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I'm not really certain we've reached much of an answer here, I'm seeing a lot of flawed and contradictory logic. It would seem to me that with a range of touch only 6 corpses can be raised as per the definition of the range if "touch", close range however is any target or targets within 25ft plus 5ft per 2 caster levels. The target of the spell stayes "one or more corpses touched" however we are no longer touching the corpses and no longer limited to 6 as the range is "close" not touch or ranged touch. My conclusion is that the target is stil "one or more corpses" but the range is "close" so this can only meant that corpses within the range of close up to an HD of twice your caster level can be raised with a single casting.

Now normally animate dead is limited to 6 bodies as per touch spells, however reach Metamagic changes the range, so I am wondering can you then just raise anything within range up to your HD limit??

let's say you cast force cage and made it permanent with permanency, either in an area of natural anti-magic, or in an area of mythic anti-magic field that allows permanency, regardless of how it was done, can you use a rod of cancellation in an anti-magic field to destroy the forecage? if it can cancel a Sphere of Annihilation that even a mage's disjunction has no effect on I assume it would.

so the Maximized Fireball Trap on Pg.421 of the CRB has a DC of 14 for it's reflex save, but the magic trap rules state that "If the spell in a magic device trap allows a saving throw, its save DC is (10 + spell level) × 1.5." Now I'm no mathematics wizard but does this equation even make any sense?? Fireball is a lvl 3 spell and maximized metamagic makes it a lvl 6 spell, which would make for a DC of 24 so that's not right but even if I did it 10 + (Spell lvl X 1.5) it would be a DC of 19 not 14, and if the +3 from metal magic is removed (10+3)x1.5 is a DC of 19. something is clearly not right here, even something as simple as the Burning hands trap on Pg.420 would have a DC of 16.5 with this equation, the equation must be 10 +(Spell level x1.5) which would make sense as 10+(3x1.5) rounded down is DC 14. is there an errata on this or am I on my own here to figure out the DCs of these traps?

Yes, skeletal champions keep their original defensive traits. They are tougher, stronger, and all around more dangerous skeletons. It might seem unbalanced at first glance, but it is balanced out by the penalties they suffer simply from being undead.

What about senses like low light vision or scent?

the skeletal champion template lacks the text of the skeleton template "lose their defensive abilities and gain all of the qualities and immunities granted by the undead type" so I am wondering if say a skeletal champion Teifling would keep their energy resistances or if say a hill giant would keep it's rock catching ability and it's rock throwing ability?

so I wasn't feeling any of the flavors of Hag (Blood, Night, Mute) and my Party's APL is 11 so I'm throwing them a CR 11 Encounter, where this hag will try to sell them some somewhat beneficial but ultimately cursed items, and she doesn't take window shoppers well lol. They will be outside a necropolis so I went with a necromancy/Void type of hag, her stat block below. Lemme know your ideas as to her special abilities :)

Void Hag CR 11
LE Medium monstrous humanoid (Extraplanar)
Init +9; Senses Darkvision 120 ft.; Perception +21
DEFENSE
AC 24, touch 15, flat-footed 19 (+5 Dex, +9 natural)
hp 175 (14d10+84)
Fort +10, Ref +14, Will +13
DR 10/cold iron and magic; Immune cold, acid, charm, fear, death effects, sleep; SR 22
Weaknesses vulnerable to fire
OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft.
Melee 2 claws +18 (1d6+4), bite +18 (1d6+4)
Special Attacks ????
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 14th; concentration +19)
Constant—detect magic, detect thoughts (DC 17)
At will—cure light wounds, inflict light wounds (DC 18) poison (DC 20).
3/day— Enervation, blindness/deafness (DC 19), Empowered Acidic Spray (DC 19), Ray of Exhaustion(DC 20), Silence (DC 16), Dispel magic, Aggravate Affliction (DC 21).
1/day—Walk Through Space, Greater Contagion (DC 23), Wall of Force, Call the Void (DC 18).
STATISTICS
Str 19, Dex 20, Con 22, Int 20, Wis 18, Cha 20
Base Atk +14; CMB +18; CMD 33
Feats Spell Focus Necromancy, Spell Focus Conjuration, Combat Casting, Empower Spell-Like Ability (Acidic Spray), Spell Focus Greater (Necromancy), Improved Initiative, Toughness.
Skills Bluff +19, Know Arcana +19, Know History +19, Know Planes +19, Spellcraft +19, Sense Motive +18, Sleight of Hand +19, Stealth +22, Perception +21.
Languages Aklo, Common, Draconic, Giant, Dark Folk, Infernal.
SQ ??????

