Zhayne's page

I'm 100% certain I know the answer to this, but I said I'd ask the experts.

There's a monster in WotR that makes you roll a d20 and compare it to your 'hand size'. My interpretation is that this refers to the maximum hand size as printed on the character card (plus any hand-increasing power feats). The other player interpreted it to mean 'however many cards he has in hand at the time'.

So, of course, with a max hand size of six, but three cards in hand, he rolls a six. Should he have suffered the effects of the monster, or not?

I was looking over the Skull and Shackles rulebook just now, looking for the answer to a different question, when I noticed this bit of phrasing in the 'Ending a Scenario, Adventure, or Adventure Path' section ...

"Add all of the cards from the next Adventure Deck to the box; if you own any Class Decks, you can add any cards from them that have the same Adventure Deck number as the Adventure Deck you just added."

The phrasing of the second part ('you can add any cards from them') has raised some question in my mind.

1. Does this mean you don't have to add all the cards from Class Decks you're using? F'rexample, in the 3-person group I'm doing now, we don't have a Melee character. Could we just opt to not add any of the melee weapons from the decks we're using? Obviously, the base set Melee weapons would remain.

2. Does this mean we could add cards from Class Decks we *aren't* using? It doesn't specify that the cards you add have to be from Decks you're using, just decks you own.

I'm pretty sure the answer to 2 is 'no' because that just seems ridiculous on some level, but the first question seems at least possible. Has this been brought up before?

On Reiko's Ninjitsu Master role card, she has this line:
[] You may treat your powers and favored card type as if the word "Poison" were "Arcane." ([] You gain the skill Arcane: Charisma +2.)

I know when you have adjacent power-feat boxes you have to do them in left-to-right order, but in this instance, could I skip the 'sub Poison and Arcane' power and go straight to gaining the Arcane skill? They aren't adjacent, but something about the way they're arranged on the card makes it feel like the substitution power is a 'pre-requisite' for the skill-gaining one.

I want the game to be equally playable with four fighters as a cleric-fighter-rogue-wizard combo, or any other combo.

I want every player to be able to play what he wants, when he wants, without having to worry about 'plugging holes' or 'filling roles'.

I don't want anybody 'getting stuck' playing something they don't want to because 'the game' makes it necessary.

Does anybody else agree with this?

Did I read that first 'about the playtest' article correctly, and see that ra ... *ahem* ancestry ... is decoupled from culture? There's no 'I'm a dwarf, therefore I inherently dodge giants and hate goblins'?

If so, that by itself gives me some hope for the next edition.

Something I'd been thinking about lately, during a break from my 'rebuilding the Cleric' project ... why do Sorcerers cast spells?

I'm not sure how they're supposed to have suddenly figured out words A,B and C and gesture D, sometimes combined with object (Focus) E results in a spell, somehow identical to those cast by everybody else.

It seems to me that innate power like that shouldn't require gestures or incantations or foci (at least PF gives 'em free Eschew Materials ... 'Why did you swallow a live spider?' 'I dunno, but watch me climb this wall!').

DSP's psionics feels like a much better fit for what the sorcerer is supposed to represent, or possibly the 3e Warlock, whose abilities were unlimited.

Anybody else ever felt a disconnect between the sorc's mechanics and what they're supposed to be?

I really need a better name for it ...

Anyway, to me, some of the more interesting character ideas are the ones that are non-traditional ... Dwarf fighters, yeah, seen a lot, but dwarven sorcerers? Unfortunately, so much stuff is dependent on ability scores that even a -2 can be a major detriment. Also, some races have stats that don't lend themselves to some traditionally thematic builds. Dwarves seem like shoo-ins for clerics or paladins, but that Charisma penalty makes them less good at it.

So, my idea was a trait that lets you add 2 to an ability score:
1> Only if you have a racial penalty to that score, and
2> Only to determine feat prerequisites and class abilities.

