Turey's page

I suspect you have to find another title for the book, and not include "romance" in the title due to the bastardization of the word these days.

Maybe sell the idea as "Social interaction of the inner sea" or "Social Culture of the inner sea" or something that is way more neutral than you would like it to be.

I would call it something like "Families of the Inner Sea" and have it encompass more than just courtship, make it more about the whole range of a Player Character's important social ties to various NPCs. Perhaps include a number of prominent tribes, bloodlines, and noble families that the player can be a part of and have traits that represent their upbringing. Courtship would naturally fit into the book as a means by which families form and grow, and as a way for players to form new ties to important NPCs.

I for one would greatly appreciate details on Wedding and Funeral traditions across the Inner Sea. How many novels and movies include a prominent scene at one of these two events? It's practically a given.

Alright, I can get behind this. There's a fair amount of romance in my games, mostly of the "hot monster" variety, so let's get some monster men in here! Here's one that came up in one of my home-made seafaring campaigns, but he works perfectly well in Serpent's Skull or Skulls and Shackles AP. He's modeled after the laid-back Californian surfer archetype, something that my group of Californian players found hilarious.

Syl
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Race: Dryad

Appearance: (non-dryad reference pic) Syl almost never leaves his palm grove these days, but the approach of a group of friendly faces will cause him to poke his upper body out of the nearest palm tree and beckon them with a toss of his windswept hair and a relaxed "Hey, come chill in the shade with me, the water's great." Syl's body is sculpted like that of a competitive swimmer, and his bare chest is hairless. His abdomen has a slight bark texture around his belly button; this texture is also present on his upper arms. Syl requires significant convincing (DC 24 Diplomacy check: Friendly attitude, dangerous act) in order for him to fully emerge from his trees, but when he does he is wearing a simple loincloth handcrafted from palm fronds. He stands about 6'4", with long, powerful legs making up most of his height.

History: As a Dryad, Syl has spent his whole life on this beach, protecting his grove of palm trees, situated on a small dune. Syl grew up swimming, surfing, and exploring the area around his home, so he should be able to fill in the party on any long-standing threats or features nearby. Unfortunately, due to a series of powerful storms, the sand beneath his grove of palm trees is nearly gone, and erosion continues to threaten his trees and his life. He hasn't left sight range of his trees in over a year, constantly tending to them and futilely trying to shore up the sand around them. His trees are now barely clinging to the ground beneath them, and when the party encounters him, it would only take one good storm to send the whole grove to the bottom of the ocean.

Personality: On the surface, Syl is a laid-back, good-natured man, always ready to help others and share what meager possessions he has. He attempts to deflect questions about his own situation with subject changes or humorous anecdotes from his childhood. He is often flirtatious with attractive female PCs (or male, if you wish), but will not pursue a character who rejects his initial advances. He suggests that the object of his affection rest against the base of his tree after a long day of adventuring, while he massages their shoulders.

Goals and Attitudes: Syl has resigned himself to his own death and that of his trees, so he has resolved to make a difference however he can in the little time he has remaining. He is happy to help a friendly party in whatever way he can, watching their possessions or protecting them while they rest. Deep down, Syl still wishes he could find a way to save his trees, but his efforts over the last year have so far been for naught, and he is initially unwilling to involve the party in his problems.

Meeting Syl: Syl can fit into pretty much any game with a seldom-visited ocean coastline. He stays out of sight if the party appears hostile, and only emerges for direct threats against his grove or if the party appears to be good people in trouble. His default attitude is Friendly, but that can quickly change based on how the party treats his trees and his beach.

Romance: Due to his dryad nature and his impending demise, Syl is likely a short-term or even tragic romance option. If the party finds some way to protect or move his grove (requiring significant amounts of work), then he can serve as a long-distance relationship. Transporting Syl with the party is only really feasible in a high-level game, as he refuses to abandon his dozen palm trees to their death. Syl is monogamous and dedicated to any partner he forms a significant relationship with.

My Wrath of the Righteous APs are also falling apart, both #1 and #2, after very little use. I'll be contacting customer service and seeing if I can get replacements.

