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So long story short, I'm running a campaign that has the unique ability to allow me to take individual encounters and present them individually to the party.

I'm looking for inspiration, so if you know of an encounter that had fun mechanics, please let me know what it was and what module, if possible. Whatever detail you can provide would be great! Module could be Paizo, third party or homebrew, whatever.

TL:DR - Need suggestions for a Gnome Rogue/Ninja-ish type that can take advantage of the Gnomish Illusion strengths. Anything Paizo has published is legal. One Trait must be from the Curse of the Crimson Throne AP. 20 pt. Buy

So, my buddy is starting a "Couples Pathfinder" using the Curse of the Crimson Throne Adventure Pack. There's six of us, and the three ladies are Pathfinder rookies. The GM has allowed the rookies to play basically whatever OP'd character they can create, so long as it uses Paizo source material (no third party).

My wife, being a diminutive 4'11", wants to play a Gnome. No exceptions. She's a trickster and a pain in the *** in real life, so she identifies with Gnomes. She also wants to cast Illusions, since Gnomes get some good bonuses to Illusion spells. Lastly, she wants to be sneaky, a "street rat" as she puts it, with lots of skills and tricks. Lastly, she feels useless if she isn't doing SOMETHING in combat, and gets down on herself if she isn't pulling her weight during battles. She doesn't have to dominate, but she at least wants to contribute.

Her desires point me toward the Arcane Trickster, but the AT is very weak in the early levels. There has to be a better way. I have explored the Threatening Illusion feat in combination with Ghost Sound/Magical Lineage, but it won't become useful till later in the characters career. Even then, it's dubious how useful it will be. It sounds like a cool trick, but I keep thinking there is a better way.

If someone would direct me toward what I should investigate to help out my wife, that would be appreciated. All Paizo material is allowed.

Thanks in advance!

*Warning - Spoilers*

I gave one of the PCs a quest from Erastil to rescue the deranged bear at the hidden Temple of Erastil in Book one. The PC was told to defeat but not destroy (kill) the bear.

Second, they were to restore the Temple by improving the hex and making sure it was a part of their kingdom within two years.

Long story short, they went in guns ablazin' and killed the bear.

When the bear was killed, I told them that the overgrowth that surrounded the temple grew quickly and engulfed the temple, forcing them to flee. "Years of growth, held back by the religious essence of the place, finally catches up with the surrounding forest."

The PC's then told their story to Jhod (who thought them mad that Erastil would contact them directly) and Jhod left to verify that the temple was found. The PC's haven't seen him since.

Erastil is upset, but still wants the PC's to make him the primary religion in their new fledgling kingdom. How would you go about contacting them for restoration, and what would you have them do?

Trying to plan out my new cleric for a Core-only campaign.

Other than the obvious Quicken feat/rod, I'm struggling with increasing my actions/turn.

Are there any magic items/feats that I am missing that are Core to increase my actions/turn?

First off, why is it a DEX based check? Shouldn't high jump be STR? You don't need to be nimble to jump straight up, you need strong legs.

Secondly, a player of mine pointed out that the chart makes no sense for his dire wolf companion. Hilariously, by comparison, a Constrictor snake has a higher Acrobatics High Jump chance then a Dire Wolf. The Constrictor Snake as a High Jump of +11, while his dire wolf (Large-sized and quadrapedal) has an Acrobatics check of +10. That only allows a 2 foot high jump as guaranteed.

Two feet.

So, am I missing something regarding High Jump rules, or is that just RAW and I need to houserule something for the quadrupeds in our group? Would you suggest any existing houserules? Would you make it a STR check instead of DEX? I think it makes sense for bipeds but not quad. How would you handle no-peds, like Snakes?

Campaign: Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil
Room: #121: Fire Temple
Room Layout: Size 120' diameter circular room. Secondary inner circle of 80' diameter that is a fire pit. 40' ceiling with a spot in it just large enough for the platform that is hovering over fire pit. It's a 20x20 platform that is controlled mentally (up down left side and sideways movement)by clerics of the Fire Temple. All NPC's in the temple area are mostly immune to fire damage.

Encounter NPC's:

12th level Cleric (Fire and Evil Domains)
12th level Fighter (anti-caster build with step up, disruptive casting, lunge and other assorted feats)
Few Ogres
Few Large Fire elementals
half a dozen speedbumps (level 2 Warriors)

PC's: 6 players all level 7:

barbarian: Damage and more damage. About a billion HP
inquisitor: reach attacker, some control spells
cleric: Earth? domain, has access to Pit spells
druid: Control, summoner, utility, wolf pet
wizard: Big blasts with fire/electrical/force
monk: Anti caster/grappler

So I am trying to design an encounter that will challenge the PC's. I tend to run most of my more important encounters at epic level difficulty (at least APL +5) and this is one of those.

I'm looking for an interesting mechanic that I can throw into this, such as fire spouts, lava, ect.

The issues I have with the PC's:

The barbarian does stupid amounts of damage a round. 40-50 on a non-crit.
The monk, when he grapples something, cannot be thrown off, ever, unless I somehow roll a 35 on a d20.
The wizard clears every mook in the room on the surprise round (I consider ogres mooks)
Thanks to Blessing of Fervor from the cleric the PC's can do pretty much whatever they want in a round.

Ideas?

One of my ettins has a pet rust monster who he wuvs sooo much. But, I cant think of a good name he would give the little guy. Ideas? Has to be something a boneheaded Ettin would think up.

OK so I'm running a converted version of the module Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, and the players have run into a problem. If you are familiar with the module, you know that there is a lot of moving parts that go on behind the scenes. For example:

So the players decide in town to investigate the moathouse, and along the way they get trailed by Chatrilon, ally of the clerics. Chatrilon tried to join the party at the beginning but was turned down. When Big Blue showed up and nearly wiped the party, Chatrilon saw it and realized what was happening. As the party retreated he offered his services again, which they refused (again) and decided to find adventure elsewhere.

So here's the problem:

So what I need now is some ideas for alternative directions to take this. I don't want the clerics escaping the dungeon. I want them there for the PC's to fight and to provide clues on where to head next. The best I can come up with is:

Any alternate ideas?

I want to get a community opinion on this.

I am running a WLD Pathfinder conversion game, and I believe one of my players is running a Lawful Stupid Paladin.

Some of his behaviors lately haven't been following his alignment in my opinion. What do you think about the following examples:

1) The Paladin encountered a captured, bound and unconscious but quite alive Kobold Wizard. After detecting evil against him, and sensing that he was evil, he slit the kobolds throat. He has interacted with this kobold in the past and has never seen or heard of said kobold wizard doing any evil acts, or threatening the Paladin or his charges ever.

2) The Paladin encountered an Orc chieftain deep in revelry. No interaction from the Orc would rouse him from it. The Paladin detected evil, and sensing it, beheaded the orc.

Said player is using the rule that "good kills evil". I don't necessarily subscribe to this, but I could be misguided. If a creature detects as evil, but has not acted that way, can the Paladin use that logic to slay the creature? It seems unlawful for a Paladin to be judge, jury and executioner simply because a creature detects as evil.

I would like some educated thoughts on this. Quote printed material if possible. Instead of "He's doing good, shut up", please say "He's doing good, because in the book of Exalted Deeds it says blahblah" to help me understand where everyone's thoughts on the subject are coming from. I would do the same, but I am having trouble finding anything that says a Lawful Good character wouldn't just slaughter every evil being he comes across, at least in lawless areas like dungeons.

Thanks in advance =)