Xraal's page

If your aim is to use "Flurry of Blows" + 1 Bite, then this should work:

"You gain the following Natural Attacks; 1 Slam Attack and 1 Bite Attack, both count as Primary Natural Attacks.

You may use the Slam Attack as if you were using Flurry of Blows and combine with all rules regarding Flurry of Blows.

You may additionally use your Bite when you perform a Flurry of Blows using Slam.

This ability replaces Flurry of Blows."

I'm pretty sure that clerics gain their orisons from their gods too, so chaining them up to spam create water would work just long enough for their god to realize what was going on, and that would likely not be viewed very kindly by that god.

Now, chaining up wizards, witches or sorcerers... that's got some promise.

The more I think about Aux's post, the more I like it. I'm going to bounce it off my group to see what they think.

Hence the "Que PC's" up above. :-) - Most gods do not act directly but guide chance and fate.

You do not need a "reverse" Regenerate spell. You just need plain Regenerate.

To wear the graft he had to cut off or lose the original arm right?`

So hitting him with Regeneration will grow back his own arm, pushing off the graft as a matter of course.

Omelite wrote:

LazarX wrote:

Hyperion-Sanctum wrote:

If you are a Wiz with an Int of 30 at lvl 10 and your GM lets you gain retroactive skill points that's what, 12 maxed skills? (and the obviously awesome save DCs and bonus spells)

Does that INT of 30 include a Headband +6? If so, that's two skill points per level which are hardwired by the headband and not subject to player discretion. If the player has points already in the headband skills, they overlap and do not stack.

Minor correction: +6 is three skill points per level.

The overlapping thing doesn't really come into play when you're making a level 10 character rather than playing him 1-9 first, or when you get to choose what skills you want on the headband.

If you're creating the headband, the only skills you can choose are those you already posess.

Ah, yes, but you only need to place a single rank in it to be able to make the item, and then wear that and enjoy full ranks. :-)

EDIT: Oh, isn't this also a "requirement" that can be sidestepped during creation by adding DC?

Yes. You can 'hold' it but not 'wield' it. If you used it to hit someone, you would use it as in improvised weapon that is too big. That 1d8 at -6 to hit and can't use any enchantments on the weapon as you are not using it as much as clobbering with it. Oh, and if in your offhand youd take another whopping penalty to hit on top.

3.5 had you ride 'tall' creatures two size categories bigger than you, without special penalties.

I've found that a lot of people are overly generous with where they can charge which might resolve a bit of this. A large creature in a dungeon isn't going to find a ton of good charge lines.

Overall, I have to agree that people bending and tweaking the rules is a big deterrent to me doing a lot of open organized play. I enjoy it in our local group but if someone brings something like this I can talk to them.

Fortunately the number of players who pull this sort of thing is a fairly small percentage.

While you have a point, I have a counter. If you Jump, you ignore difficult terrain.

Jumping can be done as part of a charge.

If you are a Pouncer and live by your Charges, you will/should also have maxed your Acrobatics skill to a degree where you can make standing horizontal jumps of 10-15 feet for just the purpose of avoiding being hindered by difficult ground.

So, while you certainly have a point, it becomes moot by a certain level once acrobatics is high enough.

As for the OP and his problem, the Pouncer will remain powerful but will lose impetus as the rest of the party gets high magical bonuses on their weapons and more iterative attacks.

Compared to a Cavalier with a horse and a lance, the damage done by pouncing is certainly matched and probably surpassed once his lance has a higher magical plus than each claw of the pouncer.

The cat will never get iterative attacks, since he uses all natural attacks. His only way to gain more attacks is by growing more limbs.

He also has issues with reach. He will get hit by AOO's when charging stuff with reach, and these critters should consider tripping him if they have the ability.

Only permanent Intelegence boosts increase the Skill Points per level, and it is not retroactive. However, the Headband does automatically grant max ranks in a Skill per +2 bonus, (which basically compensateds for that).

Bt it isn't a bad house-rule to just grant extra skill points.

You are mistaken. The skillpoints for Inherent INT are retroactively added.

You are correct about max ranks in a skill, but your modifiers to that skill, do they stack on top?
- Relevant ability modifier does, but what of Skill Focus and Class Skill bonus and possibly Racial bonuses?

