Wharwick's page

Wouldn't the 3rd level Fast Musket be a requirement?

You will be hard-pressed to find a better class at buffing up a pet than the hunter. The team feat improved spell sharing allows for even personal target spells to be shared to your pet. This opens several buff lines to improve your pet. Also the Animal auras are effectively permanent buffs when used on your pet.

If you are looking to build the best companion you can then hunter is an outstanding choice.

Wow,

I am really being asked if English is my first language by a guy that reads

"By choosing to delay, you take no action"

and resolves that Delay is an action :)

As Deadmoon points out the specific rules on Delay states it takes no action.

The position that taking No Action requires an action is absurd on its face and really should not be debated

Aberrant change feather fall to fly.

Rogue falls from a 200 meter cliff. He is 25.6 meters from the ground and the start of the next turn.

Story A -

Rogue init higher than wizards. Rogue goes splat.

Story B -

Rogue init lower than the wizard's. Wizards flies to intercept rogue. Wizard cast fly.

Why can't the Rogue in Story A delay and choose to write Story B?

The subject becomes paralyzed and freezes in place. It is aware and breathes normally but cannot take any actions, even speech. Each round on its turn, the subject -----may----- attempt a new saving throw to end the effect. This is a full-round action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity. A winged creature who is paralyzed cannot flap its wings and falls. A swimmer can't swim and may drown.

I did not know how to bold stuff but that word changes the dynamic. Poison is a mandatory save. Hold person is optional. But you would make it mandatory AND require a full round action to not make the saving throw.

Delaying the saving throw in Hold Person does nothing to increase or decrease the effect of the spell. Delaying the effect of a poison saving delays the effect of the poison since poison does not trigger until a failed save occurs.

They are therefore not strictly analogous.

A poison that caused a minus to hit could be placed on a player. The player could delay his turn, but fail the poison save. Then have a cleric neutralize his poison takes a full round action to unload his alpha strike on an enemy, now free from the burden of poison.

Fretgood99 looking at the additional information that Mr Bulhman adds to poison clearly shows that it is not completely analogous.

First a player under poison may delay just not the saving throw he has to take.

Since the saving throw of Hold Person is based on an action a creature under the effect of Hold Person could delay his action for the full duration of the spell.

While I had changed my mind now reading the actually ruling it is more clear that you can delay while held.

This is from the FAQ on poison

http://paizo.com/paizo/blog/v5748dyo5lc12

"3 - The character must make a saving throw against every poison affecting him on his turn, but may make the saving throw at any point during his turn. If a poisoned character delays his turn, he must immediately make these saving throws. They are not delayed."

So you can delay your turn while poison just not the saving throws.

So now we have the wrinkle that the saving throw for Hold Person is a Full Round Action rather than no action as the poison saving. So it can not be applied straight across.

I agree with Fretgood99 that if the FAQ states you can not delay if you have a poison save hanging over you you can not delay if you have a Hold Person save hanging over you. Oddly if you improved the spell to remove the save you would make it easier to get out of via this mechanic.

The rules on delay allow you to perpetually roll from turn over. So you could become the crappiest Lich ever by delaying your stabilization. Now there may be official rules correcting this bug but I play if you are under an effect while delaying that effect must be applied once per turn. I use the start of a player's or NPC's turn for this to go off.

If you need to roll for stabilization and delay until your next turn you first roll your stabilization then decide what to do with your new turn. This would be true of a buff. If you delayed through an entire turn you would burn one round of duration then get your turn.

I also do not understand delay and 'hive mind'. Since a person that delays does not actually wait or change the flow of time it is simply a story telling mechanic within the rule set. Each NPC and PC take their action within the same 6 seconds of a round. This concept that a player calls out to say 'Wait to take your 6 seconds until I have taken my 6 seconds as this will benefit you!!!'

Take the guy falling off the cliff. He does not suspend himself in midair just alters the flow of the story. Instead of crashing to his death the wizard is able to cast feather fall and save his life. Stating a player must died due to rigidity within the initiative seems draconian to me.

The FAQ that states you can not delay a save does anyone have a link? Since Hold Person has a save this seems to be a clear violation.

Aberrant could you please quote the rule you are referring? As I see nothing beyond a chart showing Delay and 5 foot step are not actions.

Though I like the taking No Action is an Action thing ... very zen :)

Aberrant "Not an Action" has this caveat "...are considered an inherent part of doing something else...". "Not an Action" does not include 5-foot step or Delay these are listed as "No Action" on Core Rule pg 181 and they have unique in game results all to themselves.

The 5-foot step is not stopped by Hold person due to the action limit but rather the paralysis effect precludes movement and a 5-foot step is consider movement.

Sorry for the spoiler I was not thinking. I modified the post appropriately. I am exaggerating the drama since all the players that stayed at the table eventually looked at the rules and agreed with my ruling but it was a lot more argument than I thought the decision warranted. Also the guy that stormed off kinda does that. My group may be oddballs but by the end of evening we all thought it was one of our best gaming sessions. The evening included a fight that saw the fighter roll double 1's on a Phantasmal Killer immediately followed by one of the player's noting the player that stormed off was a Bard that could have had him reroll a save. And myself making the observation that since the sorcerer was feeble-minded someone with a 1 INT should not have the presence of mind to delay so the cleric could go and cast a heal to clear the effect.

As Deadmoon pointed out the paralyzed effect states you can still take mental actions. In fact if you had a Still/Silent spell memorized along with the Eschew Materials feats you should be able to cast it even while held.

Further 'Delay' is defined as 'No Action' while there exists a concept called 'Free Action'. If Delay was a Free Action I would have ruled that the effected creature could not delay.

Finally consider this scenario. A PC is unconscious and one failed stabilization check away from death. His turn in the initiative order comes ups and decides to delay until the cleric gets a go. To me this seems perfectly fine.

Last night I was DMing a session of the Rise of the Runelord adventure path.

My argument for my interpretation is simple. Hold person does not force someone to take their turn at their initiative point since the option to delay is defined as a 'No Action'. Did I make a bad ruling?

Thank you