Turey's page

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?

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?

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?

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 could really use some help on this.