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[Post #1: The Runelord Saga - Overview]

My friends,

Over the years I’ve mentioned numerous times on this board the ‘Runelord Saga’ project that I’ve been working on, based on a campaign that I have now run in its entirety twice. I’ve had the pleasure of interacting with numerous board members privately, outlining or detailing various aspects of the campaign I put together and making suggestions as to how they might tweak their own efforts as well as received a good amount of useful feedback based on their experiences. I feel ready now to present that campaign in long form to any who might be interested in running something similar, who might find various excerpts useful or who might be merely curious. I ran this campaign using a heavily house-ruled version of Pathfinder 1st edition and while I’m considering updating it for Pathfinder 2nd Edition and/or D&D 5th Edition, I don't have any intentions of doing that here.

My intent is to start off with a handful of ‘pre-campaign’ posts which will offer an overview of the campaign itself, a campaign outline, a detailed explanation of the factions already at work when the players find themselves involved, some of the more significant homebrew changes that should be taken into account and a handful of other potentially useful tools and options, like a series of pre-generated characters based on Sandpoint citizens. When necessary, I will include links to self-made documents available on a OneDrive account open to anyone to peruse as they wish. After that, I will then make a post for each of the 75 pre-determined sessions, including a brief summary, how that session is intended to play out, detailed GM notes on changes and additions, links to any documents or player hand-outs and a list of all Pathfinder products referenced in that session. If there’s interest, I will also expand on how things went down in my own campaign(s), using the characters that actually played through it.

EDIT: I wasn’t sure exactly where to place this thread; I selected this one because it revolves primarily around three well-established AP's. If the forum moderators believe this is the wrong venue, please let me know. I invite and welcome any and all comments and questions – for brevity’s sake I won't be going into every minute detail of each session but all of that information is readily available and if anyone has questions or wishes me to elaborate, please ask and I'll be happy to. This particular handle will only be used to make the primary posts in this thread, so while there is the possibility of it becoming quite cluttered with Q&A (hopefully), simply clicking on this alias will allow you to see only the original posts.

Brief Overview:
The Runelord Saga contains elements from the six volumes of the Rise of the Runelords AP, four volumes of the Shattered Star AP and one volume from the Curse of the Crimson Throne AP. In addition, there is material drawn from over half a dozen theme-related Pathfinder Society scenarios, mostly from season four. Conceptually it plays out for the hunt for the Shards of the Sihedron against the backdrop of several different Runelords slowly beginning to stir from their millennia-long slumber – essentially, we are using Rise of the Runelords to better tell the story set forth in Shattered Star. To help tie these disparate adventures together, a number of major NPC’s have seen their backstories, motivations and eventual story arcs significantly altered and expanded, as has the timeline, such that the three AP’s and scenarios mentioned are assumed to be happening concurrently rather than having Shattered Star take place as a sequel of sorts. It’s best to enter into this project without any preconceived notions regarding NPC’s canon history or how they ‘should’ be behaving. While set in Golarion, the campaign is not intended to accurately represent any particular piece of Golarion lore but rather to create a whole new story inspired by but not bound to what has seen print in the past.

The entire campaign is planned to last approximately 75 sessions, but that includes 15 sessions set aside for a separate group of PC’s, a ‘B team’, so to speak, which I shall get into the how and why of a little later. While these 15 sessions expand and expound upon the story to collectively offer a richer and more diverse experience for the players, the events that occur in them can be considered to have taken place ‘off stage’ if the GM would prefer not to include them and shorten the campaign substantially. Likewise, there are a number of hooks and side-quests that could easily be expanded upon if one wanted to extend this campaign to 100 sessions or more.

There are several factions currently in play when the story begins, each moving clandestinely in the background to advance their particular agenda. A more detailed explanation of each one will be posted later, but for now, those groups include:

1) The Runelord Karzoug (currently imprisoned on a demi-plane), his consort the Lamia Matriarch Xaneasha acting with the assistance of the Urgothol (a race of faceless stalkers), Karzoug’s new apprentice the stone giant Mokmurian and his assembled army of giants as well as the newly awakened denizens of Xin-Shalast.

2) The Runelord Sorshen (still slumbering beneath the city of Korvosa), Queen Illeosa of Korvosa, Corvina Kora (the leader of the Grey Maidens now possessed by spirit of Sorshen’s greatest general) and the assembled wealth and might of all Korvosa.

3) The Runelord Krune (currently in a state of stasis) and a secret sect of cultists of Lissala whom have managed to infiltrate the Aspis Consortium. This group is led by cultist leader and Aspis Gold Agent Maladros Leroung.

4) Sheila Heidmarch & the fledgling Varisian chapter of the Pathfinder Society, soon to be aided by the PC’s. There is an additional subplot involving Sheila which the GM may choose to ignore but is best served if the ‘B’ team option is used.

5) Long forgotten Xin, his army of magically-created artificial life and the Shards of the Sihedron themselves.

The campaign begins with the PC’s becoming unwittingly drawn into the lingering history of ancient Thassilon, discovering one of the Shards of the Sihedron and then another, each in the hands of a villain whom themselves have been unknowingly touched by ancient powers. These exploits will eventually draw the group to Sheila Heidmarch’s attention and she will enlist them to aid her in her lifelong pursuit of finding and reclaiming the shards in order to see the Sihedron re-forged. Soon it will become apparent that ancient powers are stirring as the group finds themselves caught between multiple warring factions and racing to complete their quest as their sole means of defense… only to ultimately spring an ancient trap laid thousands of years before and which now threatens to bring ruin to the entire world.

Published Materials:
While every scenario and AP volume that is sourced for this campaign has been extensively re-written, they remain invaluable as a resource and reference. These are the materials from which the primary inspiration was drawn:

Rise of the Runelords, Vol. 1 – Burnt Offerings
Rise of the Runelords, Vol. 2 – The Skinsaw Murders
Rise of the Runelords, Vol. 3 – Hook Mountain Massacre
Rise of the Runelords, Vol. 4 – Fortress of the Stone Giants
Rise of the Runelords, Vol. 5 – Sins of the Saviors
Rise of the Runelords, Vol. 6 – Spires of Xin-Shalast

Shattered Star, Vol. 2 – Curse of the Lady’s Light
Shattered Star, Vol. 3 – The Asylum Stone
Shattered Star, Vol. 5 – Into the Nightmare Rift
Shattered Star, Vol. 6 – The Dead Heart of Xin

Curse of the Crimson Throne, Vol. 2 – Seven Days to the Grave

PFS Special - Race for the Rune-carved Key
PFS Scenario 3-26 - Portal of the Sacred Rune
PFS Scenario 4-03 - The Golemworks Incident
PFS Scenario 4-04 - King of the Storval Stairs
PFS Scenario 4-08 - The Cultists’ Kiss
PFS Scenario 4-12 - The Refuge of Time
PFS Scenario 4-20 - Word of the Ancients
PFS Scenario 4-26 - The Waking Rune

Additional materials which would prove very useful include:

Pathfinder Chronicles – City of Strangers
Pathfinder Chronicles – Guide to Korvosa
Pathfinder Campaign Setting – Magnimar, City of Monuments

And, of course, the standard rule books and any splat books and bestiaries appropriate to your campaign and characters would be needed as well.

The 'B' team:
Any campaign of this length can be difficult to sustain for a variety of reasons, including mental fatigue or simply getting caught in a rut with a particular character. To help combat that I came up with the idea of a story arc for a secondary group of PC’s that ties in directly to the main campaign at a number of points, with most of their adventures coming in the form of one-shots. Narratively, these adventures serve to fill in some of the backstory that the players of the main characters might otherwise never get to experience. One of the biggest differences between the ‘A’ team and the ‘B’ team is that the ‘B’ team characters are also intended to be relatively expendable from session to session, meaning that players can make an entirely new character each time if they wish, without losing any real continuity (more in the spirit of actual Pathfinder Society play). A beneficial side effect of this is that should a main character die or wish to retire, that player has a secondary character already built and invested in the campaign world, ready to step in with minimal disruption. It also provides an opportunity for players who can’t make the regular game consistently to still somewhat participate in (and contribute to) the story.

For this particular campaign, the 'B team' PC’s sort of serve as Sheila Heidmarch’s ‘black ops’ team, doing a lot of the dirty work that the more heroic ‘A’ team PC’s might theoretically balk at. As such, they are generally considered to be more mercenary than idealistic, which should also allow the players to scratch their ‘murder-hobo’ itch a little better. Moreover, I have found that having the larger campaign objective require multiple groups to achieve definitely adds to the epic feel of the campaign. Should the GM decide to forgo the ‘B’ team concept, most of the adventures intended for that group could also be performed by the main characters with only minor alterations to the story, or they could even be hand-waved as something other members of the Pathfinder Society did at Sheila’s instruction.

In the next post, I will lay out a detailed chapter summary and discuss the various factions involved in the campaign itself.


Figured I might post it here for the community's perusal and comment. I wanted to simplify it while at the same time making it meaningful enough that my players would take to it quickly and want to use it. I asked myself what would a calendar look like if I wanted to make it at least somewhat similar to ours (for familiarity's sake) but it wasn't bound to the actual tradition's of Earth cultures or history. This is what I came up with.

12 months of 30 days each, which is simple enough. Rather than week-day names, each day is simply referred to by its number (the first, the second, the twentieth, etc.). Regular events are commonly referred to in a similar fashion – i.e. ‘every fifth-day’ would take place on the 5th, 15th and 25th of the month. Scheduling usually revolves around periods of 5 or 10 days, though every 15 days and every 30 days is common as well. 90-day schedules would typically be the longest as a result of Fool's Day and the four seasonal feast days. Regionally, certain days of the month have some sort of local significance and are given their own names as a result. The term 'ten-day' essentially replaces the concept of a week in common parlance, i.e. "I'll have payment for you in the next ten-day or so."

