aberkov's page

So, I've been playing with some character concepts and, while fidgeting with the Forgemaster, I ran into an interesting question:

How do Metamagic Feats affect weapon-enhancing and weapon-emulating spells?

Some are fairly self-explanatory (i.e. double duration from Extend Spell). However, what happens if I use Empower or Maximize with, for example, Flame Blade (or Spiritual Weapon)? Does my Flame Blade suddenly deal 1D8+50%/8 +1/2 CL damage? What if I add Flaring Spell or Sickening Spell to the spell? Will each strike reproduce effects of Flaring or Sickening?

My "GM gut instinct" would be to say these feats probably wouldn't be applicable to this kind of an on-going spell, but I could certainly see the other side of the coin (and I may be slightly salivating at the idea of Dervish of Sarenrae using Maximized Empowered Flaring Flame Blades)...

I've just been poking around the Seekers of Secrets, reading on interactions and resonance of Ioun stones in Wayfinders, when I stumbled upon a bit of a discrepancy. To quote:

Orange prism: Every time the bearer casts a spell, roll 1d4–2 and add this (and the +1 caster level granted by the normal power of the ioun stone) to his caster level. If this modified caster level is too low to cast the spell, the spell fails and is lost.

So, let me get this straight; Orange Prism adds +1CL, static. In addition, when embedded in a Wayfinder, it modifies caster's CL by 1D4-2 whenever he casts a spell. Combining 1D4-2 from Resonance with +1 static from stone itself, we get to 1D4-1; so the lowest possible modifier to CL when casting a spell is +0 - evidently not enough to reduce caster level below that needed to cast a spell - or am I missing something?

I'm guessing modifier should be 1D4-3, giving the stone a final range of CL modifiers from -1 to +2, rather than +0 - +3, OR the Orange Prism's static +1 CL should apply ONLY if resonance's change to CL doesn't drop the CL below the minimum needed to cast (so, a 3rd lvl wizard casting 2nd level spell would get that +1CL from Orange Prism only as long as he didn't roll a 1 on that 1D4 beforehand?)

Nitpicky Andro is nitpicky early in the morning.

So, I have a player who wants to slap some light armor - most likely silken cermonial to avoid spell fail chance - on her sorcerer. Of course, she's disinclined to burn a feat on light armor proficiency.

Now, scouring the rules, this is the only thing I found on armor non-proficiency drawbacks:

Nonproficient with Armor Worn: A character who wears armor and/or uses a shield with which he is not proficient takes the armor's (and/or shield's) armor check penalty on attack rolls as well as on all Dex- and Str-based ability and skill checks. The penalty for non-proficiency with armor stacks with the penalty for shields.

If I am reading that right, that'd mean there's no reason for any wizard or sorcerer not to throw on some armored kilt, haramaki or silken ceremonial armor for some free AC, especially on the lower levels when enchated robes are not yet a concern.

Am I missing something?

Hey guys,

a quick rules question: Concetration modifier is sum of Caster Level and Casting Stat; do modifiers to caster levels enter into that equation? I.e. a 1st level character with Int of 18 has a +5 to Concetrate; does that increase to +6 when casting spells from a certain school, if he has an ability or trait that increases his CL for that spell school by 1?

Hey guys,

I'm helping a player of mine build a enchantment-based Sorcerer and I got a bit stuck on the choice of a feat; She already has Spell Focus : Enchantment, and I was hoping to set her up with a "follow-up" feat but while I'm finding a lot of flavorful feats based on Spell Focus - Conjuration and Necromancy, Threnodic Spell seems to be only one for Enchantment, and that's really not what we're looking for.

This is a fairly relaxed game, so there's no need for agressive min-maxing (And I'd prefer to avoid simple number-bonus feats like Greater Spell Focus in favor of flavor) but I'd certainly appreciate suggestions (homebrewed / 3.x feats are acceptable, on my case-to-case judgement.)

Thanks in advance!

Hi everyone,
I'm running a game with a wildshape-happy druid, and I wanted to make sure I'm getting this right.