Is the preview up there the final art for these? If so, is there any chance we could get individual character art for future packs of sleeves? My Seoni deck demands it.

The difference is Grab MUST move them adjacent to you, while Pull only moves them 5'.

Sometimes you prefer one, sometimes you prefer the other.

Seems like a pretty small chance, but I guess it is there.

Some targets may have bonuses or immunity (e.g. Freedom of Movement) vs Grapple but not Pull.

I didn't notice that Freedom of Movement only protects against Grapple and not other forced movement combat maneuvers. Thanks!

If you "Tongue" your opponent, the Chameleon does not gain the grappled condition, but your opponent does.

If you "Grapple" your opponent, both gain the grappled condition. If you then release the grapple, neither have the grappled condition.

So there is a benefit to using "Tongue" over "Grapple".

We seem to be on different pages. I'm not talking about having the Chameleon actually initiate a Grapple combat maneuver as a Standard Action. I'm talking about the difference between using the Tongue ability in two different ways.

First, the Chameleon can use the Tongue attack on an enemy within 15ft, which if it hits, gives the Chameleon a free Combat Maneuver check to start a grapple (with no AoO thanks to the Grab ability). If this succeeds, it moves the target to an adjacent space to the Chameleon. The Chameleon can then optionally use a free action to disengage the grapple.

VS.

Alternatively, the Chameleon can use the Tongue attack on an enemy within 15ft, which if it hits, gives the Chameleon a free Combat Maneuver check to Pull (which may have an AoO, the Pull ability isn't clear on this). If this succeeds, it moves the target 5ft. closer to the Chameleon.

In the first case, you could move a creature up to 30ft. since the Chameleon is large size and could theoretically move the grappled creature to the opposite side from which it started. The second example only moves 5ft. They're the same number of rolls, and the Grab roll is at an additional +5 vs. the Pull roll. It seems like there is very little or no reason to use the Pull ability.

One gives the chameleon the grappled condition, the other does not.

If I don't want the grappled condition, it's a free action to release the grapple after moving them.

So I've been looking at the Giant Chameleon as an Animal Companion for our Heavy Metal-inspired run through Iron Gods (I'll probably be switching to Pteranodon at 7)

From the Bestiary:

Giant Chameleon CR 3

N Large animal

Offense
Speed 40 ft., climb 40 ft.
Melee bite +6 (2d6+4) or tongue +5 touch (grab)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft. (15 ft. with tongue)
Special Attacks tongue, pull (tongue, 5 ft.)

Special Abilities
Tongue (Ex) A giant chameleon can grab a foe with its tongue and draw the victim to its mouth. This tongue attack has a reach of 15 feet. The attack does no damage, but allows the creature to grab. A giant chameleon does not gain the grappled condition while using its tongue in this manner.

This seems pretty good at first glance, but I'm wondering why it has the Pull ability when I could just have it grapple instead, and by the Grapple Rules:

As a standard action, you can attempt to grapple a foe, hindering his combat options. If you do not have Improved Grapple, grab, or a similar ability, attempting to grapple a foe provokes an attack of opportunity from the target of your maneuver. Humanoid creatures without two free hands attempting to grapple a foe take a –4 penalty on the combat maneuver roll. If successful, both you and the target gain the grappled condition (see the Appendices). If you successfully grapple a creature that is not adjacent to you, move that creature to an adjacent open space (if no space is available, your grapple fails).

So I get to freely move the grappled target to anywhere adjacent to the Chameleon, something that would take me more than one pull action, and I get to grapple them as well. Why would I ever bother with the Pull?

We were wondering many of the same things, especially the size question. If it retains size modifiers to damage, carrying around a couple of large or huge size weapons for large burst attacks could be very effective. If size does not matter, well, let's just say that the local blacksmith is going to be very busy making tiny-size greatswords for the foreseeable future.

