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Is a vishkanya's poison use racial ability the same as a poison use class ability for qualifying for feats such as Adder Strike or Pinpoint Poisoner? Those feats specifically say poison use class feature so it seems the racial ability, although exactly the same, doesn't qualify. Thoughts?

The Bat Shape feat (and Dire Bat Shape) in the werebat-kin section of Blood of the Moon is a completely separate ability from their racial Beast Shape, right? It doesn't count as a use of Beast Shape, feats such as Fast Change don't affect it, and it's pretty much an unlimited use, unlimited duration ability, right? It reads like that to me but I wanted to be certain before I roll up this Bloodmarked natural weapon ranger.

Ghouder.

There'll be 2 of us playing, and the other guy has already created a half orc fire sorcerer. It's a homebrew steampunk setting, starting at level 4. My first thought was an alchemist or maybe a fighter bodyguard for the other PC but I'm coming up blank.

This is both my favorite and most feared part of gaming. Infinite possibilities but I have no idea where to start. Any suggestions?

If a character with the Equipment Trick: Rope feat (and proficiency in whips) were to pull rope from a Robe of Infinite Twine, what is the action? Is it a standard action (usually the case when activating a magic item), or the equivalent of drawing a weapon (either a move, part of a move, or free)?

Lash (Weapon Proficiency [whip]): You can use a length of rope as a whip at no penalty. The piece of rope that is used as a whip must be 10 feet long—length in excess of this must remain coiled or otherwise unused at your feet or side.

The wearer can draw up to 30 feet of twine or up to 10 feet of hemp rope per round from the robe without harming it.

Bolding mine for emphasis.

My GM's been playing games like Assassin's Creed 3 and Dishonored and expressed his interest in running what he calls a "long-term assassin campaign." (Which does not necessarily mean an evil campaign)
He's encouraging us to approach character creation with a little more creativity than usual, meaning not that rogues, ninjas, vivisectionist alchemists and the assassin prestige class are out, but that we should consider other classes just as viable for a team of 4 assassins working together from level 1 onward.
Our group's never synergized characters much beyond what roles we fill, so we're also going to try building this team together, capitalizing on teamwork feats and class ability/feat/spell synergy as well.
The setting is a steampunk horror homebrew, with advanced firearms and hardly any armor beyond the light stuff. Divine spellcasting is common, arcane a bit less so, but magic items are rare, usually limited to what the GM chooses to hand out.
So what classes do you think would work for this? Any 4 player combos you've found interesting? Any tips for multiclassing, if at all? (I usually avoid multiclassing but the GM hinted it might help. He didn't elaborate.) Teamwork feats: yea or nay? Is sneak attack almost mandatory for everyone?

Any insight would be appreciated.

I could have sworn there was a non-3PP alchemist discovery that alters a bomb so that it does no splash damage but doubles the added INT bonus to damage against the primary target. Is this real or am I just imagining it?

On a related note, if I'm using the Explosive Missile discovery, can I use other bomb-altering discoveries on the exploding ammo? I realize it has no asterisk but I'm not sure if it's technically a bomb or just adding bomb damage to a ranged attack.

My GM has hinted profusely that our next session could be quite the bloodbath and we should all have backup characters ready to go. Of course, he professes at the start of every encounter that it could be a bloodbath, but we still tend to believe him after all these years.

I'm not very experienced with arcane casters, but since the class debuted, I've toyed with the idea of a witch that hinders his foes so effectively that he has no need of using damaging spells or abilities, leaving the hit point game to the other PCs.

A little campaign info to start: The GM rolls one set of stats and everyone in the group uses those.

The stats for this particular game are: 16 16 15 15 12 11

Fairly high, I know, but he's good at adjusting encounters on the fly and he's quite stingy on magic gear.

The setting is homebrew; Steampunk Victorian Horror is how the GM tends to describe it. The PCs try to maintain normalcy while battling horrific monstrosities and evil masterminds in a city-centric setting. Lots of aberrations and undead as well as humanoid foes abound.

Other current PCs (subject to change pending the outcome of next session) include a two-handed weapon paladin, fire cleric, grapple barbarian, bladebound magus, and my character, a ranged combat-focused urban ranger.

The loss of my ranger shouldn't impede the party's ranged capability too badly since the cleric and magus love their fireballs and lightning bolts and the GM prefers cramped quarters with lots of stuff to climb on or hide behind.

So. Is it possible with the witch's plethora of debuff abilities to never inflict hit point damage and yet remain viable in a party of 5 PCs? What would you suggest for race, feats, hexes, and spells for this concept?

Do Chalaxians have an accent? And if so, what real-world equivalent would it sound like? I'm looking to add a bit of flavor to my Council of Thieves character since he's likely to be doing most of the talking.

As a potential replacement for my current character, I was putting together a level 8 ranger that uses both the Skirmisher and Urban Ranger archetypes from the APG to make a trap monkey. I began to wonder what advantage it had over a rogue when not dealing with traps and am stuck on what to do with feats.

So, Urban Skirmisher is a fantastic trap monkey, but what does he offer when not dealing with traps? What kind of build would be more appealing than a rogue with more skill points and the always wonderful sneak attack?

What about a halfling focused on ranged combat? For flavor he could use a sling staff (Do you think the Warslinger alternate racial trait can be applied to a sling staff?). I was thinking about using the Boon Companion and Mounted Combat feats and have him ride a dog or wolf into combat, but mounts, even for small characters, aren't always viable and I'd hate to take feats I can't use all the time.

I included the vital strike chain as a way to hit hard with a single attack while mounted. Of course, once he hits level 15 and has Mounted Skirmisher he can full attack while mounted and Vital Strike won't be used as often. Should I instead take Critical Focus and Staggering Critical for that real David and Goliath action? Or should I go a different route with TWF or something? Any advice?

The description for the chakram in the Adventurer's Armory states it can be wielded in melee at a penalty. When wielded in melee, is it considered a light weapon or one-handed weapon? With a damage die of 1d8 (fairly large for a thrown weapon), I tend to believe it may be considered one-handed. Just wondering how much of a penalty to apply when two-weapon fighting with a pair of chakram.

On a related note, I was just reading about thrown weapons on page 141 of the Core Rulebook and noticed it says that throwing a light or one-handed weapon is a standard action. Is this referring to just improvised thrown weapons or all thrown weapons?

Pathfinder
Rogue

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