You can get an AoO *while using a bow* but not *with the bow itself* if that makes any sense.

I think the points people before have made so far are great (Spiked Gauntlet, Armor Spikes, Improved Unarmed Strike) but just to point one thing out in Karkon's post:

You wouldn't take TWF fighting penalties for only swinging with one weapon in a round.

I completely agree. During your round you shot with the bow. At this time, you also count as "wielding" another weapon, but you do not use it presently, so there is no TWF penalty.

Later, in the opponent's round, they provoke an attack of opportunity from you. You may make that attack at normal, unadjusted, attack bonuses and you may make the attack with any weapon you count as "wielding", that is not a ranged weapon. - Here; boot, spike or other. - No TWF going on, no penalty.

That seems in need of errata.

You can stay awake once for 24 hours with the Eidolon up if you want. RAW thus satisfied.

Actually... It would appear that every situation it says "shadowdancer's" level, it means character level.

And everywhere it just says "shadowdancer" it means SD class levels.

If you check, that rule eliminates the crazy results and leave tolerable results.

That does have a certain simplicity to it that is appealing.

It does also kill off any ability to "refill" them using fast healing though. - As you do not really have the Eidolon's HP's, you have a buff of temporary HP's that just happens to match the HP of the Eidolon

Hmm, how does these temporary hitpoints stack with other temporary hitpoints?

My favorite race of synthesist would be half-orc for the free falchion prof, or half-elf if I want exotic weapons with the ancestral arms racial trait.

Or, ya know, just get the heirloom weapon trait cause that is amaaaazing.

Half-elf also gets 5 more Evolution points via his alternate favored class bonus. (Over the 20 levels, 1/4 per level)

Ravingdork clarifies it well. If you have the ability to create a situation where you meet the requirements, you may take the feat.

You do not need to be able to persist that situation indefinitely.

Being able to use a minute when you wake up and then have the prerequisites for the desired feat should be more than enough to claim that you meet the prerequisites for the purposes of taking the feat.

- You probably don't sleep with your belt of STR or headband of INT, do you? - So casting an all day buff when getting up in the morning should qualify just as well as a persistent item bonus does.

I agree with Ravingdork, you have to be able to produce the requirements before you can grab the feat. You can't take it if you do not yet have access to a way to meet the requirements.

Actually, you do not have to be able to meet the requirements to take a feat.

You just have to be able to rationalize that you have a readily available method to meet the requirements often enough to train it. - And the Eidolon is That.

This is similar to having a magic item that grants +STR. With the item, you meet certain pre-regs., without it you do not.

When you do not meet the requirements, the feat is passive and not usable. When you do meet the requirements, the feat is active and usable.

Yup, thank you. That was the one.

But there IS a rule stating that using many arms works along the same rules as two-weapon fighting. Read the multiattack feat, I think that is the one. I'm not near my books.

I believe you are mistaken about Shadow Illusion Kalyth.

It could easily had read: "CL equals your SD levels".

But instead it refers to the character and states to use that level as CL.

"the shadowdancer's" encompasses the whole character, whom is a Shadowdancer, and not solely your shadowdancer levels.

Both refer to your full character level stats. The shadow is related to Familiars mechanically

Jack of Tales wrote:

I'm confused on how this works. Say I have 10 limbs and am holding 5 swords in each pair of limbs. Would one set count as the "primary" when using multi-weapon rules?

Based on what the multiweapon feat in the Bestiary calls the normal rules. I would say yes one hand is primary and everything else is an off-hand.

Jack of Tales wrote:

If so, what would the strength bonus be on all of the arms? Normally a THW gets 1.5 Str. Would an off-Hand, THW get 1.0 strength or .5 strength?

A strict rules-as-written answer is that all two-handed weapons deal 1-1/2 times STR modifier to damage.

But, using two "off-hands" isn't exactly what the developers had in mind when they wrote that. I would rule it does 1 times STR. Since primary hand does 1 times STR with a one-handed weapon and off-hand does 1/2 times STR; two hands normally does the sum of those two namely 1 and 1/2. So, it seems logical that you would add the bonus for two off-hands, namely 1 times STR modifier.