The other question we have relates to Magus spell combat. If you declare a spell combat using this spell, (which requires that one hand has your magus weapon and the other is empty) then use one of your sword attacks as a disarm, which lets you take their sword for free, does that disrupt the spell combat, since you no longer have a hand free? Can you still cast the spell, using the enemy's sword as the component (Material Components may not count as taking up a hand when casting?)

We've worked up this really cool disarm Magus based around taking the enemy's magic sword, turning it to dust, and firing a bunch of swords back at them as a result. We want to know if it works RAW, or if we need to use Still Spell or something.

I'm not willing to comment on the class balance until I actually stat one up and play it, but just out of the gate, this class looks boring. It reminds me of the 3.5 wizard, there is no real reason not to enter a prestige class as soon as possible. I can see that a lack of class features was used as a balancing mechanic, but it results in a class that does nothing except cast arcane spells. The blood focus doesn't work with half of the bloodlines, and is likely just to be used for the buff to casting spells. It seems to me that your choice of school and bloodline means very little to who you are in this class, a marked departure from PF wizard and sorcerer. I love the mix of prepared and spontaneous casting, but the rest of the class needs to be more than a paper-thin wrapper for this spellcasting style.

One thing I'd like to point out is that listing elements like nations/classes/races/types of adventure is *way* more useful to my idea-harvesting than plots or distinct combinations

Well then, I'm a big fan of the pseudo heist novel that was Pirate's Honor, especially the character of Celeste. It was great to see some of the more intelligent monsters show up on the good guy's side. I would love more of that, especially with some of the more iconic fantasy monsters (Medusa, Satyr, the various Fey).

I'm wondering what exactly Xanthir Vang is immune to. Among all of his many, many defensive abilities, The Worm that Walks trait says that "Worms that walk are immune to any physical spell or effect that targets a specific number of creatures (including single-target spells such as disintegrate)" This is different enough from swarm traits that I am confused.

What exactly applies here? What is a physical spell? Is Acid Arrow ignored? What about Scorching Ray, Chain Lightning, and Magic Missile? Are nonmagical melee weapons a physical effect that targets one creature? If melee weapons work, can a Magus use touch attacks on him through their weapon?

I would really love a breakdown of what exactly works against Xanthir and what doesn't.

I was going to have any day where the characters were out in town, being friendly, and generally showing the townsfolk that they're not horrible people counteract the -1 Trust for that day. So those days where they spend all day in the prison and come back out in the dead of night covered in spider bits and zombie gore? They lose a Trust point on those days.

But the days where they're walking around town, doing a bit of research, and generally being friendly people? That should be enough to counteract the Splatter Man's influence on the townsfolk.

And the days when they are running around town, helping Kendra figure out what she wants to do for her livelihood and helping her get a business set up? When they help clean off the latest public defacement by Gibs? Those are the days they gain a Trust point.

Although this may all be a moot point, as my players are playing a pair of "nice men" from the Ustalav Construction Mafia (which started with the Carrion Hill module, where the PCs are muscling in on a new competitor in the brick business.)

How do you shrink something that is 3,000 pounds? Surely it's bigger than 2 cu. ft./level.

Cannons are dense. I looked up real life cannon specs, and even if the cannon in question had a 1ft. outer diameter, it'd have to be 10ft. long before it was out of the range of a 5th-level wizard. The longer cannons are around 6ft.

I'll admit it took a while to find a way to carry it. Most of the spells/items use weight, and it's out of the range of anything except for the immovable rod which, well, doesn't move.

Edit: You know, if you were a fighter, you could even rack up Weapon Specialization, and Weapon Training (or whatever it's called).

Also, I don't own that book, but since it requires a team of people to operate, what's stopping you from buying one of larger size than written? You could probably pump out even more damage if you just buy a bigger cannon.

And, for even more fun, don't forget to make it a magical cannon! Burst weapon abilities will make your cannonball crits even more fun!

Unfortunately, Shrink Item requires a non-magical item. As for larger cannons, I have no idea what 6d6 would even size up to.

Wow. This pretty awesome. The only thing I noticed was that this is pretty much only a mid-level build. At higher levels the damage won't be that spectacular. Still, this will be rocking for a good while, and if anything, it'll be good for a laugh.

