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Be All You Must Not Be!

Come experience indescribable horrors, unceasing madness, and more tentacles than you can count! Grow in size, develop weird powers, manifest potent psychic abilities, and even drive mundane creatures insane as you level your way to becoming an unnameable doom. Create the aberration you want to play in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, as your favorite iconic monsters or your own new, unique entity.

This product includes:

Six races of aberrant threats to represent any aberration, including the Warptouched humanoid race
Alternate racial traits and favored class options
The Aberrant Champion universal archetype (compatible with 48 classes)
New class archetypes: the Conduit of the Forbidden (Psychic), Freak Wrangler (Hunter), and Opener of the Ways (Summoner)
That Which Must Not Be racial paragon class 1st-20th level
Class- and race-specific feats to round out any aberration character

Jam-packed with 50+ pages of mechanics and flavorful fiction, from the same company that brought you the hugely successful In The Company of Dragons comes the next book in the extraordinary Questhaven Campaign Setting. It's time for things to get weird!

Are you cool enough to play me?!

Do you like to win Pathfinder?! If you understand that this is a competition between yourself and the GM, then I may just choose you as a player. Come discover The Secrets of the Metadventurer, the most awesome character class ever and join me in pwning the entire make-believe world that GM jerk spent years creating. Marvel at the power of my Metagaming Pool to game the system! Witness the firepower of the fully armed and operational third-party supplements I can drag into your game with my Third Party BS class feature! Exult as my 20th level capstone ability Make the GM Cry reduces that jerk into to a weeping mass huddled in a pile of post-its and crumpled paper containing a lifetime of world-building notes! Cower before my mastery of overusing exclamation points in my ad copy!!!!

This is Rite Publishing's April Fool's day product, from the same brilliant and sexy mind that brought you last year's In the Company of Gelatinous Cubes and will bring you next year's In the Company of a Dreamy Game Designer (in sonnet form). The publisher describes me as a new 20-level base class that is, "serious fun, functional, and balanced, but with tongue in cheek," some reviewer will describe me as, "a blatant cash grab that's not even funny," and I describe myself as the greatest character concept that ever allowed itself to be written.

Come check out The Secrets of the Metadventurer! Coming soon to Paizo's store and available here.

Can this be used as an adamantine improvised weapon in PFS?

We can't errata Spell Mastery in the Core Rulebook to mention three classes that aren't in the Core Rulebook, that'll just confuse people who only have the Core Rulebook.

We can give the green light for anyone to houserule it to affect those classes, and that sets a precedent for the PFS team to make that an official ruling for PFS play.

In light of this recent post from SKR located here, is there any chance of PFS adopting the encouraged (but technically un-erratable) flexible rulings for spell mastery and/or spiritual weapon?

Do attacks and threats such as brandishing weapons need to be directed against a fascinated target to count as an obvious threat, or do threats/attacks against the fascinated creature's allies count as obvious (rendering the condition useless in a combat situation)?

I figured this was an oldie-but-goodie that deserved a new post since Paizo's FAQ team has shifted into awesome question-answering gear.

I'm getting the feeling that this fighter archetype ability doesn't quite work as intended...

A corsair wears heavier armor than is common aboard a ship. At 3rd level, the corsair reduces the armor check penalty of any light armor he wears to 0 for purposes of Acrobatics and Swim checks. At 7th level, this becomes true of medium armor as well. At 11th level, it includes heavy armor.

This ability replaces armor training.

So, a corsair gives up an increase in max Dex to AC, a flat-rate reduction in armor check penalty, and the ability to move at normal speed in heavier armors. In return, the corsair gets to reduce his armor's armor check penalty to 0 for Acrobatics and Swim.

The main problem with this is the corsair still cannot use Acrobatics if his speed is reduced by armor, so the 7th- and 11-level improvements do nothing RAW. Considering how low the armor check penalties are on light armor, the corsair is essentially giving up armor training to be able to have a 0 armor check for swimming in any armor.

