The Quite-big-but-not-BIG Bad's page

Something I just realized yesterday is that in my 3.0-3.5-PF experience, there was a huge inconsistency in the way my parties and I ruled requirements for prestige classes or for feats.

For feats we always ruled that you could take a feat the moment you reached the requirements. For example weapon focus has a requirement of BAB 1. A fighter could take the feat at level 1 while a rogue could do so at level 2, the moment he reached BAB 1.

For prestige classes we always ruled that you could enter the class the level after you reached the requirements. So if a prestige class requires 5 ranks in Stealth, you could enter it at level 6 at the earliest.

This seems rather inconsistent and a bit illogical. Did we interpret these rules correctly or were/are we wrong on this?

Arcane Bond (Su): At 1st level, you gain an arcane bond, as a wizard equal to your sorcerer level. Your sorcerer levels stack with any wizard levels you possess when determining the powers of your familiar or bonded object. Once per day, your bonded item allows you to cast any one of your spells known (unlike a wizard’s bonded item, which allows him to cast any one spell in his spellbook). This ability does not allow you to have both a familiar and a bonded item.

Maybe a silly question but anyway.

Note the wording of the sorcerer's arcane bond. If you pick a bonded item, it allows you to cast one of your known spells once per day. The ability does not specify that it is restricted to sorcerer spells.
As clerics and druids have access to their whole spell list, all their spells are effectively 'known'.
So... if a cleric or druid uses Eldritch Heritage to get a bonded item, could they use it to cast a level 9 spell once per day?

[edit]: this is of course not RAI and I'm not asking this out of a desire to use it or whatever. Just asking for RAW interpretations out of curiosity.
Personally I wouldn't allow it as a GM or use it as a PC of course.

Related to this thread (concerning the use of demiplanes as prison cells/oubliettes) I was wondering about two things.

1) How does flying work in an (antimagic) area without air? Does non-magical flight work without air? (physics says no but this is PF).

2) Can you climb a "mist, a featureless void, or a similar unreal-looking border"?

The context: if you'd create a cylinder-shaped (dead magic) demiplane surrounded by an 'unreal' border, gravity oriented towards one end and a permanent planar portal on the other (basically resulting in a demiplanar pit), could characters climb out?

The “walls” and “ceiling” of the plane may appear like solid earth, stone, wood, or water, or they may end in mist, a featureless void, or a similar unreal-looking border.

An horribly pragmatic/sadistic idea I've had for a while for a high level wizard was to use Greater Create Demiplane to make a Dead Magic demiplane.

I would then use Plane Shift or something similar as a SoD spell by putting enemies in there and simply waiting until they've starved to death (or aged to death with altered time, suffocated with water, earth or vacuum, died from negative energy exposure etc...).

The problem is that Greater Create Demiplane explicitly states that you (the caster) are trapped there unless there is a permanent planar portal.

If you selected dead magic, you are trapped within your plane unless it has a permanent planar portal (such as the portal feature, below).

The Lesser Create Demiplane spell (and thus the medium and greater ones as well) states however that you can 'eject' creatures as a standard action.

As a standard action, you may eject a creature from your demiplane. The creature may resist with a Will saving throw. An ejected creature goes to the closest plane to your demiplane (usually the Astral Plane or the Ethereal Plane, but if you cast this spell on the Material Plane, the creature is sent to the Material Plane).

It's not stated what kind of effect the ejection is (I kinda imagine it being a Supernatural or Extraordinary ability, since you're the creator of the plane itself), whether you've gotta be on the plane itself to eject a creature or where on the Material/Astal/Ethereal Plane the ejected creature goes.

So, my questions:
1) Could you eject yourself? RAW seems to state no but it's rather vague IMHO.
2) Once dead, how could you eject the remains? I guess inanimate objects like gear don't count towards 'creatures'. Do corpses count as 'creatures' for the purposes of ejection?
3) Could you eject creatures while not being on the plane yourself?
4) Could you control to which location/coordinates the creatures are ejected?
5) An alternative way of accessing the plane & the remains therein would be to make a permanent planar portal from the dead magic demiplane to a set location on another plane. You could then close the gate in some way on the non-dead-magic side. Any suggestions of (pretty permanent) ways of closing it that are pretty much impossible to get out of except for the caster?
My first thought was to use Wall of Force but that can be damaged without magic (ok, hardness 30 and 20 hp/CL but still) and has a short duration unless Permanency is used but you'd have to dispel and recast it every time you wanna access the plane, which would be costly.
6) Could you make a portable planar gate? For example in a large chest, Bag of Holding or something similar?