Well later on you can take Improved and Greater Vital Strike, so an 11th-level fighter is doing 18d6, a 15th-level rogue is doing 18d6+8d6sneak, a 16th-level fighter is doing 24d6, and a 15th-level rogue/5th-level fighter is doing 24d6+8d6sneak.

This is kinda funny and cute and neat.

I'd never allow it in a game I was running though, based solely on the fact that it's silly. Of course, I'd be unlikely to allow PCs to buy cannons in games I run anyway, so that's a moot point.

Also in the category of things I don't allow in my game?the telekinesis/pile of flaming arrows combo. BANNED!

Agreed, it's a very silly build.

Our group is starting up a sequel to a Pathfinder game we ran about a year ago, where I was Jem Mistwalker, Rogue 5/Shackles Pirate 5 and Captain of my own ship with the rest of the party as my crew. With the removal of the Shackles Pirate PrC, I was looking for good ways to rebuild the character while keeping the flavor, and saw the cannon. I was thinking about putting a couple of them on my ship when the build popped into my head, and it was too funny not to post.

As for Jem, I was thinking of looking into a more reasonable pepperbox and cutlass build.

The Gamemaster: You're going to backstab him with a ballista?

Nimble the Thief: Uh huh
The Gamemaster: With a f%@#ing siege weapon?
Nimble the Thief: Uh huh

If you wait until 9th-level Rogue to try this, you can probably get 5d6 sneak attack on it too. Buy the Sniper Goggles and start doing 17d6 from 500ft away.

So I just got my World Guide and noticed the Cannon in the weapon section. Aside from some minor issues (3000lbs for a cannon? The largest historical cannon I could find (excluding novelty cannons) weighed barely half that.) I noticed a potential mid-level cannon build.

7th level, with Gun Proficiency and Leadership (5th level wizard cohort, handful of soldiers).
Pay 6k for a cannon.
Teach wizard cohort Shrink Item.
You can now carry a loaded cannon around (3/4lbs), pull it out on the first round of combat, and do 6d6 against touch AC within 100ft.

With 3 soldiers, you can have them spend their turns reloading the cannon, and fire it every round.
Since you can only fire it once a round, you might as well take Vital Strike too, and do 12d6 a round.

You're not likely to ever miss against touch AC with a bunch of followers using Aid Another, so take Deadly Aim and get +4 damage.

At 130gp per shot, it's cheaper than a scroll of scorching ray, which only does 4d6. Even an equivalent-level wizard's Fireball only does 7d6.

I can't think of any other ranged weapon builds that can do this kind of damage.

Comments? Corrections?

Thanks for the help, both of you.

my question would be, why would it be referred to as extra damage if it is the only damage used? for me extra damage is added damage on top of normal damage, that would be my interpretation.

The entire passage in question:

And in the Rhino entry:
Offense
Speed 40 ft.
Melee gore +8 (2d6+9)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
Special Attacks powerful charge (gore, 4d6+12)

So how much damage does a Rhino do on a charge?

My fellow player and I have a dispute on the damage for powerful charge. The description of powerful charge says it does "extra" damage, which the other player interprets as bonus on top of the normal damage, where as I view it as the total damage.

For Example, for the Rhinoceros (Powerful Charge(gore, 4d6 + 12)):
His way = (2d6 + 9) + (4d6+12) = 6d6 + 21
My way = 4d6 + 12

Who is right here? How much total damage does a Rhino do on a powerful charge?

I don't think a fireball shot off through his blade and critting would get doubled. It's spell damage, not weapon dmg.

==Aelryinth

It does though, he can't use fireball with spellstrike.

The spell only gets a x2 crit. I will ensure that this is clarified.

The threat range becomes that of the weapon. There is no other good way to adjudicate that part.

EDIT: I have another question... what happens with the spell if the attack is a critical hit? I think the official word on my first question would determine whether or not I would allow both sources of damage to multiply, or if it would only be the weapon damage.