There are five days each year that occur outside of the normal schedule; they take place between months with the Summer Solstice (Summer’s Day) marking the mid-point of the year and the Winter Solstice (Winter’s Night) marking its end and beginning. The Spring Equinox traditionally represents the mid-point of planting season while the Autumnal Equinox represents the mid-point of the harvest. Finally, there is a ‘Fool’s Day’, though it is given different names and different significance throughout various regions. In some places it is regarded as a day to catch up on things neglected or a day to remember those lost, but most commonly (particularly in large urban areas) it is a day of celebration for celebration’s sake, bidding the last days of summer a final farewell. Regardless of its context, it is intended to be a day free from labor or worry.

There is no official start of the seasons though unofficially they begin at the mid-points of Calistril (Spring), Desnus (Summer), Arodus (Fall) and Neth (Winter). Like the Equinoxes and Solstices, these days are commonly treated holidays, depending where you are.

There is (deliberately) no analog to 'Leap Day' or Leap Year.

Months and seasonal feast days of the calendar year:

Abadius (January)

Calistril (February)

Pharast (March)

Spring Equinox

Gozran (April)

Desnus (May)

Sarenith (June)

Summer Solstice

Erastus (July)

Arodus (August)

Fool’s Day

Rova (September)

Autumnal Equinox

Lamashan (October)

Neth (November)

Kuthona (December)

Winter Solstice

If you wish to further divide the day, it is most commonly broken up into four time periods: Pre-Dawn, Morning, Afternoon and Night.


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How does it run as a semi-standalone, actually.

I have this truly phenomenal Runelords campaign that I've put together but I want to work in at least some of Return before running it again. It's centered around the shards of the Sihedron and uses Rise of the Runelords #1 - #6, Shattered Star #2, #3 & #6, Curse of the Crimson Throne #2 and a handful of Season 3 & 4 scenarios from PFS all cobbled together to tell one epic story. Lots of backstory has been re-written, NPC roles expanded to on-going subplots of their own and everything reordered to take place in the same timeline.

I have a spot where I need the group to find the Shard of Pride, around the levels 10th - 12th, and Temple seems to be like the perfect option from a level and thematic standpoint, but how does it play in your opinion? The other options right now are Rise #4 City Outside of Time and Shattered Star #5 Into the Nightmare Rift, but both would have to be much more heavily re-written, I think.


Good morning ladies and gents.

I have a particular fondness for custom magic items in my campaigns, and generally speaking I tend to prefer to have fewer items overall but to compensate by having them be more powerful and/or versatile. As a result, I rarely factor any sort of multipliers in for an item being 'slotless' or having multiple abilities in one - its unheard of that they would get so many items that they would have to pick and choose which thing should take up their head slot or boot slot, so why worry about that? Apart from consumables like potions, scrolls and wands, its rare for magic items to be available for purchase in my campaigns. Likewise, I ignore penalties for narrow or specific activation requirements since the items are still obviously intended for use by my PC's.

Having said all of that, one of the way I combat the banality of constantly buying and selling magical items in order to 'upgrade' is by creating progressive magic items (which I call 'Legacy Items'), items which increase in power as the character levels up. Now, with the understanding that Pathfinder incorporates the benefits of magic items into character strength when determining CR I'd like to keep the benefits of magical gear still relatively balanced as much as possible. For most things I just break them down (like if a set of robes grants both armor bonus to AC and resistance bonus to saving throws, I treat it as a similarly powerful set of armor and cloak separately in my calculations), but many of the items aren't that easy to delineate and I'm struggling to figure out how I might go about determining their value - again, not for sale purposes but with regards to character balance.

I'm going to include some of those custom items below to give you an idea of what I mean, not necessarily in the hopes of determining specific values for these items, but rather in an effort to get a sense of HOW I should go about valuing such items in general. It might require a new approach, like deciding an item is worth X% of a character's gp allotment rather than a specific number (for instance). Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome when it comes to this what feels like an inexact science.

Desna’s Grace:
A holy symbol fashioned of gold and silver that resembles a butterfly alighting on a starknife as if a flower. If the bearer is a worshipper of Desna in good standing, they gain a +1 sacred bonus to AC and to all saving throws. They may also cast Guidance as a spell-like ability 3/day; if they are already able to cast Guidance, then the competence bonus they gain from its casting increases to +2.

Legacy Item: Once ‘activated’ by an event that takes place in the campaign, Desna’s Grace becomes a legacy item - the sacred bonuses to AC and saving throws increase by +1 @ 4th level and every 4 character levels thereafter. Additionally, the bearer will be the beneficent of a Breath of Life spell automatically triggered as an immediate action should they take enough damage to be slain. This ability will work once and thereafter can only be recharged through the completion of a Quest or through the use of a Miracle spell cast by a worshipper of Desna.

Silversliver
A small-sized +1 mithril silver rapier.

Legacy Item: When wielded by a halfling who also a second son of the Silversliver bloodline, the weapon gains the following abilities:

The weapon's enhancement bonus increases by +1 @ 5th level and every five character levels thereafter to a maximum of +5 @ 20th level.

Starting at 5th level, the character may add the weapon's enhancement bonus to Acrobatics & Escape Artist checks as well as Intimidate checks made to Demoralize a foe.

At 10th level, attacks by the Silversliver deal an additional +2 damage to a target for every size level it is larger than the wielder.

At 15th level, the bearer is affected as if under the effect of a continual Freedom of Movement spell.

Boots of the Alacritous Step
These finely appointed boots normally perform as Boots of Striding and Springing.

Legacy Item: at 2nd level, these boots grant the wearer the Dodge feat. At 6th level they gain the Mobility feat. At 10th level they gain the Spring Attack feat. Starting at 14th level the wearer may spend a move action to teleport a distance of up to 30' and at 18th level they may use this ability as a Swift action.

Ring of the Inner Fire
This ring acts as a Ring of Fire Resistance, granting Fire Resistance X where X is the character's level.

Legacy Item: If the bearer is capable of casting arcane spells, they may make a 30' ranged touch attack as a standard action. The attack deals 1d6 fire damage per level of the highest level spell the character is currently capable of casting. If a character has exhausted all of his spells of that level, the attack deals damage equivalent to the next highest level spell they are capable of casting. If a character has an ability or a class feature that increases the damage of fire spells that they are capable of casting (such as the Bloodline Mutation 'Blood Havoc'), they may apply that increase to this attack as well.

Book of Infinite Spell Knowledge
Legacy Item: This book functions as a Page of Spell Knowledge, except that it grants one additional spell known of each level the character is capable of casting. Once per day with an hour of study, the reader may change one of the spells it grants to another spell of the same level or lower.

Those examples should serve as a fair sampling of what I'm talking about; some Legacy items are based on character level, some on other things. Again, any thoughts on pricing approaches in general or on these particular items in particular would be welcome. I'm just trying to make certain that I'm keeping characters balanced both in relation to the encounters presented as well as to each other. Thanks again!

(If Mods/anyone thinks that this post would be more appropriate in the Advice Forum, please feel free to relocate it!)


Good afternoon all.

In an effort to accommodate a player who's concept isn't ideally suited to a Charisma-based Swashbuckler, I put together this archetype. The idea is that her skills and abilities are based more on instinct and insight than on force of personality, but otherwise she fits the Swashbuckler mold perfectly. Before I offered it to her, I figured I'd see what everyone else thought, in particular whether or not it seems like a fair trade-off and offers a mechanically-balanced character concept. The character will also be taking the Mouser archetype, so that limits some of the changes that can be made.

Instinctive Blade

Skills: Does not gain Diplomacy or Knowledge: Nobility as class skills.

Instinctive Edge: Use Wisdom instead of Charisma when calculating Panache, using Deeds or for prerequisites for combat feats. This alters the Panache class feature.

Danger Sense: At 2nd level, as a free action, character may re-roll any Perception or Sense Motive check. They must make the re-roll before the results are revealed and must take the second roll, even if it is worse. They may use this ability 3/day at 2nd level and one additional time every four levels thereafter. This replaces the Charmed Life ability.

Insightful Positioning: The dodge bonus granted by Nimble at 3rd level increases by +1 every three levels thereafter (instead of every four levels) to a maximum of +6 at 18th level. This alters the Nimble class feature.

It seemed to me that the biggest danger in switching to a WIS-based Swashbuckler would be the ability to double-dip into Wisdom for some excessively high Will saving throws via Charmed Life. Removing that class feature and replacing it with something still useful yet much less powerful seemed to be the ideal solution. Nimble was bumped up a touch to help even things out.

Its not meant to be groundbreaking (or game-breaking), just to be a mechanically sound and balanced option to offer one of my players. Thoughts?


The question is in the title. How do these feats interact? Does Paired Opportunists proc at all? If it does, does it proc with the same effect as Pin Down or would it simply resolve as a standard AoO?

Pin Down: Whenever an opponent you threaten takes a 5-foot step or uses the withdraw action, that opponent provokes an attack of opportunity from you. If the attack hits, you deal no damage, but the targeted creature is prevented from making the move action that granted a 5-foot step or the withdraw action and does not move.

Paired Opportunists: Whenever you are adjacent to an ally who also has this feat, you receive a +4 circumstance bonus on attacks of opportunity against creatures that you both threaten. Enemies that provoke attacks of opportunity from your ally also provoke attacks of opportunity from you so long as you threaten them (even if the situation or an ability would normally deny you the attack of opportunity). This does not allow you to take more than one attack of opportunity against a creature for a given action.

TIA!


Hello, all.