There is a Feat that allows you to gain a x1 STR modifier on off-hand attacks.

So, what would you do then?

There is no way to make Power Attack do more than 1 for 1 in damage on off-hand attacks and secondary natural attack.

Just mentioning this, because the multiplication rules are not defined anywhere.

I suppose the most RAW interpretation would be to take all applicable multiplication rules, apply each to the original number and then add the increase/decrease.

Adopted is just a designation for a period of some length where you lived with and among another people as one of them.

Writing it into a backstory pre-gamestart is relatively easy.

Cheesy, yes. RAW, yes.

It is not even optimal though.

any time your Eidolon has an even number of allowed Natural Attacks, you will be forced to add a tentacle or other single attack.

Going with several paired Claws is the optimal choice due to Weapon Focus, INA Claws and so on.

(I haven't gone through every post so sorry if this has already been posted)

If your character isn't set in stone yet, and don't mind trying something a little... exotic, I'd recommend playing an oracle with the Juju mystery (if you have access to the Serpent's Skull adventure path #36 "City of Seven Spears"). Basically, voodoo priest with the ability to create NONEVIL (if you are nonevil) undead (neutral if mindless, YOUR alignment if thinking) should you choose the spirit vessels mystery AND the ability to animate more dead as well as the ability to animate max HP zombies and juju zombies. Oh, and all necromancy spells that create undead lose their evil descriptor when you cast them. So it becomes a cultural issue of belief instead of an absolute moral one. The paladin can detect evil all he wants and nothing will ping because there is no evil involved.

That is both awesome and broken! :-)

harmor wrote:

Cheapy wrote:

Are you deadset (groan) on playing a necromancer? Sounds like your character is going to cause a party schism.

No, but I'd like to have the option for 'disposable' minions.

I'll join with MDT's voice.

The Paladin will likely have issues with your behaviour, because he'll be good (assuming he is a "he")

The barbarian will likely have issues with your behaviour, if he's Good.

The fighter will likely have issues with your behaviour, if he's Good.

The ranger will likely have issues with your behaviour, if he's Good.

The wizard will likely have issues with your behaviour, if he's Good.

The cleric will likely have issues with your behaviour, if he's Good.

well, you get the picture...

'findel

I agree.

"Disposable" minions also cover hired mercenaries, once you go evil you don't care if it is living or undead when you throw it under the grinder.

The OP's character is Evil.

Even if not a Paladin, the rest of the "good" world will oppose the OP's character if he flaunts his evil ways in their face.

This is not a character issue, this is an issue that needs to be solved OOC: - "Hey guys, are we playing a group of Heroes or is it cool if we play evil villainous necromancers?"

Guys: if you want to use a shield as a main hand attack (and not take the usual mandatory offhand penalty for shield bashing) the only known way I've seen it in the rules is via the Taldan Rondelero fighter archetype (Pathfinder Companion: Inner Sea Primer)

Strong Swing (Ex): At 5th level, a rondelero gains a +1
bonus on attack and damage rolls when wielding a falcata
and buckler that applies to attacks made by either hand.
These bonuses increase by +1 for every four levels beyond
5th. With a full-attack action, a rondelero may alternate
between using his falcata or his buckler for each attack.
This does not grant additional attacks or incur penalties
as two-weapon fighting does. This ability replaces weapon
training 1.

No, I disagree, this is not the same at all. This introduces rules for Bucklers, which cannot normally be used to shield bash with.

Normal shields without spikes get the line of shield bashing feats to work with.

Normal shields WITH spikes only need the shield feats that allow you to attack with it without losing your AC for the turn.

You can in every turn declare which weapon is your main hand attack. If you desire to combine attacks with that weapon with other attacks available to you, the type of these attacks determine the off-hand penalties you have to suffer.

For example, using a Light weapon in your off-hand vs. using a One-hand weapon.

If you do not actually USE the other weapon in that round, then you suffer no penalties to attack.

I advice against using the shield bash line, unless you want to invest a lot of feats in it.

Using Armor Spikes does not require you to take any additional feats and does not interfere with you using a shield normally.

Hmm... Why not make a magic bullet pouch that teleport new rounds into the gun? (and the old ones out)

Battlefield variation is the best way to keep it exciting I think.