I'm assuming the RAI was to let corsairs tumble and swim with impunity while armored? Just curious if anyone has any insight into this archetype's design or if I'm missing something.

How would the light-generating Power of Faith supernatural ability of the Warrior of the Holy Light paladin archetype interact with a darkness or deeper darkness spell or spell-like ability? It is a supernatural ability with no spell/caster level, and as a supernatural ability it cannot be counterspelled or dispelled making the light/darkness spell interactions moot.

Does this sound right?

• When activated, the paladin is surrounded by a 30-foot radius of normal light which is not a spell or spell-like ability, so it effectively acts as a mobile bubble that turns the "natural" light level within to normal light.
  
• Darkness cannot counter or dispel Power of Faith (or vice versa), but if a darkness spell/SLA's area overlaps with the paladin's ability the overlapped area has dim light (natural level lowered one step).
  
• Deeper Darkness works similarly, but lowers the overlapped area to darkness (not supernaturally dark).
  
• When the paladin hits 12th level, Power of Faith generates bright light so a darkness overlap would have normal light and a deeper darkness overlap would have dim light.
  

I'm fiddling with a new PFS character concept and not sure if it's going to be useful enough. Instead of the normal neg channeler route, I was thinking of making an inquisitor with the Channeling Scourge feat. The concept overall seems entertaining, but I'm wondering if I'm going to be lamenting where all my spellpower is as a channeling inquisitor (instead of a cleric) or if the class abilities and skill monkey-ness will make the character useful enough for PFS.

Any opinions are welcome, as are suggestions for teamwork feats when I need to choose permanent ones. The plan in-combat is to be a debuffer, channel blaster and party support; out of combat will be social skills and some knowledge.

Myka Karum of Karcau, aka "Bendy"

Halfling Cleric 1/Inquisitor (infiltrator) 11 of Socothbenoth
Align:CN
Faction: Sczarni?

S-5
D-16
C-14
I-10
W-15 (+1 at 8th)
CH-17 (+1 at 4th)

Alternate Racial trait: jinx (DC 10+1/2 char lvl+Cha mod)
Traits: sacred conduit, vagabond child (esc. artist, because every devotee of Socothbenoth should be good with restraints)

Feats: 1-Selective Channeling, 3-Channeling Scourge, 5-Worst Case Jinx, 7-Extra Channel, 9-Improved Channel, 11-Divine Interference

1 - aura (chaos and evil), channel 6/day (1d6, DC 14), domains - lust (dazing touch, gratuitous charm person spell), travel (+10 base speed and agile feet)
2 - domain-lust (anything to please at 8th lvl), guileful lore, judgement 1/day, misdirection
3 - channel 6/day (2d6, DC 15), cunning initiative, detect alignment, forbidden lore
4 - channel 7/day (2d6, DC 17), solo tactics, teamwork feat*
5 - channel 7/day (3d6, DC 17), judgement 2/day
6 - channel 7/day (3d6, DC 18), bane (selectively used w/ repeating xbow), necessary lies
7 - channel 9/day (4d6, DC 18), teamwork feat*
8 - channel 9/day (4d6, DC 19), judgement 3/day
9 - channel 9/day (5d6, DC 21), second judgement
10 - channel 9/day (5d6, DC 22), teamwork feat*
11 - channel 9/day (6d6, DC 22), judgement 4/day
12 - channel 9/day (6d6, DC 23), stalwart

Items to buy: muleback cords, phylactery of negative channeling, headband of alluring charisma, ??
Items to PP: wand of infernal healing, mwk darkwood repeating xbow, wand of longstrider, ??

Teamwork Feats I'm contemplating as perm choices: Escape Route, Lookout, Shake It Off, Shielded Caster.

Can you apply the Rime Spell metamagic feat to a spell without the cold descriptor that you plan on modifying into a cold spell using the winter witch archetype's frozen caress hex?