I need someone to explain to me (or point me towards somewhere I can get a comprehensive breakdown) of exactly what Karzoug's situation is. What his plan was, why it didn't work and what the current plan for his return actually is. I understand that it involves the Runewell in the Eye of Avarice and the souls of the Greedy...

What is it exactly that prevents Karzoug from simply using Planeshift or similar magics to return from his own demi-plane?

Does Karzoug's Runewell only absorb souls of the Greedy then, and only if they have been marked with the Sihedron via the ritual that Xaneasha taught Aldern Foxglove?

My biggest struggle is trying to understand the mechanics of the Anima Focus, the Soul Lens and the Runewell - how exactly they interact, how they are supposed to work together to free Karzoug (and when) and why they allow the PC's to transport to his demi-plane but do not allow him to transport himself out (yet?).

The Leng Device I think I get - it's a completely separate artifact who's purpose is dimensional and time travel and ultimately serves more as a looming threat than playing any role in Karzoug seeking his freedom, correct?

I'm going to be tinkering with the final series of encounters and I want to be sure I understand fully what is before I start altering it.

Thanks in advance to anyone who takes the time to respond, it is very much appreciated.


While under the effects of Rage, Raging Song or a similar spell or ability could a Witch still use their Ex & SU Hexes? Either way, what would be the supporting argument for that determination? We're trying to solve a dilemma for a game involving the old-school version of Scarred Witch Doctor and a Skald.

Thanks in advance.


Based on the best understanding that can be gleaned from these forums, these are the collective powers and bonuses that a Sorcerer with the Draconic Bloodline and the Dragon Disciple prestige class would get. Is there anyone out there with experience in the class that can tell me if this looks correct? Thanks in advance, this can be really tricky.

1st S1 - Claws (1d4, 3+CHA rds/day)
2nd S2
3rd S3 - +1 to Natural Armor, Energy Resistance 5, Bloodline spell (1st)
4th S4
5th S5 - Claws (Magic), Bloodline spell (2nd)
6th S6
7th DD1 - +1 to Natural Armor, Claws (1d6), Bloodline spell (3rd)
8th DD2 - Bloodline feat, +2 to STR, Dragon Bite
9th DD3 - Breath Weapon 2/day, +1 to Natural Armor, Energy Resistance 10, Bloodline spell (4th)
10th DD4 - +1 to Natural Armor, +2 STR
11th DD5 - Bloodline feat, Blindsense 30', Claws (+1d6 energy dmg)
12th DD6 - +2 to CON, Bloodline spell (5th)
13th DD7 - +1 to Natural Armor
14th DD8 - Bloodline feat, +2 to INT, Bloodline spell (6th)
15th S7 - Bloodline feat, Dragon Form 1/day, +2 to Natural Armor, Wings
16th S8 - Bloodline spell (7th)
17th S9 - Breath Weapon 3/day
18th S10 - Bloodline spell (8th)
19th S11
20th S12 - Breath Weapon 4/day, Power of Wyrms, bloodline spell (9th)


This is intended as a homebrew replacement for the Mythic rule set in general, but it came about as a result of my looking at Wrath of the Righteous as my next big project to re-write and hopefully run. I'd be interested on any thoughts and comments, both in the context of the WotR AP and as a replacement in general.

The first complaint I had about the way Mythic was structured was that it never gave the players time to really enjoy their capstone, something that's already achingly absent from usual gameplay and had a chance to be rectified with the opportunity for Epic-level play. The second (and biggest) complaint was how cumbersome, complicated, poorly designed and poorly play-tested the Mythic rules actually were. This is an effort to correct both of those issues.

1) Rather than gaining 'Mythic' levels separately, the characters simply advance at a faster rate, effectively leveling at what would be Mythic level 1, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10. Alternately it could just as easily be at 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 and 10. Either way, the character ends up effectively at 26th level. Classes are still capped at 20th, meaning that multi-classing or prestige classes would eventually be required. Note that the leveling above is specific to the WotR AP, and that in the general 'Epic' rules presented below there would theoretically be no upper level limit.

2)Character attributes are determined using a 25 point buy. At 4th level and every 4 levels thereafter, they gain +1 to two different attributes rather than only one. At 24th level and every 4 levels thereafter, they gain +1 to every attribute.

3) Starting at 21st level, characters are eligible to select the Mythic versions of feats, provided they meet the pre-requisites. Additionally, the character may select one of the following three options as their Epic Power (with X being equivalent to the number of levels past 20 that they've attained, i.e. at 23rd level, X = 3):

Fated Champion: As an immediate action, the character may re-roll any d20 roll they just made with a bonus of +X. This ability may be used X times/day.

Archmagus / Divine Herald: As a free action, upgrade any one spell you cast to its Mythic version. This spell does not count against your daily spell allotment. This ability may be used X times/day.

Inspirational Leader: As an immediate action, grant an ally that can see or hear you a standard action. This ability may be used X times/day.

I believe that this is an effective way to handle Epic/Mythic level characters - it keeps them from becoming so OP'ed that any challenge imaginable is still a joke, keeps the rules simple enough that it doesn't require a high degree of system mastery to enjoy and still gives players the 'feel' of being something truly special, both from the beginning and especially once they reach the post-20 era. I'd be very interested on hearing any thoughts that other players and GM's whom have played with Mythic or experimented with Epic-level rules might have about these ideas in particular.


I'm going back and forth between a Herald Caller and an Occultist, with the core concept being a character who can effectively summon creatures, provide either buffs or battlefield control as well as utility, and work towards the ability to use Planeshift as a devastating save-or-suck weapon. This is the Occultist that I'm considering - its my first Arcanist, so any thoughts are most welcome. Thanks in advance!

Human Arcanist (Occultist)

STR - 8
DEX - 14
CON - 14
INT - 18
WIS - 12
CHA - 10

Traits:
Reactionary
Magical Lineage (Planeshift)

Feats & Exploits:
1st - Improved Initiative or Scribe Scroll
1st - Spell Focus: Conjuration
3rd - Augment Summoning
3rd - [Ex] Potent Magic
5th - Extra Exploit [Ex] Dimensional Slide
5th - [Ex] Quick Study
7th - Superior Summoning or Evolved Summon Monster
9th - Reach Spell
9th - [Ex] Meta-Magic Knowledge: Persistent Spell
11th - Greater Spell Focus: Conjuration
11th - [Ex] Greater Meta-Magic Knowledge: Piercing Spell
13th - Quicken Spell
13th - [Ex] Dimensional Seal
15th - Spell Perfection: Planeshift
15th - [Ex] Consume Magic Items or Item Crafting: Scribe Scroll


Foretell (Su): At 8th level, you can utter a prediction of the immediate future. While your foretelling is in effect, you emit a 30-foot aura of fortune that aids your allies or hinders your enemies, as chosen by you at the time of prediction. If you choose to aid, you and your allies gain a +2 luck bonus on ability checks, attack rolls, caster level checks, saving throws, and skill checks. If you choose to hinder, your enemies take a –2 penalty on those rolls instead. You can use this ability for a number of rounds per day equal to your wizard level. These rounds do not need to be consecutive.

Is it safe to assume that activating this ability is a standard action and not the free action it would normally be to 'utter' something?

Is there any reason to think that you couldn't use both of the effects (luck bonus and penalty), activating them in successive rounds and using two rounds of the ability each round of combat?


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Good morning. :)

I'm building a Sorcerer for PFS and planning out my spell list level by level, though for brevity's sake, I'll just list my final spell list at 11th. I haven't played PFS beyond 6th (and then only once), so any thoughts or suggestions would be most welcome.

Some spells like Daze, Color Spray and Create Pit are taken but are eventually swapped out. I plan on taking Toppling Spell with Magical Lineage early on to get more utility out of Magic Missile.

FWIW, This is not a character focusing on outrageous spell DC's in one particular school nor trying to go all in on a single spell loaded with ridiculous metamagics (i.e. Quickened Dazing Fireball). Rather, he's trying to be more of a generalist, focusing on spells that provide utility, buffs for his allies and battlefield control. As a Wildblooded (Sylvan) Sorcerer, he will have an Animal Companion and as a Human, will be gaining bonus spells as his FCB, 4th - 11th level.

Spell List:
11th level
0 level
Arcane Mark
Dancing Lights
Detect Magic
Ghost Sound
Light
Mage Hand
Mending
Prestidigitation
Read Magic

1st level
Alarm
Entangle*
Featherfall
Magic Missile
Mage Armor
Silent Image
Shield
Vanish

2nd level
Bull’s Strength
Glitterdust
Hideous Laughter*
Invisibility
Locate Object
Mirror Image
Communal Protection vs. Evil
See Invisibility

3rd level
Clairaudience/Clairvoyance
Deep Slumber*
Dispel Magic
Fly
Haste
Communal Resist Energy
Stinking Cloud

4th level
Greater Aggressive Thundercloud
Black Tentacles
Dimension Door
Emergency Force Sphere
Poison*
Scrying

5th level
Animal Growth
Communal Stoneskin
Treestride*

* - Bloodline spell


One way that we limit summoners in our group is to have customized summoning lists for them. These usually represent fewer options that have been tied to a particular theme (I've put together 22 themed summoning lists as generic options), and tend to have much fewer creatures with their own SLA's.