so my party is level 10, got a harpoon wielding fighter, a ranger with an orc hornbow, and a gunslinger with a rifle. APL is 9, campaign is set in the victorian era. I want to have an encounter with some kamikaze koblods with a stick of dynamite on their back and detonators in their palms. I'm not quite sure how I want to balance this though. my homebrew dynamite sticks work like so, 3d4 Bludgeoning 2d4 Fire, DC 16 Reflex for Half radius of 10 ft, and additional sticks increase damage substantially, DC, and fuse time (I based it on the necklace of fireballs which btw you can yeet the whole string of the damn things for one big super fireball if you didn't know already lol) and I plan on giving them 1 stick of dynamite each so it would just be base damage though. so I have the damage worked out but the finer details of the mechanics I need some suggestions, should detonating be a melee touch attack? should these guys ideally be one shot to kill?, should they explode on death like exploding skeletons? should I let the dynamite be lootable given it's power when given additional sticks? do you think the damage model needs work considering i want to throw a horde of these lil buggers at them? let me know your thoughts and suggestions

So you wrote a scenario in which your monsters were impossible to spot and slit everyone's throat in the night. Um, good for you, that's not effectively any different than saying rocks fall everyone dies. This is not the fault of the rules, it is the fault of you, the GM, who wrote this encounter. Write a better encounter.

nobody died numb nuts, I'm just saying the option was there and I argue if such a porent option is really needed with criticals beings as powerful as they are, it's comments like these that make me wonder why the hell I bother posting on these forums

The Roguish Chef wrote:

avr wrote:

Surprise rounds are only a standard action

you see so long as the goblin doesn't hit them they have all the time in the world, it is completely possible to do a coup de grace in a suprise round so long as the receiving party is completely oblivious

See, that's simply not true unless everyone's asleep. One standard action only.

everyone WAS asleep -.- and the only guy not asleep didn't get to act in the suprise round anyway so it didn't matter, all they gotta do is move up to the bed and stab

If your party has a druid or ranger they should look into some of the campsite spells.

You sent something into the absolute optimal position to make use of their abilities and it also happens to be something your party has a profound weakness to.

my party has both a ranger and druid but that made no difference as they were in a building in individual rooms not a campsite, they also are no weak to it they have INSANE perseption bonuses from having 2 his wisdom class half elves with skill focus perception and one of them was the ring guy on guard, they just made low perception checks, the sleeping factor is the only reason they didn't all wake up.

Surprise rounds are only a standard action

you see so long as the goblin doesn't hit them they have all the time in the world, it is completely possible to do a coup de grace in a suprise round so long as the receiving party is completely oblivious

I suppose more than anything I'm a little perturbed that I could have turned what was a fun encounter into a dissatisfing end to a 4 year long campaign with one fullround action and some lvl 5 goblins, and something so unfun can't lead to anything good in my books so while I think coup de grace has a place I also think an already brutal auto crit is enough without the neigh impossible save-or-die‍♂️

So last session i sent my party against some Goblin rogues, I attacked them at night while they slept, and because goblins got crazy high stealth bonuses and sleeping rendering everything blind and deaf except the one guy with a ring of sustenance, i got to sneak attack each of my lvl10 party for 34 damage in the suprise round while they slept before the scuffle unfolded. But it just occurred to me, I dealt 34 damage, which for most of them was a good 1/3 of their health and it was a fun and hairy raising encounter, but I coulda done a coup de grace on every one of them but the ring of sustenance and it woulda been a complete tpk, now my party has no arcane casters or ring forgers so they don't have access to things like alarm or multiple rings of sustenance unless I hand them out like candy, so the most obvious defences against attacks in the night aren't gonna work, but most of all I'm just not sure if coup de grace is a mechanic I think I need??? We all know pathfinder criticals are BRUTAL, and a coup de grace is an automatic crit, not only that but the do or die save is in most cases neigh impossible to do, so I'm wondering if perhaps I should house rule that there is no death save, or at the very least the death save should be the damage dealt not 10 + Damage dealt? As really no matter the magic defenses there is always ways around it and night ambushes will inevitably happen. Let me know your thoughts and suggestions or your personal house rules regarding coup de grace :)