You must choose a specific ability score for each time you take the trait, and you can't generate a net bonus with it, only negate penalties. You can take it more than once for the same stat, though, either negating multiple -2s, or completely negating a -4, etc.

So, a halfling fighter puts a 13 in STR, then takes a -2, having an 11, meaning he can no longer qualify for Power Attack. He takes the Prodigy: Strength trait, then he's considered to have a 13 for feat prerequisites, so he can take Power Attack. However, his STR is still considered 11 for encumbrance, attack/damage rolls, STR skill and ability checks, etc.

A dwarven sorcerer does something similar, a 16 Charisma gets reduced to a 14. Now, he can only cast 4th level spells, and his save DC is 12+Spell Level. Taking Prodigy: Charisma, he can now cast 6th level spells, and his save DC is 13+Spell Level; however, he still only gets a +2 to Charisma skills, etc.

Thoughts?

Normally I don't bother with it, but the GM for this game said we had to have a patron deity. He's using the standard Golarion pantheon. I'm not overly familiar with it, so, yeah.

Lots of 3pp material used here, but I don't think it matters much for this.

Race: Kitsune Class: Sorcerer (Kitsune/Kyubi Wildblood)
He was born with a fraternal twin sister; he was a blackfur, she was a whitefur. Blackfurs are seen as having a 'spiritual impurity', so he swiftly became a bit of a pariah, while his 'pure' sister could do no wrong. He was punished for the slightest thing, even things he hadn't done; when something went wrong, he was always the first suspect, while his sister got the lightest of admonishments.

Eventually, he got tired of this and left his hometown in the middle of the night, before he'd undergone his Rite of Passage (just an ordinary ceremony, not a magical one, albeit a very big deal). Not too long after, his sorcerous powers started to not so much blossom as erupt, his first tail splitting into 3 rather than two.

At this point, he suspected he might be in that point one percent of kitsune who become full-fledged kyubi (nine-tailed), which just added to the chip on his shoulder. Realizing he could be capable of some remarkable stuff, he rapidly became rather greedy for power, specifically arcane power. At this point, though, the power is its own goal ... he hasn't decided yet if he wants to use it to perform great deeds to show his townfolk wrong, or gather enough might to burn the while place to the ground.

Suck might be a strong word, but it really seems to me that they are notably hosed, especially Small melee characters. Not only is the weapon damage reduced, but the (typically) reduced land speed makes them harder to get into melee. PLUS they tend to have Strength penalties. All this doesn't seem worth a +1 AC and attack, a -1 to CMB/D, and a +4 on Stealth.

Anybody come up with any houserules to make this a little more viable?

If you play Black Spot on a monster with multiple checks to defeat, does it affect one of them or all of them?

A bit of a crisis of conscience here.
I'm getting a new game and game world prepped, and I'm using the automatic bonus progression from Unchained with the 'magic items are so rare that you can't reasonably expect to find one' level. The justification for this is that the nature of magic simply forbids it from being bound to objects.

This ... is not technically true, it's just what everybody thinks. The techniques for binding magic to items are lost (and I intend for the PCs to discover them eventually, though note it'll be a LOT harder than taking a feat and spending money).

I feel a little bad about this, since it will result in a blatant lie to the players. I don't want to preface it with 'as far as anybody knows', since that's pretty much saying that it's possible, kind of like 'I can neither conform nor deny' is just a long-winded way of saying 'confirmed'.

If you were in such a game, and suddenly found out that one of the basic things the GM told you about the world turned out to be empirically false, would you be upset about it, whether or not there was a good in-game reason for it?

I thought it was called Signature Spell, but that isn't a thing, apparently.

I'd swear I saw a feat somewhere that let a wizard pick a spell which he could then cast spontaneously like how a cleric casts cure wounds spells.

I can't remember the name of all the cards involved, but hopefully I can get enough info out for a correct answer.