For Skull n' Shackles, one of our players will be running a Master Summoner who wants to specialize in the elementals with a strong lean towards air and water, as well as the kinds of creatures one might encounter undersea, in the air or along the coasts. This is what we've come up with:

Summoning Lists:
(* summoned with the Counter-Poised template, per the Summon Neutral Monster feat)

SM I
Dire Rat*
Dolphin*
Sea Shrike (Eagle)*
Stingray*
Stirge*
Viper*

SM II
Elemental, Small
Manta Ray*
Reefclaw*
Squid*
Sea Snake*

SM III
Crab, Giant*
Electric Eel*
Mephit (any)
Shark*
Thoqqua

SM IV
Eagle, Giant*
Elemental, Medium
Devilfish*
Sandman
Shark, Great White*

SM V
Belker (A)
Elemental, Large
Moray Eel, Giant*
Salamander
Sea Drake*

SM VI
Elemental, Huge
Invisible Stalker
Mihstu
Sea Snake, Giant*
Shark-Eating Crab*

SM VII
Elemental, Greater
Invisible Stalker (Advanced)
Roc*
Squid, Giant*
Dire Shark*

SM VIII
Elemental, Elder
Roc* (Giant)
Sea Serpent*
Sapphire Jellyfish*

SM IX
Shipwrecker Crab*
Great White Whale*

All of the 'normal' Elementals will be available, though not the odd ones like Time or Gravity. Same with Mephits.

I was curious as to what you guys might think of its balance (or potential lack thereof). I'd also really like to add a third creature to the SM IX list, particularly something aerial, but I'm struggling to come up with something appropriate.


We have a Bard who's planning on using these two spells in conjunction pretty regularly in our Skull n' Shackles campaign. Its a shame that the ranges don't synergize very well, but putting that aside, is this a viable tactic?

If Blistering Invective causes someone to catch on fire, can that person then be used as the source for Pyrotechnics? I don't know if it counts as 'magical fire' when someone catches fire, but the spell seems to infer that using magical fire as a source is fine, it simply isn't extinguished by the spell.

If allies know that the spell is going to be cast ahead of time, can they close their eyes and avoid the effects of the fireworks aspect of the spell? The thought was the Bard would cast Blistering Invective and then everyone else would take their action, before closing their eyes as a free action at the end of their turn. Blindness penalties would be assigned to them in between the end of their turn and the end of the Bard's next turn when Pyrotechnics was cast, after which they would presumably open their eyes, again as a free action.

Sound reasonable? It seems to make for a pretty effective 1-2 punch at 4th level...


We have an expanded version of RotRL kicking off, one that (hopefully) will see us reach 20th level by its end. We've got our party together and a general idea of how its going to evolve, assuming everyone survives. I'm listing it below along with a couple of pertinent house rules in the hopes of getting an idea as to whether or not we've got any gaps we should consider or if it might be too powerful a grouping. The latter seems unlikely since our GM isn't going to be shy about piling on the difficulty as needed, but still. Any and all thoughts are welcome.

As an aside, our GM tends to play a lower magic campaign with only consumables commonly available for sale and those at twice the normal cost. Naturally, customizable magic items are at a premium for us.

Human Unchained Barbarian
Will spend most of his career as an Unchained Barbarian, dipping into a level of Unbreakable Fighter for Stalwart/Improved Stalwart purposes. Considering a late dip into Rogue as well, Thug archetype maybe, for Evasion and some Sneak Attack tricks. He's planning on carrying two-handed weapons, one with reach and one with not, and following a typical Beast Totem rage power build. Primary role: Tank.

Elven Magus (Hexcrafter)
Magus all the way. Early Flight Hex, then Evil Eye, Ice Tomb and Hag's Eye in the mid-levels. Taking the Frostbite/Rime Spell/Enforcer track and then Shocking Grasp as a preferred spell. Either Cone of Cold or Chain Lightning as the subject of Spell Perfection late. His rapier will be a Bonded Item (see House Rules below). Primary roles: Striker, Debuffer.

Half-Elven Oracle of Desna
Heavens Mystery & Powerless Prophecy Curse. Going the Color Spray route, obviously, with Desna's Shooting Star fighting style early on. Metamagic feats and Divine Interference round out his build. Eldritch Heritage will allow him to make his holy symbol a Bonded Item. His Mystery spell list has been slightly altered to better suit his deity (see below), and his favored class bonus will grant a ton of additional spells known. Primary roles: Battlefield Control, Healer.

Spell list changes:
4th - Rope Trick (replaces Hypnotic Pattern)
12th - Dream Travel (replaces Chain Lightning)
16th - Scintillating Pattern (replaces Sunburst)
18th - Miracle (replaces Meteor Swarm)

Kitsune Crossblooded Sorcerer
Serpentine & Fey Bloodlines obviously focused on powerful single-target control, resorting to buffing teammates and providing utility effects when those options aren't effective. Will benefit from a slightly expanded selection of spells (see below), and will eventually take a Faerie Dragon familiar. Primary roles: Single-target control, Utility.

Relevant House Rules:

The feats Power Attack, Combat Expertise, Deadly Aim and Eschew Materials are available for free to anyone who qualifies for them.

A Magus can take Bonded Object as an Arcana instead of a Familiar, but the item must be a weapon.

Sorcerers gain Heighten Spell in place of Eschew Materials (which they now get for free).

Crossblooded Sorcerers may select a bloodline spell as a known spell at each level 2nd - 19th.


I've really warmed up to the Unchained Monk and I'm trying to put together a character for what will be a somewhat villainous (though not necessarily evil) campaign. The concept just screams out for the Martial Artist archetype, so I'm trying to balance the old with the new.

This is what I've come up with, but I'd appreciate any input when it comes to relative balance - am I getting over or am I screwing myself?

Martial Artist Abilities:

Pain Points
Originally came at 3rd, replacing Still Mind; now comes at 4th replacing Still Mind.

Exploit Weakness
Originally came at 4th, replacing Ki Pool (& Ki Strike); now comes at 3rd, replacing Ki Pool, Ki strike & all Ki Powers.

Martial Arts Master
Originally came at 4th, replacing Slow Fall; now comes at 4th replacing nothing.

Extreme Endurance
Originally came at 5th, replacing Purity of Body, Diamond Body & Perfect Self; now comes at 5th, replacing Purity of Body, Timeless Body & Perfect self.

Physical Resistance
Originally came at 7th, replacing Wholeness of Body, Timeless Body & Tongue of the Sun and Moon; now comes at 7th replacing nothing.

Bonus Feat
Originally came at 12th replacing Abundant Step; now does not get the bonus feat at all.

Defensive Roll
Originally came at 13th level, replacing Diamond Soul; now comes at 13th level replacing Tongue of the Sun and Moon.

Quivering Palm
Additional uses began at 15th level; now the class does not get it at all.

Greater Defensive Roll
Originally came at 19th level, replacing Empty Body; now it comes at 19th level replacing Flawless Mind.

Thoughts?


A caster successfully drops a creature/creatures into a pit via the Create Pit spell, then he seals the top of it with a Wall of Stone. What happens when the Create Pit spell ends?


Several questions here so I figured I'd some to the experts.

Let's say that my Bonded Item is a ring.

If I want to upgrade it to a Ring of Protection +1, I pay 1,000 gp or half of the normal cost of that item.

If I later want to upgrade it to a Ring of Protection +2, does it cost me:

3,000 gp (the difference between half the price of +1 and half the price of +2)
4,000 gp (half the price of +2)
6,000 gp (the difference between full price +1 and full price +2)
7,000 gp (the difference between half-price +1 and full price +2)
8,000 gp (the price of +2)

Another situation - what if I want to upgrade it to a Ring of Protection +1 that also functions as a Ring of Feather Falling? Does it cost me:

1,100 gp (half the price of a Ring of Feather Falling)
2,200 gp (full price of a Ring of Feather Falling)
1,100 gp + 550 gp (half price +50%)
2,200 gp + 1,100 gp (full price +50%)

And would I then have to add half of the ring's existing ability(ies)'s cost as well as that of the new ability?

Presumably I'm going to want to keep adding abilities to it, specifically to make it a Ring of Protection that increases as I level as well as a Ring of Feather Falling, Ring of Swimming and Ring of Invisibility, possibly even a Ring of Freedom of Movement as well. I'm trying to get a sense of how much of my wealth by level to set aside for these upgrades.

Also, if the spells required to upgrade a ring aren't on my spell list, can I buy a scroll and sue Read Magic to 'fake it'?

Are there any required crafting checks for upgrading a Bonded Item or is it automatic (i.e. do I need to invest in Spellcraft)?

Finally, if the Bonded Item was acquired by a spontaneous caster, how does the bonus spell work - does it allow you to cast an additional spell from your list of spells known or from your spell list overall?

Thanks in advance - my searches have generated some confusing results.


I'm writing a narrative through the campaign based around the experiences of four PC's. These characters are a Human Unchained Barbarian (built in tankish fashion) and three sisters, all Witches and all whom claim him as their husband. What I'm trying to decide is what the best route to go with the witches would be.

I would like the respective builds to reflect the benefits of characters who pre-plan their feat and ability selections to be as complimentary as possible, and at the same time to represent differing personalities. This is what I'm currently considering, but I'm very open to any thoughts or suggestions:

Ohlmin, Human 16th level Unchained Barbarian/1st level Unbreakable Fighter:

I'm considering several different origin and backstory concepts for Ohlmin at the moment - suffice to say that he considers the sisters his family and loves each of them very much. He has learned when to keep out of their squabbles and when to step in, when to lead and when to follow and tends to view himself as their collective protector, provider and champion.

Ygritte, Human 17th level Witch (Time Patron):

The oldest of the three sisters, Ygritte tends to be the most practical and pragmatic of the three. She tends to view most situations with a degree of dispassionate logic, and her sense of humor is more sardonic and cynical than merry. She loves Ohlmin and her sisters both with a fierce protectiveness, however, and can be quick to ire when any of them are threatened or wronged. Ygritte views herself as the leader of both the coven and the group, with Ohlmin her indispensable right hand, and takes personal responsibility for each of their welfare.

