is in the Derro section of the Bestiary?

On PCGen it comes up as piercing, slashing and bludgeoning, the picture in the book has a hook on the end and it's a simple weapon. Can you make ranged trip attacks with this? what is the medium sized damage? it's 1d6 for Derro, so should it be 1d8 for medium?

according to the bestiary the aklys is a hooked throwing club attached to a 20-foot long cord.

Can a character make a melee attack and then throw a dagger with an off hand attack with two weapon fighting?

Or vis versa, (throw then melee)?

Is there a RAW on this?

Does disarm work like trip then?

Do you have to have a weapon with disarm to use a weapon to disarm someone like trip is?

I am a little confused (or dense!), A vampire drains a cleric of say 6th level, and the cleric will become a vampire or a spawn right?

If it becomes a vampire, is it a full fledged 6th cleric plus template vampire, and is it still under the creating master's control?

If it is made into a spawn, does it lose all it's cleric levels and just use the stats from the "Vampire spawn" section?

The book seems to use spawn for two different things, full-fledged vampires under the master's control, and a specific wight like lesser vampire. Is this how it is or am I missing something? Here are the passages from the prd:

Create Spawn (Su): A vampire can create spawn out of those it slays with blood drain or energy drain, provided that the slain creature is of the same creature type as the vampire's base creature type. The victim rises from death as a vampire in 1d4 days. This vampire is under the command of the vampire that created it, and remains enslaved until its master's destruction. A vampire may have enslaved spawn totaling no more than twice its own Hit Dice; any spawn it creates that would exceed this limit become free-willed undead. A vampire may free an enslaved spawn in order to enslave a new spawn, but once freed, a vampire or vampire spawn cannot be enslaved again.

&

Vampire Spawn
A vampire can elect to create a vampire spawn instead of a full-fledged vampire when she uses her create spawn ability on a humanoid creature only. This decision must be made as a free action whenever a vampire slays an appropriate creature by using blood drain or energy drain. A vampire spawn's statistics are identical to those of a wight, save for the following changes.

I am sure this has come up before, what process happens here where 5 POUNDS of silver become one pint of Holy water???? Does each pint now weigh 5 pounds??

It costs 25 gp of silver to make something you can buy for 25 gp??

Do you get a flask for free with the silver or something? Is there a government rebate at work here? I am a free trader, I really don't like subsidies. What is next, paying the clerics to just pour there stuff on the ground?

Does this work together?

The bonus damage does not apply to touch attacks or effects that do not deal hit point damage.

Are ranged touch the same as touch? Why not say ranged touch if that is what is meant. Has there been an official ruling on this? I searched but found nothing. What ranged effect requires you to make a normal attack and does no damage?

Can you hold skill points or do you have to spend them each time you gain a level? Do you lose them if you don't spend them?

OK, so the Ranger companion list IS OFFICIALLY restricted to what is under the entry in the core book. The PF team position on this is that since the ranger has good combat abilities he doesn't need a good fighter as a companion. That sounds like a restriction to the class, like metal armor for the druid, and a couple of other restrictions for classes.

The question is druid and ranger (-3) multi class levels stack to determine level of the effective level of the companion, but are you restricted to Ranger only companions to get all the levels to count?

Examples would be for a Ranger 4 / druid 1 character.

1. Tiger would be effective level 1, since not on Ranger list.
2. Wolf would be effective level 2, on both lists.
3. Tiger would be effective level 2, Druid level trumps Ranger for selection and still counts level of ranger for effective level.

This needs to be officially ruled on, so PLEASE give us a clear rule to use. This is not society play related but may need to carry over there as well. This question has come up in several threads with no answer, so please let us know soon.

After finding out that the Ranger companion list is fixed to just the first level animals from 3.5, I am so sad. I just can't figure out why Jason and his guys did this. It totally ruins any kind of underground/underdark ranger, as well as a half dozen other builds. It just seems totally weird expanding and improving the Druid's companions, and then totally nerfing the Ranger's.

If the progression from 3.0 to now holds, the next Ranger list will only have 2 or 3 choices. I am going to guess horse, pony and dire rat. :(