I hear a lot of talk on these forums about problems with the design of some of the base classes, for example the Gunslinger and the Summoner. Additionally, I've seen almost no threads that involve Cavalier builds.

So that raises the question to me: what do you think are the best designed and coolest of the post-CRB base classes in crunch and/or flavor? Which make the coolest but still balanced builds and which make the most interesting character to play and/or roleplay?

Personally I'm quite fond of the Inquisitor but I've got no clue how to properly play one. I've got some troubles with the flavor of the Alchemist and I've never seen one in play but the crunch seems well-balanced at first glance.

(I know almost nothing of the 3d party classes but please don't leave them out if you think they're well-designed)

Maybe a bit of a strange question but one that I've been contemplating for a while now.

There are a number of monsters in PF, 3.5 and other systems that we consider 'iconic' or at the very least incredibly cool (although your mileage may vary). These are monsters we love to fight as PCs, we love to use as GMs and we rarely leave out when we're making a homebrew world.

You know the ones: Chromatic Dragons, Beholders, Mindflayers (still miss them), Mariliths, Goblins and, to a lot of people, Kobolds.
Others just don't make the cut, although they might stick around for a long time: Owlbears, Flumphs, Digesters or Formians.

What makes them so iconic? Is it the flavor, the luck of a good artist or good usage in an AP?
It is not just the cultural bias; although some are grounded in our cultures (e.g. Dragons) others are original (e.g. Mindflayers). It's also not just the fact that they've been around for a long time; while some (like Beholders) are classics for DnD and it's descendants, some are new or were refreshed in PF (like the Tane, Rune Giants or Ogre Magi). It also can't just be overexposure through artwork, adventures and stories; in 10 years of 3.5/PF I've encountered most here for only a handful of times (it's always skeletons, zombies and demons).

So, two questions:
1) What do you consider elements that make a monster 'iconic'?
2) What homebrew monsters that you or your GM had made did you consider iconic?

Rather inspired by this thread I was playing around with a whip-based rogue build.

The idea is to avoid the risks normally associated with combat positioning for consistent sneak attacks by hanging in the back of a party that has at least two front line melee warriors. By using Gang Up in concert with a Whip, the rogue should be able to get sneak attacks every turn without exposing himself to too much danger.
I went for whips instead of other reach weapons due to the greater reach provided by whips, as well as the option of combat maneuvers and other fun stuff but I realize it's rather feat intensive. I'm open for suggestions on replacing the whip with another reach weapon.

Any suggestions? I'd prefer to keep it PFS legal.

I've been playing RoTRL as a wizard for a while now and we've hit level 11-12. I've been crafting Wondrous Items since level 5, mostly to provide custom stuff for my party, and I love that role.
The problem is that once you hit double-digit levels all the magical gear takes ages to create. I don't think I'm giving away too much spoilers by saying that at least up until that point in RoTRL events follow each other really quickly and there is little pause in between (we've been playing RoTRL once or twice a month for about 3 years real time but hit level 11 within 1-2 seasons game time). My crafting speed simply can't keep up with events (and experience) anymore. I imagine this is a problem crafters face in many campaigns.

I was wondering if you had any tips on keeping crafting times viable at higher levels without resorting to munchkinny ways (I'm looking at you Leadership).

I've taken a bonded object as arcane focus so a Valet familiar is unfortunately not an option.

Hi all,

I had a question about the Barbarian Elemental Kin Archetype.

Elemental Fury (Ex)

At 3rd level, whenever the elemental kin takes an amount of energy damage equal to or greater than her barbarian level while raging, she adds 1 to the total number of rounds that she can rage that day. At 6th level, and every three levels thereafter, the number of extra rounds per energy attack increases by +1, to a maximum of +6 rounds per energy attack at at 18th level

As stated in the ability, the rage is extended when the barbarian takes sufficient energy damage. I was wondering if this ability triggers before or after any form of energy resistance comes into play.

My first instinct would be that the energy resistance is applied before checking if the damage is enough to receive extra rounds of rage. If this was the case, it would make absolutely no sense to take any form of energy resistance and it seems really weird to me that the entry for Elemental Kin suggests that the various energy resistance rage powers complement the archetype

Rage Powers: The following rage powers complement the elemental kin archetype: elemental rage, energy absorption, energy eruption, energy resistance, greater elemental rage, greater energy resistance, and lesser elemental rage.