Corvina, Human 17th level Witch (Seducer, Enchantment Patron):

Vivacious and daring, Corvina is the middle sister and revels in merriment and a degree of mischief. She rarely takes the long view or gives much thought to the consequences of her actions - instead she tends to act impulsively, relying on luck, her quick wit and her powers of persuasion to see herself through most situations. She makes almost compulsive use of her Charm Hex in most social situations and was the first of the sisters to seduce Ohlmin. Her incorrigible nature usually makes her the most popular and the most frustrating of the three, a duality she is well aware of and seems to take fiendish pride in.

Llira, Human 17th level Witch (Hedge Witch, Healing Patron):

Llira is the youngest and gentlest of spirit of the three sisters. This is not to suggest passivity nor timidity on her part, but rather a calmer and wiser perspective than might be expected of one her age. She only angers at needless cruelty and is quick to offer healing and comfort to those who may be in need. Despite collected nature, she is regarded as the most naïve of the three and the least likely to be able to look out for herself. This tends to inspire an overprotectiveness in the others, something that traditionally annoys her when it comes to her sisters, but secretly delights her when it comes to Ohlmin.

Ygritte would generally focus on Necromancy magic while Corvina would obviously focus on Enchantment and Llyra may go more of a Conjuration route.

What I'm hoping for are some suggestions regarding feat and Hex selection that would work well together both mechanically and flavor-wise, as well as advice regarding any potential pitfalls that may arise when running a group with this unique composition. Thanks in advance!


So, when Raging, the Unchained Barbarian gives up the STR-based damage bonus from using a two-handed weapon, the bonus to STR-based skill checks, the bonus to CMB, the bonus to CMD and the Fortitude save bonus... and in return gets - what, exactly?

I see actual Temporary HP instead of 'Psuedo HP', but what else might I be missing?


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As an alternate to using weapons as Bonded Items, I've been toying around with the concept of Weapon Familiars and, I have to say, its worked out surprisingly well. I'm posting the (current) iteration of those rules here for comment, critique and hopefully adoption into some of your campaigns.

I wanted to keep the weapon version of Familiars as close to the original base version as possible. At present I'm not allowing for archetypes (though that could certainly be an expansion of the house rules at some point). Flavor-wise, this could be seen as a spirit summoned into an item, and thus transferrable as a character acquires a more powerful weapons. These rules could also apply to shields or other objects with relatively minor adjustment.

House Rules: Weapon Familiar

Intelligent Weapon: Intelligence as per Familiar
Hit Dice & Hit Points: as per Familiar
Natural Armor: Increases Hardness instead, as per Familiar
Saving Throws: uses Familiar’s base save bonus or Master’s as per familiar; instead of ability modifiers the weapon’s effective enhancement bonus is applied to all
Skills: Cannot perform skills (see Aid Master); uses Master’s skill ranks; instead of ability modifiers the weapon’s effective enhancement bonus is applied to all
Alertness: grants the Alertness feat to it's Master when wielded
Weapon Sense: replaces Empathic Link; the wielder can always sense exactly where his weapon is (distance and direction), provided it is within 1 mile. Its Master may use the weapon or its location as a target for Scrying and similar divination spells and effects.
Deliver Touch Spells (@ 3rd): as the Magus’ Spellstrike class feature
Speak with Master (@ 5th): gains Telepathy 100’ (with Master only)
Spell Resistance (@ 11th): gains Spell Resistance as per Familiar and grants it to its Master as well when wielded
Scry on Familiar (@ 13th): as per Familiar

Aid Master: replaces Improved Evasion, Share Spells and Speak with Animals of its Kind; When wielded, the weapon may attempt to Aid Another (Master only) once per round on its Master's turn.
@ 1st level - Attack roll vs. AC 10 using Master’s BAB and its own enhancement bonus (if any) to grant +2 to one attack that round or +2 to AC vs. one attack.
@ 5th level - Skill check vs. DC 10 using Master’s skill ranks and its own enhancement bonus (if any) to grant +2 to any skill check.

Now this might technically a nerf when compared to a straight up Familiar - after all, it can't effectively scout for you, can't benefit from Archetypes or Familiar feats, can't make attacks, can't provide Flanking, can't perform skills on its own, doesn't have its own senses and doesn't provide that initial bonus that all Familiar's provide, but it does offer a number of unique abilities in keeping with its theme and concept and thus far no one has seemed to mind.

A few quick definition clarifications:

When wielded = when in hand and able to be used.

Effective enhancement bonus = total enhancement bonus, i.e. a +1 Flaming Keen Longsword has a +3 effective enhancement bonus. A Weapon Familiar can have no enhancement bonus at all.

These Familiars are dissimilar from Pathfinder's rules for Intelligent weapons, as the weapon's alignment matches it's Master's, it has no Ego, speaks no languages, reads no languages nor does it Read Magic and the it only shares its Master's senses.

One idea I'm currently toying with is the idea of an Improved Weapon Familiar feat which effectively makes it function as a Bonded Item on top of its other abilities.


Its been a while since I ventured into PFS and I thought to return with a Bard who specializes in buffing and de-buffing in combat and utility out of combat. I've been looking at a lot of options and I've finally settled on an Arcane Duelist. I keep bouncing back and forth between a Halfling and a Human with the Adopted trait for the Halfling version of Helpful - at the moment I'm leaning towards Human for the extra feat and the bonus spells known.

This is what I've got so far:

Human Bard (Arcane Duelist)

Attributes:
STR - 11
DEX - 16 (+1 @ 4th, 8th)
CON - 14
INT - 12
WIS - 12
CHA - 14

Traits:
Adopted – Helpful
Reactionary

Feats:
1st - Weapon Finesse
1st - Combat Reflexes
1st - Arcane Strike
2nd - Combat Casting
3rd - Bodyguard
4th
5th - Improved Initiative
6th - Disruptive

Gear:
3rd - Chain Shirt +1 (1,000), Cloak of Resistance +1 (1,000)
4th - Benevolent Chain Shirt +1 (upgrade, +3000)
5th - Gloves of Arcane Striking (5,000)
6th - Benevolent Chain Shirt +2 (upgrade, +5,000)

I'm trying to decide between a whip and a longspear and I'm not entirely clear on how Arcane Bond works in PFS right now, so I'll have to figure that out.

Using this build I should be pretty much able to grant adjacent allies a bonus to AC equal to +4 @ 3rd, +5 @ 4th, +7 @ 5th and +8 @ 6th without expending any actions. I plan to lean on Bardic performance and use spells or wands for most of my standard actions.

I'm not sure where to go from here. I've looked at going the Cavalier/Battle Herald route and even the Pathfinder Chronicler option, but I haven't found anything that offers more than the continued progression of my spell-casting would. The ability to gain and provide the teamwork feat Harrying Partners has some appeal, to extend the Aid Another benefits out to a full round, but I just don't know if that's something practically useful or just something that looks good on paper.

If I went that way, I'd be thinking something like this:

7th (Cavalier, Order of the Dragon)
Feat - ???
Bonus Teamwork Feat - Harrying Partners

8th (Cavalier, Order of the Dragon)
Additional +1 to Aid Another

9th (Battle Herald)
Feat - ???
Inspired Command - Teamwork

Any thoughts, suggestions or clarifications would be most welcome.


Relevant text listed below:

Aid Another
In melee combat, you can help a friend attack or defend by distracting or interfering with an opponent. [u]If you’re in position to make a melee attack on an opponent that is engaging a friend in melee combat[/u], you can attempt to aid your friend as a standard action.

Bodyguard
Benefit: When an adjacent ally is attacked, you may use an attack of opportunity to attempt the aid another action to improve your ally’s AC.

Does this mean that for you to be able to use Bodyguard, it must be against a foe that you are in position to make a melee attack against AND that foe must be attacking an ally who is adjacent to you? or does the text of Bodyguard supercede that of Aid Another by omitting that first requirement in its description?


I've been working on a rebuild of an old favorite character, trying to take into account some the copious amount of errata that's taken place since he last surfaced. The base concept is built around the Fighter Archetype 'Brawler' which I think is very underrated in design and potential. The current build I'm looking at is listed below - any suggestions or advice would be most welcome.

One major and one minor house rule applies here; The first being that, in our games, weapons that the feat Weapon Finesse would apply to instead gain the weapon quality 'finesse' that allow any wielder to apply their Dexterity instead of their Strength to attack rolls. The actual feat has been altered to allow characters to apply their Dexterity to damage rolls as well, with two caveats - the first being that it is weapon-specific, like Weapon Focus, and the second being that you don't get the 1.5 damage multiplier when wielding a Finesse weapon with two hands. The second house rule is merely that the GM has agreed to allow Piranha Strike to serve as a replacement for Power Attack when it comes to feat pre-requisites.