just a shower thought :/

Now when I say he fully expects to win every encounter and he doesn't try to mold the story I meant that in a pretty broad sense, he doesn't expect to just win he expects to do so with ease like the badass his character is, and he doesn't just not mold the world qround him through his decisions, he hardly reacts to anything I throw at him either, or interact with the world much at all unless something approaches him first, for example his character is supposedly in love with a dryad which would be great if he had initiated a single interaction with her or made even made an effort to treat the npc as anything more than a trophy with the expectation that I was gonna shower him with plant tiddies. As his roommate I can tell you that pathfinder is but one of many topics he complains about, to the point I will no longer watch a show with him because he will complain and point out the shows "flaws", or play any type of skill based or competitive game with him that he can't win with the click of a button. I have helped him build his character, printed him out quick reference documents and spell cards so he can easy know what his abilities are and what they do and for the most part he does understand the class and enjoy playing archer classes, I've even let him reroll certain starting stats, I'm generally a very generous DM but one that challenges my players in return, but I feel like there's not much I can do to please him except give him exactly what he wants without challenge. For the most part I feel I have satiated his appetite for the time being with the new bow and reaching lvl 10 and gaining Instant enemy which I pray for the love of shelyn he friggin uses. All in all thank you all for the advice.

well technically it's a +2 bane bow but that didn't really matter as he was fighting orcs nor did his favored enemy so I didn't think to factoring that into my explanation. also you sir are my favorite type of person, I nearly dead ass fell out of my chair laughing from that last comment, honestly he ain't the type to take that well though he can be pretty man-childish and he fully expects to win every encounter because that in his eyes is what makes a game fun and be spoon fed a story instead of trying to mold the story himself as a player should, and being a wannabe indie game dev nobody can tell him otherwise and I can't exactly tell him to stop b##!&ing or go suck a prickly rakshasa dong as he pays the other half of the rent -.- but yeah suggestion taken I'm just gonna bump the bow the now dead orc leader was using up +1 and if that doesn't please him I'll just wait until his own incompetence to use his classes strengths finally kills him I guess

so my party is level 9 soon to be 10, and the party just finished a deadly encounter with a group of orc mercenaries that attacked their favorite local tavern. the stats for the orcs and their leader can be viewed Here
the encounters were as follows
Outside Tavern Orc Warriors x4 CR 7 attacking lvl 5 Warrior City Guard
Ist floor Orc Warriors x8 CR 9 (ally lvl 5 alchemist bartender)
2nd Floor Orc Warriors x4 Orc Manhunter X1 CR 10

now my party ranger and IRL roommate is a lvl 9 half elf ranger with a wolf companion (with celestial template from bargaining with a god), he uses a +1 Composite longbow with +1 STR, however he has constantly complained in the past and especially last night that he feels never does any damage though he constantly neglects to use spells no matter how many times me and the party point out the spell cards I printed for him and when he doesn't use deadly aim or rapid shot he complains he does no damage, and when he does use deadly aim and rapid shot he complains he never hits anything. his attack bonus is +14/+9 and damage is usually 1d8+2 unmodified by feats. now simply put he spent the entire session last night b%#*@ing that my encounters are Darksouls level difficulty and he wants to abandon the party to go peruse his own ends and I never throw his favored enemy at him (he fought 3 humans the session before), on top of complaining that the orc archer they fought at the end was so much more op an archer than him when they practically had the same feats just different classes and the orc had more STR and Less Dex. I'm at my wits end trying to help a player that is never satisfied with how many boons and cool items and bad ass story moments I give them and does nothing but complain and point out the holes in my story and everything wrong with my game, all the while they can't be asked to read their class page or use any of their abilities or spells. I offered to change his class to fighter no cost no retrain time if he was that unhappy with his combat performance and he refused

I mean 3D as in 3 dimensional, I have absolutely zero access to or knowledge of 3D printers.

so I'm looking for some elevated stone stairs and catwalks for a dungeon I am building and i'd really like to get some 3d terrain to give it that extra feel of danger that they might fall as the player's minis move about on the narrow platforms.

for those who don't know what I'm talking about click Here.

Any info or links to store pages or terrain building tutorials for similar terrain would be greatly appreciated :)