In one of the Mummy's Mask base set scenarios, it gives the rule 'For your first exploration of your turn, do nothing'.

Later in the game, we encountered one of those barriers (Fallen Rubble?) that sits on a location and says 'Characters here encounter this barrier as their first exploration', or something similar when you fail to defeat it.

By literal reading, it seems like a character at the same location of that barrier would never encounter it after the first time, because your 'first exploration' is negated, thus playing a card to explore is, by definition, an additional exploration.

Something tells me this can't be right, but I can't find the hole in the logic, and a quick look through the rulebook didn't reveal anything (though, like I said, it was a quick look, didn't want to hold the game up too long).

What non-magical (skill/feat/class)-based methods exist for standing from prone without provoking an AoO?

1. Can Mavaro use his card-displaying ability when not actively making a check?

2. Is it just me, or are the weapons and offensive spells in this set noticeably weaker than in previous sets?

Situation: I'm playing S&S Merisiel, in her Shadow role, and I have the power feat reducing BYA and AYA damage to zero.

I am sharing a location with another character (let's say Gronk), and that character encounters a monster that deals BYA damage to everybody at that location.

To date, we have been defining 'you' very tightly, meaning Merisiel cannot use her ability to reduce damage, since Gronk is the one encountering the monster and thus is the character who is acting (aka 'you'). Since Merisiel is not acting, her BYA ability doesn't work.

Is this the correct interpretation?

One of the players in my group ...
Just.
Doesn't.
Get.
It.

The following two things happened last night:
He encounters a gun with DEXTERITY RANGED CRAFT.
"I've got Craft, but it's off Intelligence, not Dexterity ..." (Starts to put card in box)

He encounters a monster that has a BYA Perception (not Wisdom or, just Perception).
"Perception would be under Wisdom ..."

I need a simple, fit-for-a-child way of explaining how this works.

Is there a list of things the Obsidian app gets wrong from the actual Pathfinder ACG anywhere? I had another 'that's how the app works' moment this week (apparently, if you give something the Fire trait, you automatically give it the Magic trait at the same time). I'd really like to head off any further confusion, but if I search for anything with 'Pathfinder' in it, I get trucks.

I'm 99% sure I'm right on this, but someone in our group isn't, for reasons to be detailed below.

Player A encounters a monster. Player B has two blessings in his hand and an ally that lets you give a card to another player.

Player B wants to play that ally and pass a blessing to player A, so that he and player B can both play a blessing on the Check To Defeat.

I'm certain this isn't legal, because it doesn't directly affect the Check To Defeat. Apparently, though, the PACG mobile game (or whatever it is) *does* permit such a maneuver, which is why he thinks it is legal.

So, final answer ... ?

Earlier tonight, I ran into a monster that made me shuffle a random card from my hand into my location ... and, of course, out of four weapons, I wind up losing Soulshear. Nooo, couldn't have been the Icy Hooked Hammer +1 ...

We won the scenario without coming across Soulshear first.

Is there any way for me to retrieve or recover Soulshear now?

On a relate note, my wife nearly lost her Ring of Forcefangs the same way, but another character came across it. We assumed that, without a check to acquire, it was just automatically acquired. Was this accurate?

I really couldn't think of a better subject line.

If, for some reason, someone REALLY wants to get cards out of their hand, is it legal to, for example, recharge a Sapphire of Intelligence on a check that is already Intelligence-based?

I couldn't see why not, but the other players thought it sounded sketchy.

So, we're going to be doing our fourth attempt at this one next week. Three failures, two with casualties.

We have four players, playing Seltiyel, Gronk, S&S Merisiel, and Olenjack.
We houserule the timer to 32 cards, so everybody has an even number of turns under ordinary circumstances.
We are aware of the FAQ ruling and are closing locations when we defeat a villain.

Is there some strategy for siphoning all the villains into the same location we just haven't figured out yet, or is this one really luck-dependent?