Goblin 2nd level Unchained Monk / 18th level Fighter (Brawler)

Attributes:
STR - 10
DEX - 20 (+1 @ 4th, 8th, 12th & 16th)
CON - 14
INT - 10
WIS - 14
CHA - 6

Traits:
Goblin Foolhardiness
Quain Martial Artist

Feats:
1st - Improved Unarmed Strike
1st - Stunning Fist
1st - Dodge
1st - Weapon Finesse: Unarmed Strike
2nd - Combat Reflexes
3rd - Crane Style
3rd - Mobility
4th - Piranha Strike
5th - Crane Wing
6th - Pummeling Style
7th - Combat Style Master
8th - Two-Weapon Fighting
9th - Disruptive
10th - Improved Two-Weapon Fighting
11th - Greater Two-Weapon Fighting
12th - Pummeling Charge
13th - Agile Maneuvers
13th - Stand Still
14th - Jabbing Style
15th - Jabbing Dancer
16th - Jabbing Master
17th - Counterpunch
18th - Pummeling Bully
19th - Weapon Focus: Unarmed Strike
20th - Greater Weapon Focus: Unarmed Strike

stats at 6th level:

HP 52 (6d10+12), Fortitude +10, Reflex +11 w/Evasion, Will +4
AC 35 (flat 20, touch 27) w/Mobility

10 + 6 [Dex] +1 [Size] + 1 [Dodge] +5 [Armor] +3 [Shield] +3 [Fighting Defensively] +1 [Acrobatics] +4 [Crane Wing]
Attack: +13/+13/+8
+6/+6/+1 [BAB] +6 [Dex] +1 [Size] +1 [Amulet] +1 [Training] -2 [Fighting Defensively]
Damage: 1d4+11
1d4 [Unarmed Strike] +6 [Dex] +1 [Trait] +1 [Amulet] +3 [Training]
Gear [15500/16000]:
Mithril Chain Shirt +1, Mithril Heavy Shield +1, Amulet of Mighty Fists +1, Belt of Dexterity +2, Cloak of Resistance +1, Ring of Protection +1

stats at 11th level:

HP 92 (11d10+22), Fortitude +14, Reflex +17 w/Evasion, Will +8
AC 39 (flat 24, touch 27) w/Mobility & Menacing Stance (-1/-8)

10 + 6 [Dex] +1 [Size] + 1 [Dodge] +7 [Armor] +5 [Shield] +3 [Fighting Defensively] +1 [Acrobatics] +4 [Crane Wing] +1 [Ring]
Attack: +19/+19/+14/+14/+9/+9 (Crit. 19+)
+11/+11/+6/+6/+1/+1 [BAB] +8 [Dex] +1 [Size] +1 [Amulet] +2 [Training] -2 [Fighting Defensively] – 2 [TWF]
Damage: 1d4+14 w/Pummeling Style
1d4 [Unarmed Strike] +8 [Dex] +1 [Trait] +1 [Amulet] +4 [Training]
Gear [81500/82000]:
Mithril Chain Shirt +3, Mithril Heavy Shield +3, Keen Amulet of Mighty Fists +1, Belt of Dexterity +4, Cloak of Resistance +3, Ring of Protection +1, Winged Boots, Handy Haversack

A couple of comments:

At 9th level the character gains Menacing Stance which, among other things, effectively causes adjacent casters to take a -8 on concentration checks (and scales up). At 11th he gets No Escape and at 13th a very potent Standstill. Should make him a nightmare at times for casters to deal with.

The relatively low Will save is a deliberate aspect of the character concept, even if its not optimized.

Ultimately, the intention is to use Combat Style Master to vacillate between Pummeling Style and Jabbing Style during his turns depending on whether he is charging or not and to keep Crane Style up the rest of the time. Until that happens, Pummeling Style is a nice way to get around annoying DR...

His skills are predominantly limited to Acrobatics, Perception and Stealth with a few other things sprinkled in.

At higher levels, particularly once Jabbing Master comes up, his damage should be insane.

Thoughts?


Let's say I have a Fighter with the Disruptive feat adjacent to a caster, making his concentration checks to cast more difficult - any way to enhance those difficulties through magic items?


Combat Style Master (Combat): You can switch your style as a free action. At the start of combat, pick one of your styles. You start the combat in that style, even in the surprise round.

So let's say I have a character with the following style feats: Crane Style & Crane Wing, Pummeling Style & Pummeling Charge and Jabbing Style, Jabbing Dancer & Jabbing Master. Is this an accurate portrayal of how everything would mechanically function:

Declare that I am fighting defensively and then enter Pummeling Style as a free action before charging a foe using Pummeling Charge and taking the reduced attack penalty granted by Crane Style (since you gain that benefit without actually being in the style). Then, before the end of my turn, switch to Crane Style as a free action and on my opponent's turn enjoy the defensive benefits of Crane Wing. Then, at the beginning of my next turn switch to Jabbing Style as a free action, declare that I'm fighting defensively (to again set up Crane Style) and make a full attack action as normal, gaining the benefits of Jabbing Dancer and Jabbing Master as I attack.

Sound correct?


Alright, so I had a goblin build that I loved, but like so many fun and exciting martial builds, it got nerfed all to hell and back to the point that it simply wasn't playable anymore. The short version is that he took the Fighter archetype Brawler (as opposed to the hybrid class) and a MoMS dip for Snake Fang and Crane Wing in order to get his AC as high as possible and then make tons of unarmed strikes. As a plus, he got all of those cool goodies that come with the Brawler archetype, like Menacing Stance, Standstill+No Escape, etc.

Ah, well, out with the old and in with the new.

I'm trying to rebuild him now, and I've been bouncing around between Fighter (Brawler), the actual Brawler, a Monk (Martial Artist/MoMS archetypes) or some combination thereof. For those wondering, the GM is fine with allowing those two Monk archetypes to combine (*see below for more on that). After a bit of brow-furrowing and number-crunching, I've decided to go with the Monk... mostly. I'm posting this here to get you guys to check my math, make sure I didn’t miss any pre-requisites and hopefully offer up any additional input you might have.

Note: This character might be better made as a Human, but accuracy is going to be a little bit of an issue and I feel like I need to take advantage of the Goblin’s bonus for being small and the Goblin trait ‘Goblin Foolhardiness’ to make up for some of that. Additionally, we have a standard house rule which says that any weapon which would normally qualify for the Weapon Finesse feat instead gains the ‘Finesse’ weapon trait, which allows its wielder to use Dexterity rather than Strength for attack bonuses. The Weapon Finesse feat then offers Dex to damage instead, but must be taken with a specific weapon, similar to Weapon Focus. In my case, however, I’ll probably be leaning on some magical means to get Dex to damage, like an Amulet of Mighty Fists

1st - Dodge
1st - [Style] Snake Style
1st - Stunning Fist
1st - Improved Unarmed Strike
1st - Fuse 2 Styles
2nd - [Style] Crane Style
3rd - Two-Weapon Fighting
5th - Crane Wing
6th - [Wild Card] Snake Fang
7th - Combat Reflexes
8th - Fuse 3 Styles, enter 3 Styles as swift action
9th - Improved Two-Weapon Fighting
10th - [Style] Jabbing Style
11th - Weapon Focus: Unarmed Strike
13th – Greater Weapon Focus: Unarmed Strike
14th - [Wild Card] Jabbing Master
15th - Greater Two-Weapon Fighting
15th - Fuse 4 Styles, enter 4 stances as swift *
16th (Br1)
17th (Br2) - Pummeling Style
17th (Br2) - Pummeling Charge
18th (F1) - Scorpion Style
19th (F2) - Gorgon’s Fist
19th (F2) - Medusa’s Wrath
20th

* the GM ruled that the MoMS archetype and the Martial Artist archetype could be made compatible by changing the 15th level ability to simply saying the Monk could enter 4 stances as a swift action, which puts it right in line with everything else and eliminates the need for a Ki pool, which the character won't have. Since he won't reach 20th level as a Monk anyway, the conflicting exchanges for Perfect Self become moot.

His AC should be obscene, particularly against single foes thanks to Martial Artist. Damage will escalate quickly at higher levels. There is an opportunity there for a ridiculous number of attacks.

Those last three levels are a little tricky. Scorpion Style and Gorgon’s Fist are pretty much throwaways in order to qualify for Medusa’s Wrath which would trigger Jabbing Master nicely. What I’m trying to decide is whether I should take a 3rd level of Fighter (Brawler archetype) for the Close Combatant bonus (+1 attack, +3 damage) or my 16th level of Monk which will bump all those abilities which are ½ Monk level as well as unarmed strike damage (2d6 to 2d8) and my AC bonus. Or perhaps I’m missing another opportunity, like Urban Barbarian for the Dex boost, since I’m immune to Fatigue at that point.

Let me know what you think – I’m sure I’ll have other questions as I get deeper into the build.


Jabbing Style (Combat, Style)
Benefit: When you hit a target with an unarmed strike and you have hit that target with an unarmed strike previously that round, you deal an extra 1d6 points of damage to that target.

Jabbing Master (Combat)
Benefit: While you use Jabbing Style, the extra damage you deal when you hit a single target with two unarmed strikes increases to 2d6, and the extra damage when you hit a single target with three or more unarmed strikes increases to 4d6.

So, to make sure I have this right... a Hasted 8th level Brawler with the above feats makes five unarmed strikes against a single target as a full round action using Brawler's Flurry and all five successfully hit. Base damage (before attribute mods, etc.) would then be:

1d10
1d10+2d6
1d10+4d6
1d10+4d6
1d10+4d6

Is that correct?


So I have a Sorcerer who has a Dominated Stone Giant that has been participating in combat with the party during a dungeon delve. Its wounded down to 15 hit points or so and the group is going back to town where a magically controlled Stone giant would be a problem. The sorcerer decides to take out two birds with one stone (so to speak) and uses the spell Vampiric Touch to Coups de Grace the giant.

Is it possible to use a touch spell to Coups de Grace?

Is it possible to use Vampiric Touch to Coups de grace?

If so, since the touch attack is an automatic critical, does it deal double damage and grant double the amount of temporary hit points (provided that that amount doesn't exceed the giant's current hit points+ CON score)?

Does a dominated creature count as helpless for the purpose of performing a Coups de Grace, especially if they have no way of knowing what spell is being cast?

Does a dominated creature automatically (willingly) fail its saving throw vs. a spell cast by its master? Alternately, if the dominated creature is unaware that it is being targeted with a spell (such as having his eyes closed, for instance), is it then a viable target for Coups de Grace and does it automatically fail the spell?

Just trying to get a sense of how some of these effects interact... thanks in advance.