The spell only gets a x2 crit. I will ensure that this is clarified.

The threat range becomes that of the weapon. There is no other good way to adjudicate that part.

Perhaps the Magus could have spell slots for up to level 9 similar to the Wizard/Sorcerer, but still keep just the 6 levels of spells. You'd have a swath of spell slots to Metamagic-up.

This actually sounds like a really cool idea. I never really like regular metamagic (which is why our group house-ruled in sudden metamagic from 3.5), but having extra spell levels that are specifically for metamagic would make me feel a lot better about using them.

I see the Magus can cast in heavy or medium armor with no penalties at higher levels but I have always had an issue with a mage casting anything relating to lightning in plate mail or chain mail. I just see this one large lighting rod (or ground) at the source of generation.

Answers I expect to see:
Maybe the mail is non-conductive?
Maybe its not "lightning" until it hits the target?
Maybe Mages are protected against their own magic (much like fireball)?

Come to think of it, if a normal mage casts LB at a target, why wouldnt streak to the first ground source anyway (perhaps the big tank in front of the party standing in water?)

Because Lightning Bolt is an evocation spell that causes lightning to suddenly exist along the path in question, instead of creating a single large point charge in the caster's hands and having it arc wherever it pleases.

Cross-posted from the other thread.

The capstone is uninteresting, a whole bunch of +2 doesn't seem like a fitting end for the class. Perhaps take a page out of Gandalf's book (a Magus if there ever was one) and allow the Magus to revive himself if felled in battle? Say every 1d4 days, 1d4+2 rounds after felled, as true res. That gives the DM time to endanger the rest of the party and then the Magus can stand back up and save the day.

The first thing I notice is that the spell list, while acceptable, doesn't really mesh well with the rest of the class's focus on melee touch attacks. There's only a couple spells on the list that make sense to use spellstrike with, and they're missing good touch options like chill touch and ghoul touch. I'd even be comfortable with them getting a few of the cleric touch spells, like bestow curse.

Also the level requirement on Broad Study seems a bit high. A 6-level drop into magus cripples most other casting classes, as you're then 3 spell levels behind. I'd recommend dropping it to 4.

The capstone is uninteresting, a whole bunch of +2 doesn't seem like a fitting end for the class. Perhaps take a page out of Gandalf's book (a Magus if there ever was one) and allow the Magus to revive himself if felled in battle? Say every 1d4 days, 1d4+2 rounds after felled, as true res. That gives the DM time to endanger the rest of the party and then the Magus can stand back up and save the day.

I'll throw one of these into my 16th level game and see how they work at high levels.

Description of Chill Touch:

A touch from your hand, which glows with blue energy, disrupts the life force of living creatures. Each touch channels negative energy that deals 1d6 points of damage. The touched creature also takes 1 point of Strength damage unless it makes a successful Fortitude saving throw. You can use this melee touch attack up to one time per level.

An undead creature you touch takes no damage of either sort, but it must make a successful Will saving throw or flee as if panicked for 1d4 rounds + 1 round per caster level.

It pretty clearly states that you need to make a melee touch attack to affect a target. Since the cast time is 1 standard action, you have 1 left on that round which you can use to make your first attack. I would then say that on the next round, if you have multiple attacks, you could touch as many targets as you have attacks with the full attack action.

This is how we interpreted it too. Thanks!

Double ninja'd on the first question...

At second level you get:

four 0 level spells
four 1st level spells (2 from the cleric list, 1 from the high Wisdom, and one which can only be used to prepare domain spells.)

At fifth level you get:
four 0 level spells
five 1st level spells (3 from the cleric list, 1 from the high Wisdom, and one which can only be used to prepare domain spells.)
four 2nd level spells (2 from the cleric list, 1 from the high Wisdom, and one which can only be used to prepare domain spells.)
three 3rd level spells (1 from the cleric list, 1 from the high Wisdom, and one which can only be used to prepare domain spells.)

As for your second question, you can pick from the entire cleric spell list every day. When a new book comes out, you instantly add the entire cleric list from that book to the spells you can choose from each day. Clerics do not have a spells known list.