I guess the underlying general question for that is: Can you apply a metamagic feat to a spell that it wouldn't normally affect, taking up a higher-level spell slot for no beneficial effect, and then use an ability upon casting that makes the metamagic valid?

If a hungry ghost monk's attack puts a damaging effect on a target (such as a bleed effect) that reduces the target below 0 hp at the beginning of the target's turn, will the monk's steal ki ability activate?

I have a couple questions about the rules to upgrade items in PFS:

1) Can inferior ioun stones be upgraded to normal ioun stones by paying the difference in price?

2) A belt of giant strength +2 can be upgraded to a belt of giant strength +4, but can it be upgraded to a belt of physical might +2? It doesn't change any of the item's prereqs, just adds new ones.

In PFS, can any of the alternate classes take archetypes for the class they mimic if they have the exact same abilities the archetype would replace? I.E. a ninja taking one of the rogue archetypes that replaces basic/improved uncanny dodge, or a samurai taking a cavalier archetype that replaces challenge and bonus feats.

The closest to a concrete answer I could find was this quote in a year-old thread:

You know, the rules as written are silent or unsure about archetypes and how they interact with alternate classes.

For the playtest, use this rule of thumb.

1) If you are playing in the Pathfinder Society, assume no unless Mark and Hyrum tell you different.

2) If you are playing an at-home playtest, assume the answer is yes (as long as you GM is game). How viable are these options, do they seem fun to play or weird and cheesy? Those are all things I would like to know. The more concrete examples to back up your points the better.

I remember seeing commentary somewhere (which I can't find) that alternate classes are essentially giant archetypes, so by that definition combining the two would be a legal application of two archetypes. Has Mark or Mike ever directly weighed in on this? I'm assuming the answer is no for PFS, but figured it couldn't hurt to ask.

I'm working on a new PFS character idea and am trying to determine how functional it will be. The goal is to have a fighter that can not only provide moderate melee damage but physical debuffs, have some marginal skill functionality, and have a functional Will save. It also needs to be useful from levels 1-11. Any suggestions on better ways to approach this concept appreciated. I'm hoping the lack of optimized damage would be compensated by the additional abilities, but I'm having trouble analyzing it.

(I think everything in it is PFS-legal, and it would need to stay that way.)

Basics:
Duc "Twitchy" Tranh
Human Fighter (cad, favored) / Barbarian (urban)
S 11, D 18, C 14, I 13, W 14, CH 7
Align: CN
Faction: Lantern Lodge
Patron: Grandmother Nightmare (Lamashtu)
Racial: bonus feat - piranha strike, skilled
Traits: threatening defender (ignore -1 of cbt exp), unhinged mentality (+2 save vs. fear, confusion, insanity)

1 - Ftr 1 - (B) *exotic proficiency (tekko-kagi)
2 - Fre 2 - (B) combat expertise, dirty maneuvers +1
3 - Brb 1 - controlled rage, crowd control +1
4 - Brb 2 - rage power (superstition), uncanny dodge, +1 Dex
5 - Ftr 3 - (B) catch off-guard
6 - Ftr 4 - (B) greater dirty trick, (B) replace ewp (t-k) with quick dirty trick
7 - Ftr 5 - payback +1
8 - Ftr 6 - (B) *improved critical (rapier), dirty maneuvers +2, +1 Dex
9 - Ftr 7 - deadly surprise
10 - Brb 3 - sixth sense +1
11 - Ftr 8 - (B) critical focus, (B) replace imp crit with bleeding critical
12 - Ftr 9 - payback +2, razor-sharp chair leg, +1 Str or Int
alternate 12 - Brb 4 - rage power ?

Base feats:
1 - weapon finesse
3 - improved dirty trick
5 - agile maneuvers
7 - iron will
9 - improved steal
11 - destroy identity

Gear priority:

• agile rapier to get Dex to damage, stacking on keen at 11th lvl when imp crit is dumped
  
• misc CMB buffs
  
• tekko-kagi enchanted as shield, used as buckler except when disarming blades (even after dumping proficiency, the +4 t-k bonus combined with full BAB and dirty maneuvers should keep disarms viable)
  
• high AC light armor and other AC supplements
  
• saving throw buffs
  

Plus he's a mentally unhinged worshipper of Lamashtu. Bonus.