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Building a Heavens Oracle (Ancient Lorekeeper) for a RotRL run and I have a few questions about how some of this works. First off, the text of the rules in question:

Awesome Display: Your phantasmagoric displays accurately model the mysteries of the night sky, dumbfounding all who behold them. Each creature affected by your illusion (pattern) spells is treated as if its total number of Hit Dice were equal to its number of Hit Dice minus your Charisma modifier.

It seems pretty straightforward until the seemingly unnecessary insertion of the term 'total number of Hit Dice'. Let's say that I take the spell Loathsome Veil as one of my bonus spells via Ancient Lorekeeper...

Loathsome Veil: This spell creates a transparent veil of shifting, multicolored strands of light that form into endlessly varied and alien patterns. One side of the veil, chosen by you at the time of casting, is harmless. The other side twists and turns into impossible shapes, affecting any creature with 60 feet who views the veil. The veil affects a maximum of 24 Hit Dice of creatures. Creatures with the fewest HD are affected first. Among creatures with equal HD, those who are closest to the spell are affected first. The effect is according to the creature’s HD.

4 HD or fewer: The creature is nauseated while it can see the veil, nauseated for 1d4 rounds after it last saw the veil, then sickened for 2d4 rounds after it last saw the veil.

8 HD or fewer: The creature is nauseated for 1d4 rounds, sickened while it can see the veil, then sickened for 1d4 rounds after it last saw the veil.

A successful saving throw ignores all effects of the veil. Sightless creatures are not affected by loathsome veil. Affected creatures can avert or close their eyes to avoid seeing the veil, similar to avoiding a gaze attack.

So, as a for instance, when an Oracle with a 20 Charisma (+5 mod) casts this spell where it would potentially affect 24 creatures of 6 HD each, the following questions:

How many of those creatures would the spell affect? All 24, since 6 HD minus the Oracles CHA mod (+5) equals 1, and 24 x 1 equals 24 HD? Or would it just affect the 4 closest with Awesome Display only being considered when determining what type of effect the spell has?

What would be the actual effect? Would it be the entry for 4 HD or fewer since 6 HD minus the Oracles CHA mod (+5) equals 1? Or would it be the entry for 8 HD or fewer with Awesome Display only being considered when determining the number of creatures affected by the spell?

Finally, a question specific to Loathsome Veil itself - the effect is described as follows:

"transparent pattern 40 ft. long, 20 ft. high"

Can that pattern be shaped, as a wall, or is it more like a single sheet? Could I, for instance, make a circle around me (effectively a circle with a 2 square/10' radius with me inside of it)? Does the Veil have to be vertical? Could I lay it along a ceiling or floor, or in the open sky, for example? Does it have a 'thickness', i.e. would it run along the edge of a square or would it be considered to fill a square along its length?

Finally, does the veil create any sort of cover or concealment? Can those standing on the 'good' side of the veil see through to those on the other side without impairment and, regardless of whether they make their saving throws, can those on the bad side see through it without difficulty as well?

Thanks in advance for any insight.


Good evening all.

I'm putting together an Oracle build for a Rise of the Runelords run. The character would prefer to avoid melee and isn't really even one for overly destructive spells, preferring control, buffs, debuffs and heals (more or less in that order) over ranged attacks or blasts. He's essentially a young worshiper of Desna who has sort of ancient arcane lineage and a fascination with the era of Thassilon. He'll start off somewhat exuberant and naive at the prospect of adventure, maturing as the story advances. We will be running an expanded version of RotRL which would, at least in theory, extend to 20th level.

He's going to take the Heaven's mystery and the Powerless Prophecy curse. Optimization takes a backseat to flavor and fun with this one, so I'm not looking to be perfectly optimized so much as being as good as can be reasonably expected within the character concept.

The biggest thing I'm debating right now is going as a Human with the Seeker archetype or as a Half-Elf with both the Seeker and Ancient Lorekeeper archetypes. Any thoughts on that would be welcome; he will also be taking the Eldritch Heritage feats for the Arcane Bloodline as well.

If I decide to go with the Half-Elf, this is the Lorekeeper spell list I'm currently considering - any advice in this would also be appreciated.

2nd - Arcane Mark
4th - Color Spray
6th - Rope Trick
8th - Paragon Surge
10th - Dimension Door
12th - Overland Flight
14th - Disintegrate
16th - Prismatic Spray
18th - Scintillating Pattern

These are the spells that I'm looking at taking via the Arcane Bloodline:

13th - Contingency or Anti-Magic Field
15th - Limited Wish
17th - Protection From Spells or Stormbolts

If it helps, the rest of the party is made up of two very strong melee types and an Enchantment-focused Sorcerer with the Serpentine Bloodline.

Thanks for listening!

EDIT: I know that the two archetypes both replace the bonus class skills gained by the Heavens mystery. The GM has made it clear that she's fine with my just taking the Seeker's Tinkering ability and not gaining the class skill benefits from Lorekeeper.


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At least, I think that I do.

I'm working on solidifying an epic campaign that combines the events of Shattered Star, Curse of the Crimson Throne and Rise of the Runelords as well as several PFS scenarios and some homebrew stuff. Without getting too much into detail here, there are several factions involved that the PC's will get caught up in and two of them are associated with a major subplot surrounding the return of Lissala.

Short version - Lissala's essence was shattered into hundreds of pieces and given physical form with a vestige of sentience; those fragments form what we know today as the Black Blades, though even the majority of their wielders are unaware of the weapon's true nature. Originally the Cultists of Lissala had infiltrated the Aspis Consortium under the auspices of two major up-and-comers, Sheila Heidmarch and (insert name here). Their plan was to discover the resting place of Krune, her last known high priest, and revive him, but the more Sheila learned of the Runelords and her research into the Sihedron, the more she believed that the Runelords time was done and that when the Goddess returned she would be better served by an administrator from the modern era - ideally, herself. She broke with the Cult and struck out on her own, joining the Pathfinder Society and using her personal knowledge to strike numerous blows against the Aspis Consortium, simultaneously setting back her rivals and gaining prestige and influence in the Society. Now, in Varisia, she is in a race to gather the pieces of the Sihedron and see it re-forged, believing that it will give her the power to resurrect the Goddess before the Aspis Consortium, under the direction of her rival is able to find and revive Krune. Its important to remember that both of them are devotees of the fallen Goddess and are only using the resources of their respective organizations to secretly advance their own goals.

Obviously, I've had to re-write and rebuild Sheila significantly (Arcanist, Blade Adept archetype), and I'll have to do the same thing with her rival, preferably a Gold Agent. I could invent someone from scratch but I thought it would be fun to take an existing name and character that's relatively well-established and give him a similar treatment. I'm not very well versed on the Aspis Consortium or the major players on the PFS stage, so I figured I'd ask and see if anyone could offer up some names of what would be likely candidates for this role... I've already introduced Maiveer Sloane as Sheila's opposite number in Magnimar, but I'd prefer to leave him an Aspis loyalist who opposes the Pathfinder Society on principle, unaware of the secret struggle going on.

Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated.


I'm building a Lamia Matriarch as a recurring villain (monstrous humanoid, shapechanger subtype) who is capable of changing into a fixed medium-sized humanoid form, and its entry (shown here) suggests that the effect is akin to Alter Self spell.

So, what happens when she changes to that humanoid form, assuming the form is that of a normal human? Obviously the size modifiers come into play and she loses her special modes of movement, but what else? Does she lose her Darkvision? Does she lose her +8 natural armor bonus to AC? How are her attributes affected - does she simply gain +2 to Dexterity the way a medium creature shifting to small does with an Alter Self spell, or is it determined by some table somewhere defining modifiers when a creature changes size (like Reduce Person does)?

The character will be spending the majority of her time in her human form and the first two times the PC's encounter her/battle her she will be in that form only so any help would be appreciated.


Good morning :)

I'm putting together a really fantastic recurring foe for my party and I've got a mechanic that I'm struggling with. The villain is a customized Lamia Matriarch.

Now, the Lamia Matriarch comes with a selection of inherent racial SLA's which are officially at caster level 12 (her base Hit Die). Then she has a selection of 'Matriarch Spells' which essentially has her casting as a 6th level Sorcerer, except that she can learn spells from the Wizard or Cleric spell list (which are all considered arcane). Finally, I've added two levels of the Bard archetype Dawnflower Dervish (for mechanical purposes only, the Battle Dance ability has been re-flavored to represent something ancient and at least theoretically serpentine or supernaturally graceful).

As part of her rebuild, I had her take the feat Arcane Strike, but I'm trying to figure out which caster level to base its damage bonus off of - the CL 12 SLA's, the CL 6 Matriarch casting or the CL 2 that she gets from her Bard levels... or would one or more of those HD stack with each other?

While I'm at it, would the two additional Bard levels/HD increase the caster level of her racial SLA's by two as well?

Thanks in advance!


Good morning :)

I prefer to almost always give my characters unique, custom magic items that exhibit an ability to grow with them... for a variety of reasons this skews the traditional values of magic items (is a slotless item really that valuable when there's no way the PC is going to fill up all of his slots anyway?). Even so, I like to have a general idea of how valuable the items I create are when I can, and I thought this might be an interesting challenge for some of you mathematicians who are more experienced with the rules of crafting than I.

Force Orb
This crystal sphere must be held in the hand to be used, and can serve as a Bonded Item for those who have the Arcane Bond class feature (treat it as a wand for crafting purposes, but only spells with the 'force' descriptor may be invested). It also has the following additional abilities:

Cast Emergency Force Sphere 1/day (caster level = character's caster level)

As a swift action, the bearer can modify a spell cast that same round with either the Extend Metamagic feat or the Toppling Metamagic feat. This does not increase the casting time of the spell or the level of the spell slot necessary to cast the spell, but may only be applied to spells with the 'force' descriptor. This ability may be used a number of times per day equal to 1/2 the caster's class level (minimum 1).