Make it so the characters have to think about where and how they choose to move about the field.

Do not allow it to be charge in round one and then just full attack every round thereafter. - This is boring for the players too.

Instead of upping the individual monsters, also throw in more monsters.

Whenever you would send in a BBEG, give him a few waves of mooks to help him get concealment and avoid getting flanked/alphastruck by charging mounts and stuff.

Use terrain baffles, having a few boulders with just a 5ft gap between them is also awesome to limit charge lines.

My group of semi-optimized characters dealt more than 150 points of damage in a single round @ level 5 versus a dragon with AC 21.

It had turned invisible and then struck our entire party with its breathweapon, nearly killing us all in one strike. But in doing so, it was in melee range of me, our rogue flanked, our cavalier charged and our wizard nuked and our Cleric AE healed.

Never ever use a BBEG in such a manner.

I have a question in the same line...

Does the caster have to be able to SEE his targets or is it enough if he knows where they are?

For example, our rogue had gone into the shrubs, still in range but hidden even to our perception and knowing where he was.

Could our wizard have hit him with Haste even so?

But why not just use the first bonus attribute point your animal companion gets for that?

The +2 is much better spent in STR in most cases. With the lagging HD compared to PC's, companions need all the to hit bonuses they can get.

Or was this solely to get the Adopted Trait and through that the Bite attack? - Most good animal companions already Have a Bite attack.

Yes, funny, not optimal though. :-)

Warning criminals is not mandatory for Paladins. Warning hostage takers can get the hostages killed. The Paladin did the Good thing and did not violate the Law, so he is golden.

Legal and not cheese.

Now, grab two levels of Ranger with Natural Attacks style and get a matching set of claws on your feet.

Now you are rocking the cheese.

The most efficient way to maximize the use would then be to take Alchemist from there on out, to get two more claw attacks.

Alternatively Sorcerer/Dragon Disciple.

Eventually your Bite attack will be replaced by the class features anyway.

Natural Attacks are not really worth it unless you get all 5 up and running. (As secondary attacks they only ever add half STR)

If you want to make the AOO WITH the bow, then you need to look at the Zen Archer lvl. 9 ability.

If you just want to threaten squares next to you and make a passing slap at someone passing, then armor spikes are the cheapest option.

Well... If you do dip into Zen Archer for the first three levels of awesome, then do note that you get the ability to attack with any body part as an unarmed attack.

You do not get to Flurry in melee, but your unarmed attacks do get a neat boost.

Xraal wrote:

So the sword and boarder might use his sword as the primary attack in one round, but in the next he can choose to lead with the shield as the primary weapon and the sword as the secondary weapon.

Though I agree with this interpretation, game developers and RAW have not yet confirmed it.

I believe RAW does explain this quite well enough. There is no case where an action you take in one round limits you in the next.

In addition, there is no handed-ness, so primary hand is what you choose it is.

In any given round you only have one Primary hand, but there is nothing in RAW that stops you from picking another in following rounds.

Xraal wrote:

Note that the sword I mentioned above, if it is a one-hand weapon, will give a greater penalty to all attacks made that round, if it is used as the off-hand weapon.

Actually, if you are using a heavy shield and a one-handed sword, or a light shield and a light weapon, the penalties are the same regardless of whether you attack with the shield or the weapon as your primary.

Your statement only becomes true when wielding a light shield with a one-handed weapon.

On this part your clarification is correct, my comment did assume the user would try to do that classic one-handed mainhand and light off-hand combo.

I agree with Wraithstrike on this. The simplest is to interpret it as a simple replacement of the relevant attribute for the relevant values.

Oracle Lore may use CHA for AC and Reflex Saves but NOT for CMD

Oracle Nature may use CHA for AC and CMD but NOT for Reflex saves

Neither of them get CHA to inititative, to hit with ranged and so on.

For just a single level dip into oracle you need to be level 11 to get the level 5 curse update, and level 19 to for the level 10 one.

With the level 5 one at least the penalty for the curse is still pretty hefty, while the boni aren't that awesome. So "unstoppable"? I don't know.

As if speaking Celestial in combat is a problem anyhow... It is one skill point spent from each of your allies.

