Tylan's page

Well, table variation is expected with these types of spells. Looking this over, I believe that

The target must have the physical capacity to articulate sounds, make gestures, or engage in whatever other method speakers of the language use to communicate with each other in order to actually converse

was intended to prevent a gelatinous oozes from speaking (doesn't make sounds), or a humanoid communicating in a chameleon's skin-tone language. There *are* real-world examples of dogs, cats, and birds making noises very similar to human speech. A bit of magical knowledge and enhanced control, and I could see those animals being able to speak clearly.

Ah, I see. So, table variant potential with the gold nodule item, but Share Languages covers it. I suppose that would also work if the druid cast "Share Language" on herself, and *then* wild shaped.

A druid is wild shaped as a baboon and has a gold nodule ioun stone (Common) active. She wishes to activate a wand of cure light wounds that someone has just passed to her. The wand's command word is "gargle-hope-cheese".

So, here are my questions:

• Does the ioun stone grant her the ability to speak Common while in this form?
  
• Can she activate the wand?
  
• Could she activate a command word item with that same command word?
  
• Does the language of the ioun stone matter? What if the ioun stone was for Orcish?

Choose one spell you can cast. From now on, you always cast this spell at +1 caster level.

Elves with this racial trait are immune to light-based blindness and dazzle effects, and are treated as one level higher when determining the effects of any light-based spell or effect they cast...

One is an unnamed bonus, and one is not a bonus but a direct increase. They're also from different sources. So, yes, they both stack.

untyped AND not coming both from traits.

Actually, I disagree on this one. From what I've read, bonuses stack so long as they are 1)not from the same source, and 2)are not typed or are of different types.

The "not coming from both traits" rule you mention is from the PF SRD.

Many traits grant a new type of bonus: a 'trait' bonus. Trait bonuses do not stack—they're intended to give you a slight edge over the non-PCs of the world, not a secret backdoor way to focus all your traits on one type of bonus to gain an unseemly advantage over the rules. It's certainly possible, for example, that somewhere down the line, a “Courageous” trait might be on the list of dwarf race traits, but just because this trait's on the dwarf race traits list and the basic combat traits list doesn't mean you're any more brave if you choose both than if you choose only one.

Nearly every bonus from traits is listed as a "trait bonus", so the general rule of thumb is that traits don't stack. This is consistent with the general Pathfinder rule that most named bonuses (competence, morale, insight) do not stack with themselves. The Courageous example, which is a +2 "trait" bonus, emphasizes the point. So, if you happen to find two *unrelated* traits, one of which doesn't add a "trait" bonus, you can stack a little bit.

Here's one:
Mathematical Prodigy (magic category)
You gain a +1 bonus on Knowledge (arcana) and Knowledge (engineering) checks, and one of these skills (your choice) is always a class skill for you.
Fanatic (racial category, human)
You gain a +1 trait bonus to Knowledge (arcana) and Knowledge (history) checks. One of these skills (your choice) is always a class skill for you.
== (+1 unnamed bonus) plus (+1 trait bonus)

These follow the proper rules:
1. Different trait categories.
2. Different traits (with different flavor text reasoning).
3. Different bonus types.

That's my opinion on the matter. There's room for a different interpretation, but there's no official ruling I've yet seen released in errata or FAQs to discount such the trait combination. And hey, if you reeeeally want to burn your backstory to get a +1 Knowledge (arcana) check, I wouldn't argue such a trifle.

The description of the alternate gnome racial feature, "pyromaniac", states that the +1 effective level bonus (for the strength of powers, not access to powers) applies to fire descriptor spells, Fire domain powers, the fire elemental bloodline, revelations of the oracle flame mystery, and alchemist bombs that deal fire damage.

Would it also apply to the Fire Elementalist wizard's powers? It does not say so specifically, but it seems to follow the same theme and I'm wondering if it was simply an accidental omission.

I've been with Pathfinder Society since GenCon 2009, and got my player number from them. I hadn't had a chance to play Pathfinder until recently and just found out that either I didn't register at the time or my registration didn't go through. I've long since lost my card with the confirmation number, so I can't register the player number online.

Is there a way to fix this problem?