My biggest concern is usefulness to random PFS groups at low levels. Most finessers suffer from low damage output until they get their obligatory agile weapon, but I'm hoping the expanded skill access with still-solid defense helps make up for the moderate damage.

Opinions?

I'm working on some annoying goblin NPCs that utilize the Roll With It feat. Are there any feats or abilities that allow you to do something to enemies that attack and/or miss you with AoO's provoked by your movement that occurs outside your turn?

The Panther Style feat chain won't help because it requires actions on your turn, but something similar would be great. I haven't been able to spot anything yet to take advantage of Roll With It's forced movement, but am open to all suggestions. I'd prefer a PF solution, but am open to any compatible 3PP content as well (just nothing pre-Pathfinder).

I'm looking for any suggestions on how to boost the grapple CMB for a Strangler rogue build. This is what I have so far:

• Improved Grapple feat chain
• Weapon Focus (grapple)
• high Str
• enhancement bonus on gauntlets, spiked gauntlets, brass knuckles, etc. (Does this work? I'm not sure if it applies to grapples.)

I have an urge to design a spear-fighting PFS character who picks up this feat and uses rune-carved stone shortspears.

I'm looking for any build ideas from the collective Pathfinder brain trust... the build would need to be useful at all levels 1-12. The splintering can just be a secondary ability to use to set up some bleed damage while closing, not the character's primary means of damage but one that will get enough use to justify the feat being in the build.

I know this is a far from optimal start (mandatory mediocre feat relying on fragile weapons, plus using throwing weapons which tend to be suboptimal builds to begin with). However, I'm open to any and all class combo build suggestions... any are appreciated.

I recently had my V-C inform me that my paladin had to worship a single deity and not be pantheist/patronless in PFS. Normally I'd just do whatever he says because he's a pretty awesome guy, but I'd prefer to not rework the background and personality concept of an existing character unless necessary.

The character was created shortly before the latest update to the Guide to Organized Play, which reworded the religion section. I'm not sure if that has any bearing, but I didn't spot anything in the FAQ so figured I'd solicit opinions here.

EDIT: For clarity, the character's currently a warrior of the holy light who pays lip service to a few gods but follows his own (and base paladin) tenets in service of Osirion.

Sticky Strike (Su): As a standard action, you can attempt a ranged touch attack with a sticky tendril against a target up to 15 feet away, then use the pull universal monster ability to pull the target 5 feet toward you. You gain a bonus on the pull's combat maneuver check equal to 1/2 your druid level. If the target is larger than you, you may pull yourself 5 feet toward the target without making a check. The target can remove the tendril by making an opposed Strength check as a standard action, or by dealing enough slashing damage to the tendril (hit points equal to your druid level, Armor Class equal to your touch Armor Class). You can dissolve the tendril as a free action. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Wisdom modifier.

How precisely does this druid domain ability work? Most of it is relatively straightforward, but there is no duration listed nor is it clear to me how the tendril operates after the initial strike and 5' pull.

I take a standard action to make a ranged touch attack out to 15'. If it hits, I get a free combat maneuver check with CMB of (BAB+Str mod+1/2 drd lvl) to pull target of my size or smaller 5' closer or can automatically pull myself 5' closer to a target larger than myself. After that, I have the following questions:

• Duration: The ability lists methods for the target to remove or break the tendril. Does this mean the tendril lasts until one of those conditions happens? Can I dismiss the tendril?
  
• Target's movement limitations: Is the target's movement limited in any way when a tendril is attached? If I pull it to 10' away from me, can it move further away? Can it move outside the tendril's max range of 15' and if it does so is the tendril dispelled?
  

I looked over the roper description to see if any creature with the pull ability explained things more clearly, but that didn't help.