I'm very interested to hear what you guys come up with, and how you arrived at that conclusion. I'm not expecting anything definitive, btw, just an educated guess from people more educated on the subject than I.


I'm putting together a 10th level Halfling Mouser for a game this weekend; among other things he will be taking Stylish Riposte and have a Fortuitous Rapier. Is there any reason why I would not want to use a Buckler with this character?

To that point, does a buckler essentially function as a light shield (with the stated exceptions) when it comes to AC benefits and enhancements?

Basically, would a +2 Buckler provide the same AC benefits as a +2 light shield while not affecting any of my feats or swashbuckler abilities? I have no intentions of using anything in my off-hand.


So if I want to pick someone's pocket or steal an item from them under normal conditions, I use my Sleight of Hand skill and my Dexterity bonus... but if I want to steal from them in the middle of combat (say, by using the Mouser's 'Quick Steal' ability) its based purely off of my BAB and my Strength bonus? If that's right, then that seems... off... doesn't it?


Heading into the Misgivings (RotRL) - will Prot. Evil suppress the effects of haunts or even prevent them from taking effect at all?


Greater Spirit Totem: While raging, the spirits that surround the barbarian become dangerous to any enemy adjacent to the barbarian. Living enemies adjacent to the barbarian at the start of her turn take 1d8 points of negative energy damage. In addition, the spirit wisps can now attack foes that are up to 15 feet away from the barbarian and the slam attack deals 1d6 points of negative energy damage.

A couple of quick clarifications:

So if I'm granting this ability to everyone in my party via Raging Song, every enemy adjacent to a party member takes 1d8 negative energy damage on each player's turn. In other words, if four of us had a foe surrounded, that foe would be taking 4d8 negative energy damage/rd plus be potentially subjected to four additional spirit attacks per round? Admittedly those spirit attacks would be pretty weak at that level but its still something.

And similarly, if one member of my party was surrounded by four foes, each of those foes would take 1d8 negative energy damage per round?

Finally, if I am granting the ability, do each of the attacking wisps use my BAB with my CHA bonus regardless or do they each use the BAB & CHA of the particular character they are surrounding?

Thanks in advance!


Specifically modules, scenarios and/or volumes from other AP's that can be inserted to expand the campaign without too much difficulty?


From Raging Song:

"If an ally has her own rage class ability (such as barbarian's rage, bloodrager's bloodrage, or skald's inspired rage), she may use the Strength, Constitution, and Will saving throw bonuses, as well as AC penalties, based on her own ability and level instead of those from the skald (still suffering no fatigue afterward). However, inspired rage does not allow the ally to activate abilities dependent on other rage class abilities, such as rage powers, blood casting, or bloodrager bloodlines; the ally must activate her own rage class ability in order to use these features."

From Uncontrolled Rage:

"A wild rager's rage functions as normal, except that when she reduces a creature to 0 or fewer hit points, she must attempt a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 the barbarian's level + the barbarian's Constitution modifier) or become confused. For the remainder of her current turn, she attacks the nearest creature other than herself. On the following round, refer to the confusion spell to determine her actions. At the end of this round, and each round thereafter, she can attempt a new saving throw to end the confusion effect. The rounds during which she is confused do not count against the rounds she has spent raging that day, but she cannot end her rage voluntarily, nor can she use rage powers while confused."

Would the use of Raging Song serve as an effective way of mitigating the dangerous downside of Uncontrolled Rage?

Silver Crusade

Morning all.

I'm putting together my newest PFS character and my first full caster (Human Wildblooded Sylvan Sorcerer), and I'm trying to plan out my spell lists ahead of time. The character is going to be more of a utility type, focusing on control and buffing spells for the most part, but I wanted to make sure I checked the 'useful' box as well. Looking at 2nd level spells, after Aggressive Thundercloud, Communal Protection vs. Evil and the requisite Hideous Laughter, I was considering Detect Thoughts as an option. For players, do you think this would be useful, would it come up very often? I like spells like Charm Person and Detect Thoughts for out-of-combat utility but I'm not sure how much benefit I'd get from it in PFS... would something like Eagle's Splendor as a pre-combat buff serve better?

For GM's, how would you adjudicate the use of this spell? Assuming the target failed its save and was being questioned verbally on a topic, how much information would you be willing to offer up? In some scenarios I could see this as potentially game-breaking.

I know these are pretty general questions but I've never used the spell before, so any input would be appreciated.


Happy Holidays, all!

I'm putting together a PFS character who is a Human Wildblooded Sorcerer (Sylvan) and she'll have a wolf animal companion from the start. As part of the early build I was planning on taking Magical Lineage (Magic Missile) and the Toppling Spell feat to use with Magic Missile. My wolf gets an automatic Trip attempt every time he hits with his Bite so I figured that the Tandem Trip feat would be an ideal pairing; I could get the feat at 5th (Boon Companion at 3rd) and he'd get it at 4th if I use the Attribute bump to increase his Intelligence to 3. Does this work the way I think it does?

If he's out in combat away from me and I use the spell against a foe he threatens I get to roll twice to trip, but if the wolf hits with an attack he only rolls once. If I also threaten the target and the wolf hits with an attack then he gets to roll twice to Trip as well. Is that right? Is it worth a feat?

It seems like this would come up often enough to be useful; does anyone's experience say differently? Also, am I considered to be threatening if I don't have a weapon in hand and don't have Improved Unarmed Strike? Finally, if someone provokes an AoO from the wolf and he hits, does the Trip ability trigger then as well?

Thanks in advance!


...in a seemingly futile effort to keep up with the never-ending list of nerfs, 'clarifications' and re-writes that IS Pathfinder, I find myself struggling to nail down the changes to Fencing Grace.

If I have a Magus who took a level in Inspired Blade to better able select the feat Fencing Grace and its two-feat pre-requisite, does Fencing Grace still apply when I use Spell Combat, i.e. attacking with a rapier in one hand while casting a spell with the my completely empty other hand?

Thanks in advance, even if the rules change again before your response is read...


Does Fast Healing, say from Skald's Vigor, qualify as 'magical healing' for the purposes of the feat Fast Healer?

If so does the Fast Healing simply get boosted by half your Con modifier?

Also, does the Skald's Raging Song benefit from/trigger the feat Raging Vitality?

Grand Lodge

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I'm looking at some ideas I've heard proposed and cobbling them together... I've got some questions about how exactly some of the rules interact and whether or not it would all be considered PFS-legal.

First, the build...

Skald build:

Half-Orc 1st level Bloodrager (Aberrant Bloodline) / 10th level Skald (Fated Champion)

Attributes:
STR - 16
DEX - 14
CON - 14 (+1 @ 4th & 8th level)
INT - 8
WIS - 12
CHA - 14

Racial Abilities:
Darkvision 60'
Intimidating
Sacred Tattoo
City-Raised

Traits:
Fortune's Favored
Finish the Fight or Tusked

Feats & Rage Powers:
1st - Tumor Familiar (Valet archetype)
2nd - Extra Performance
3rd - Amplified Rage (Teamwork)
4th - Rage Power: Lesser Fiend Totem
5th - Skald's Vigor
6th
7th - Raging Vitality
7th - Rage Power: Fiend Totem
8th
9th - Fighting Frenzy (Teamwork) or Improved Familiar
10th - Rage Power: Swift Foot
11th - Greater Skald's Vigor

So, a few questions:

Presumably there is no problem with the mechanic of the Valet familiar archetype allowing the Tumor familiar to grant the benefits of Amplified Rage & Fighting Frenzy. I am curious however, whether the benefit from Skald's Vigor grants Fast Healing 2 (Skald Raging Song STR bonus of +2), Fast Healing 4 (Bloodrager Rage STR bonus of +4), Fast Healing 6 (Skald's Raging Song STR bonus of +2 and +4 from Amplified Rage) or Fast Healing 8 (Bloodrager's Rage STR bonus of +4 and +4 from Amplified Rage).

Will Raging Vitality allow Skald's Vigor to heal me from negative hit points back to consciousness?

Does the healing from Skald's Vigor count as 'magical healing' for the purposes of activating the feat Fast Healer? If so, would it boost the existing Fast Healing by the appropriate amount (half my CON bonus)?

Will Finish the Fight activate if someone is injured due to the effects of the Fiend Totem Rage Power?

How does Improved Familiar work with the Valet archetype? If I pursued this option would I lose my Teamwork benefits?

With Tusked and Lesser Fiend Totem, a full attack action at 8th level with Haste/Allegro running would basically be BAB +6/+6/+1 then +1 (Gore) and +1 (Bite), correct?

Is the 'Furious' weapon quality triggered by Raging Song?

Any other advice or considerations would be much appreciated as well...


I'm building my first and I'm exploring a variety of options, primarily for a Dexterity-based build. Is there any value in taking Prehensile Hair and Shield Proficiency? Is reach for touch spells and the ability to have an upgradable shield (mithril to start, naturally) worth the burned standard action, or would the Shield spell and/or the Spell Shield Arcana be the better option?

At the moment the Arcana I'm looking at is: Arcane Accuracy, Spell Shield, Hasted Assault and Bane Blade.

The Hexes I'm looking at are: Slumber, Flight, Charm, Evil Eye, Ice Tomb and Hag's Eye then Summon Spirit and either Death Curse or Dire Prophecy at 18th level.

The Metamagic Feats I'm planning on taking are Intensify Spell, Maximize Spell and Quicken Spell to go along with Spell Perfection,

I'm sure not much of this is new territory to any Magus players, but are there any better options or combinations I should be considering?

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