When I saw Athnul in the Monk deck, I immediate thought she'd be fun to play, but the more I looked at her, the more I wondered ... what does she really *do*?

d10+d6+2 base doesn't really seem like a lot of combat oomph, she's only a middling at best scout because her evasion ability shuffles whatever she ran into back into the deck ...

I feel like I must be missing something with her kit, but I cannot figure out what it is.

The rulebook seems clear on this, but for some reason, we're frequently confused on this.

1. Two characters are in the same location. One of them activates a way to permanently close the location (defeats henchman/empties deck). Does the present actor have to close it, can either close it, or do both have to close it?

2. Two characters are in the same location. A third character encounters the villain, triggering temp-closing. Does just one character try to close the location, do both try simultaneously, or does one try and, if he fails, then the other can try?

Has every monster that was printed with 'you not play spells with the Attack trait' been errata'd to 'Immune to the Attack trait'? Someone in our group has been sandbagging a Necklace of Fireballs in case he runs into one, since it specifies spells, not items.

I'm sure there's a good reason for it, but I'm not sure what it is.

Why don't allies who have spellcasting-class traits (the various Clerics and Oracles and Wizards, for example) have the Divine and/or Arcane traits? Probably just game balance, but it seems weird to me that Father Zantus is a cleric with the divine trait, but as far as I know, he's the exception rather than the rule.

To be fair, I haven't gone sifting through EVERY card in EVERY deck in EVERY game, though, so if there are others, please let me know. :)

I'm not sure how much of an armor needs to be metal for it to count as 'metal armor'. For purposes of a Metal Oracle's Armor Mastery revelation, is it metal? The description says it's leather with metal plates, so it seems a little ambiguous.

So ... rookie player. Keeps insisting on playing a druid, despite also insisting that she'll just be there to heal and has no intentions of entering combat (except to pull people out of the front lines). I am having trouble getting through to her that, in general, druids are good combatants and poor healers.

Plus, rookies really need to NOT play druids. Wild shape is complicated. Prep spell casting is complicated (so is Spont casting, really, but prep is worse). Animal companions are complicated.

So, what she *really* wants is a phone-it-in healbot. My initial reflex is a Life Oracle. Every other option I can think of is just too complicated for a rookie.

Anybody know of any phone-it-in healbot classes, PF or 3pp?

I'm interested in playing her if my present S&S character buys it, but looking over her sheet, I'm not sure how she actually ... survives. No weapons, no armor (at first, at least), and no way to get spells quickly ... how does she survive encounters? What would be a good starting deck for her?

I was looking at the Sword of Valor (WotR2) pack just now, and noticed that these two cards both say, in the first 'check to defeat' box, Combat twice. (The Company says 'Combat Combat Divine')

Is this a lack of space way of saying sequential combat checks, or is it a misprint, or something else?

I'm 99% sure I called this one right, but my wife wanted me to doublecheck. In this scenario, at the start of each turn, you pick a random location and remove cards from the bottom of that location's deck.

It does not specify 'open location', just location. My call was that you rolled for all locations, and if an empty location comes up, nothing happens (under the 'do as much as you can' clause). She wasn't sure, possibly influenced by the fact that a few turns of rolling empty locations is probably the only reason we won.

So, who's right, me or her?

Are there any timing restrictions on this, or can I just go 'wait, let me look at that card' any time the mood strikes me (and I have an appropriate card to recharge, of course)?

When you reset your hand, you can discard any number of cards to increase your hand size by that many until the end of your turn.

What in the world is this good for?

The guy who owns the copy of RotR we're using claims there's a rule that states you can voluntarily discard cards to no effect (essentially, damaging yourself) if you wish, before resetting your hand. This is for those cases where your hand is clogged (you drew all weapons, for instance), so you can cycle cards. So far, nobody's had an issue with it ... but is this a real rule, or did he make something up?