If you only make one attack in a round, it is a primary attack, even if you make it with your shield or boot or whatever.

Generally any attack that is in addition to what you, the player, decide is your primary attack for the round, is counted as an off-hand attack.

So the sword and boarder might use his sword as the primary attack in one round, but in the next he can choose to lead with the shield as the primary weapon and the sword as the secondary weapon.

Bootknife, shield spikes, armor spikes and similar are often used as off-hand weapons as they all count as "light" and therefore lower the penalty for fighting with more than one weapon in a single round.

Note that the sword I mentioned above, if it is a one-hand weapon, will give a greater penalty to all attacks made that round, if it is used as the off-hand weapon.

AFAIK Iterative attacks granted by high BAB can be made with whatever weapons you wield and be flexed between them in any given round as you see fit.

In 3.5 you could ride a biped that was two categories larger than you.

But other than that bit of trivia, I agree that counting both as crowded and observing encumbrance should occur.

It is meant to be two parallel items that just happens to be ducttaped together. Tally each one separately and just be glad you bypass the markup for having two effects in a single item slot.

The weird only begins when you find shield and weapon enchantments that enhance attack and defense respectively... Not to mention that there is a way to use the shield enhancement offensively with various feats and class features.

@meabolex, James Jacobs introduced the term "supernaturally dark" as a category below normal darkness. The only level of light that darkvision cannot see through.

I just took the liberty of calling that category Super Dark. :-)

Consider this:

A long tunnel, with bright light conditions at either end, but (natural) darkness in between. Even without darkvision you can easily see through the tunnel to the bright lit area beyond. Anything inside the tunnel would be visible as a silhouette.

If we have that same scenario but cast some magical darkness in the tunnel. Will the magical darkness now prevent seeing through (for non-darkvision people)?

What about casting deeper darkness to end up with super-darkness in the tunnel. Can you see "through" it to the bright side beyond?

Given this:

End one A.1 = Bright light
Tunnel close edge A.2 = Normal light
Tunnel further in A.3 = Dim light
Tunnel middle B = Normal Darkness
Tunnel further in C.3 = Dim light
Tunnel close edge C.2 = Normal light
End two C.1 = Bright light

As B is unaffected by A(all) and C(all), casting Darkness on B will make that area Supernatural Darkness in illumination level. It is now impossible to see from A to C.

Casting Deeper Darkness would have the same result. It would actually be at Supernaturally Dark +1.

If we took a normal candle (giving Dim light) and took it to the edge of A.3, and another to the edge of C.3, and assuming we do not put them (their source) inside the darkness but assume their illumination radius meet inside the darkened area, then;

The illumination level under the Darkness spell is increased from Supernatural Darkness to just Normal Darkness. - A character would now be able to see the light at C from A, but only in the area where the candle radii overlap.

A Deeper Darkness spell would still be at Supernatural Darkness and thus impenetrable.

That is based on the fact that you can see a cigarette butt pretty far away in Normal Darkness, even though you can't actually see in Normal Darkness.

It could be argued that magical darkness increased to Normal Darkness is impenetrable, but if we increased it to Dim Light then no one would argue that you couldn't see from A to C.

Ergo I opt to interpret Normal Darkness as normal, common, real world darkness where you can detect a light source pretty far away, even if it does not illuminate the dark place itself. (B)

This is not in conflict with RAW but since it is not explicitly stated, this is just the "least RAI" I can think up.

By RAW the area affected by darkness or deeper darkness has an illumination rating. (Bright, Normal, Dim, Dark, Super Dark)

If the character looking has a vision mode that is able to see in the relevant category, then by RAW he can also see all the way through to the other side.

- This is of course limited to the total distance the character's visibility modes support.

A source of light that is "behind" the darkened area is either close enough that the area is affected by it and thus the area is illuminated by the relevant number of steps. - Or it isn't and the darkness is just dark.

What I mean is, if you are on side A of an area of Deeper Darkness, and the Sun is shining Brightly from the opposite side, B, then the area is Dimly lit, and a character with Lowlight vision or Darkvision can see just fine and humans would get their Dim light penalties.