Our group has been having a debate about how many creatures you can touch as part of a casting of Chill Touch.

Chill Touch
Standard Action Cast
Range touch
Targets creature or creatures touched (up to one/level)
Duration instantaneous
...
You can use this melee touch attack up to one time per level.

According to the Touch spell description

Touch: You must touch a creature or object to affect it... Some touch spells allow you to touch multiple targets. You can touch up to 6 willing targets as part of the casting, but all targets of the spell must be touched in the same round that you finish casting the spell. If the spell allows you to touch targets over multiple rounds, touching 6 creatures is a full-round action.

and in the Duration section:

Touch Spells and Holding the Charge: In most cases, if you don't discharge a touch spell on the round you cast it, you can hold the charge (postpone the discharge of the spell) indefinitely. You can make touch attacks round after round until the spell is discharged. If you cast another spell, the touch spell dissipates.

Some touch spells allow you to touch multiple targets as part of the spell. You can't hold the charge of such a spell; you must touch all targets of the spell in the same round that you finish casting the spell.

These passages appear targeted more towards buff or effect spells like teleport, especially with regard to friendly targets. There's no other spell in the book that has range touch, multiple targets, and is designed to be used on hostile creatures.

So since it's a free action as part of the spell to touch a single target, but this caps at 6 willing targets per spell, how many creatures can you touch as part of chill touch?

Possible answers our group has come up with:

• 1: This doesn't really work, as the spell specifically says multiple targets.
  
• 1/lvl, all as part of the casting: This gives a LOT of power to a first level spell, but is the simplest interpretation of the rules.
  
• 1/lvl, but only one as part of the casting: Our group prefers this compromise, with the ability to make one touch attack as part of the casting, with the other charges treated as held charges that are used up as per regular touch attack rules (attack action to make a touch attack, one charge used per touch). This is how Corrosive Grasp out of Spell Compendium used to work, and the spell descriptions are basically the same, with Corrosive Grasp being clearer on this issue (it describes using it as part of actions that can't be done in the same turn as casting the spell).

Thoughts?

I'm having the same problem, order 1407991.

I could really use some help on this.

Sorcery & Steam (Legends & Lairs) was a good book, and it's mostly Open Content. We got use out of Gun Glyph and the feats & spells. The only problem is that it wasn't balanced very well (in both directions). I'd love to see a balanced Pathfinder version of it.

Got some questions about Salamanders attacking.

First of all, did medium-size Salamanders really lose 2 size categories on their grab ability? (3.5 was large size, Pathfinder appears to be small size).

Second question pertains to the Tail Slap:
Assume a Salamander spends a single standard action hitting an opponent with Tail Slap. According to Table 3-1 (Bestiary pg. 302), that attack is a Secondary Attack, and therefore gets BAB-5 to hit and 1/2*STR to damage.
However, according to that same page:

If a creature has only one natural attack, it is always made using the creature’s full base attack bonus and adds 1-1/2 the creature’s Strength bonus on attack rolls. This increase does not apply if the creature has multiple [natural?] attacks but only takes one.

As such, the Salamander has only one natural attack (Tail Slap), and I'm not sure if the spear attack applies to the bold section above. If it does, what happens when the Salamander drops his spear and therefore only has his unarmed attack(s)? Do they apply to the bold text above? This is made more confusing by the following text later on:

Creatures with natural attacks and attacks made with weapons can use both as part of a full attack action (although often a creature must forgo one natural attack for each weapon clutched in that limb, be it a claw, tentacle, or slam). Such creatures attack with their weapons normally but treat all of their natural attacks as secondary attacks during that attack, regardless of the attack’s original type.

Which means that the Salamander's full attack entry is pretty much useless for this discussion.

So when a Salamander does a Tail Slap as a standard action, is it:
A Primary Attack (BAB to hit, STR to damage)
A Secondary Attack (BAB-5 to hit, 1/2*STR to damage)
A Single Primary Attack (BAB to hit, 1-1/2*STR to damage)

Any help is appreciated.