So, I'm actually setting up a pantheon in a game world for once. For thematic reasons, I want 13 gods in the main pantheon, the head honcho 'One Above All', and six sets of thematic opposites.

So far, I have ...
Land and Sea - Sky and Stars
Creation - Destruction
Offensive War - Defensive War
The Fool - The Sage
Wilderness - Cities/Civilization

I need one more set. I am expressly and intentionally avoiding alignment-based concepts including good/evil or heaven/hell. I'm debating order vs chaos, but it doesn't feel right somehow (and seems to overlap with creation/destruction and wilderness/civilization), and treads dangerously close to alignment stuff.

Any ideas, anybody? Thanks in advance.

Multiple searches of DrivethruRPG only turned up Deadlands stuff, which while potentially useful for such a setting, would also have a lot of wasted space, as the game my wife is thinking about is pre-cowboy (and, in fact, pre-English colonies).

Does anybody know of any d20/PF sourcebooks covering this kind of setting? I've had no luck at all ...

Does a summoned Shark get shuffled into a random open deck? We couldn't figure this one out. Shark Island says you summon a Hammerhead Shark at the start of your turn if you're there, and the Adventure/Scenario card says any defeated Hammerhead Shark gets shuffled under another deck. It seems like they should get shuffled, but we're not sure.

Assuming no racial FCBs at play (like the Kitsune one), and no magic items, what's the highest possible spell save DC that can be generated at level 6?

Here's the thought ... I don't like how charisma covers so many disparate and unquantifiable things. So, I want Charisma to become 'Power' ... purely a stat to measure the potency of spells and spell-like abilities.

SO ...
All spell and spell-like abilities have Save DCs based off Charisma, regardless of source or class (barring some weird case I haven't come across yet, and creatures who lack Charisma scores). This includes psionics.

The extant Charisma-based skills are divvied up as follows:
INT-based: Bluff, Disguise, Perform

WIS-based: Diplomacy, Handle Animal, Intimidate

Use Magic Device remains Charisma-Based.

Abilities and effects that drain Charisma based on things like inducing deformities will be adjusted ... somehow, depends on the effect/ability. I'll jump off that bridge when I get to it.

I'm aware that this encourages dumping the stat for martial characters even more than it already does, and I'm good with that.

Try as I might, I can't actually find the range increment for a throwing shield (specifically, a light steel throwing shield). I'm probably just blind, but could someone tell me what it is, please?

Was discussing this idea with the other players present (two were missing, but I digress), and this seems like an idea that would work, but I have the feeling we missed something.

Instead of banning the prepcasters like I was thinking, why not just lift the appropriate 6 or 9 level spells/day and spells known charts from the spontaneous casters and apply it to the Cleric/Wizard/Druid/Magus/etc? The individual class features, with some exceptions of course, would remain the same.

Outside of the Wizard/Magus spellbook (which would just not be a thing), I can't think of too many class features that would need adjusting. The cleric domain spells would simply be additional spells known (same with domain druids) ... any other abilities I'm overlooking?

Has anybody compiled a list of items that increase unarmed strike damage, either the die or provide stackable bonuses?

Something mentioned off-handedly a while back on the boards ... been tinkering with it, but I'm trying to determine the most efficient (or more like 'least inefficient') way to go about it.

For those unfamiliar with the character, here's the primary ability list:
1. Agile/Acrobatic.
2. Good unarmed combatant.
3. Stealthy (ability to go invisible and/or teleport short distances?)
4. Crystal-based ranged attacks.

#4 requires DSP's psionics, since AFAIK there are no crystal-shooting spells. Unfortunately, the crystal powers are only on the Psion list, so I either need to take psion levels, or use Feats on acquiring off-class powers.

So, some combo of Psion/Monk/Psychic Fist (oh, the sucky BAB), or Psychic Warrior (Meditant) or Soulknife (Gifted Blade/Deadly Fist) ... thoughts?