If someone pulls the curtain at point B, lowering the Bright light to Normal light, then the dark area can no longer be seen through by Lowlight vision, but Darkvision still could. The area is now "Dark".

If the shutters are closed, the only light seeping in is Dim, making the area Super Dark, and no one but certain monsters can see through it.

If someone at B then had a special magic light that illuminated a single 5 ft. square with Bright light, but for some reason the effect is described as limited to that one square, then someone at A would NOT be able to see through the darkness at all.

The only time you would be able to see silhouettes in a darkened area, is if the light on the other side actually overlaps into the darkened area and increase the light level to something your character's eyes can penetrate.

@Slaunyeh, the rules may be silly but them's the rules. Houseruling is fine, as long as that is what we agree you are doing in your interpretation above.

Thank you mdt, that does make sense.

So, if hit by a normal Darkness spell, throw your pebble with Light on it out of the affected area and the resulting overlapping area will be Dim light.

Where does "ambient" light come from in your heads? - It comes from a mundane light source.

If there is no light source, there is no light.

If the Sun is the only light source that count as "ambient" to you two, then you need to look up the word "ambient" in the dictionary.

And even under that premise, sunlight is mundane...

Xraal wrote:

He states:
"Supernaturally dark is where darkvision turns off, basically.

If you cast deeper darkness on a sunny day out under the sky, the area of effect drops two steps from bright light to dim light. Cast it on normal light, and it puts the area into regular darkness that darkvision can see through.

Darkvision is only blocked if you cast deeper darkness in areas of dim light or darkness.

(Sorry the previous explanation was too brief... I spat it out too quickly without having a PFRPG handy to look at, and was too lazy to look the spell up online.)" - James Jacobs, Creative Director.

This is correct (and doesn't really need clarification from the prd text imho). But do note that nonmagical light sources do not increase the light level in the area affected by a darkness spell.

Yes it does; otherwise casting Deeper Darkness on Normal light would give you Supernatural Darkness +1... And it does not, it only gives "Darkness" implying that the Normal light is still there, just reduced by two steps.

@Xraal: nope, mundane lightsources don't work at all in magical darkness

Yes, reading it I would think so too, but then it makes no sense to mention how many "levels" of dark it adjusts with.

If it annuls all light sources, that is darkness. But in addition, it reduces prevalent light by two steps, which completely makes nonsense of the first statement. (Since the annulment means the prevalent light is "darkness", going down two steps from there is Supernatural Darkness and then Supernatural Darkness +1)

However, it is not crazy, it is poorly worded. There is a clarification by James Jacobs to be found here:

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/d/deeper-darkness

He states:
"Supernaturally dark is where darkvision turns off, basically.

If you cast deeper darkness on a sunny day out under the sky, the area of effect drops two steps from bright light to dim light. Cast it on normal light, and it puts the area into regular darkness that darkvision can see through.

Darkvision is only blocked if you cast deeper darkness in areas of dim light or darkness.

(Sorry the previous explanation was too brief... I spat it out too quickly without having a PFRPG handy to look at, and was too lazy to look the spell up online.)" - James Jacobs, Creative Director.

According to that description by James, the darkness line spells does NOT annul existing mundane light sources. - It DOES annul lower spell level MAGIC light sources.

It is simply a case where you look at the prevalent light level and then subtract a number of steps, as indicated by the spell description.

As far as I can tell there are these steps of light:

Bright light - Sun and Daylight spell does this.
Normal light - Many lanterns and Light spell does this.
Dim light - Outskirts of Normal light and Normal light his by Darkness spell.
Darkness - The default if no light sources are present. What Dim light becomes under Darkness.
Supernatural Darkness - Darkvision does not work here.

The reason Darkness and Deeper Darkness hurt adventuring parties so bad, is the frequent reliance on 0- level Light spells as the only light source.

If you have a normal mundane lightsource that gives off Normal Light, then it is only normal darkness and Darkvision will still work.

If you rely entirely on magic lighting, then you are out of luck. (Unless you get a Daylight casting by higher CL.)

Depending on your taste, that build can dip Oracle of Lore or Nature to CHA to AC.

Yup. Add that a lot of critters have reach and most of the time throwing stuff is plain waste of actions.

Which is a shame.