Druid's Wild Shape emulates Beast Shape series of spells ( http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/b/beast-shape ), as I understand it. Beast Shape suggests that caster retains his original stats, adjusting Str/Dex and Natural Armor based on size, and adding various special senses, movement modes, special attacks etc based on the animal's own abilities. Here are couple of the things I'm unclear on:

1) Movement:

If the form you assume has any of the following abilities, you gain the listed ability: climb 30 feet, fly 30 feet (average maneuverability), swim 30 feet (Beast Shape I); If the form you assume has any of the following abilities, you gain the listed ability: climb 60 feet, fly 60 feet (good maneuverability), swim 60 feet (Beast Shape II) etc

Does that mean that, if Beast whose shape is being taken has, i.e. climb or fly mode -at any speed- you get it at 30' at Beast Shape I / 60' at Beast Shape II, or is that "up to 30/60" - so a Beast Shape II into a creature with Climb 20' wouldn't give caster Climb 60' ? More simply put, which movement stat block takes precedence, animal's own or Beast Shape spell's? My take is that Druid would get the movement mode -up to- base form's speed, but not above it?

2) Attacks:

If the form you assume has any of the following abilities, you gain the listed ability: <snip> grab, pounce, and trip. (Beast Shape II)

This part seems clear to me - if animal form has a special attack, and Beast Shape spell lists it, you get it. However, Beast Shape doesn't say anything about actual natural attacks; am I right in assuming shapeshifter gets the standard array of natural attacks of the form he attains? I.e. Would a Druid using Wild Shape (Beast Shape II) to turn into a Lion, in addition to gaining Pounce, gain Bite (1D8) and 2 Claws (1D4) ?

In addition, related to Wild Shape : If a Druid can shapeshift into a beast with certain abilities, do those count as qualifier for certain monster feats? Here's my read on it:

Druid can shapeshift into a beast with Natural Armor. That qualifies Druid to take Improved Natural Armor, though the feat is only active when Druid is wildshaped into a creature with natural armor score.

Examples of feats impacted by above: Flyby Attack, Hover, Imp. Natural Armor, Imp. Natural Attack, Multiattack...

Thanks in advance for all the input and advice!

Reading the discussion about staff magus floating around somewhere here made me go and research staff construction rules and, while they seem mostly straightforward, I'm slightly stumped by one small thing:

The materials cost is subsumed in the cost of creation: 400 gp × the level of the highest-level spell × the level of the caster...

and

The minimum caster level of a staff is 8th.

Does that mean that the minimal × CL value when factoring cost of a staff is × 8, or can it go lower? I.e. if there's a Staff that casts Cure Serious Wounds (as its highest level spell), is the minimal cost of that ability 3x5x400g or 3x8x400g (ignoring the discount for using multiple charges)?

Thanks for input!

~Andro

Hey y'all.

So, I'm running a game for a party of good/neutral (no bad boys) characters, among them a Magus (Neutral alignment) who, obviously, has access to Infernal Healing on his spell list. Now, to make things more interesting for the party and give them some "morality RP" opportunities, I did set them up with couple of Infernal Healing consumables (potions).

At this point, I'm not exactly asking for opinions - I already know how I'll be handling possible use of these items - but I was wondering how you'd treat good or neutral characters using Infernal Healing, either sporadically or regularly.

(Reference: http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/i/infernal-healing )

First off, I bet this has already been discussed, but I couldn't find a thread - my apologies if I'm beating a dead orc.

One of players in the game I run just brought in a Magus, and I'm slightly uncertain on how to make a ruling on Spellstrike:

Spellstrike allows Magus to deliver his touch attack spell (say, Shocking Grasp) via a regular (weapon) melee attack. My problem is on how to reconcile that with touch attack.

Say Magus takes a swipe with his Shocking-Grasped-Sword at a Fighter in heavy armor. Would Magus roll one attack roll (against base AC) and apply both weapon and spell damage if it hit, two (one VS base AC, another VS Touch AC) and apply whichever hits (or both or none), or roll once and apply either sword and spell or spell only, depending on whether the attack hits high enough to blow through armor, or just "touch".

RAW, it seems to me like scenario A is the case : One roll, either you blow through armor or there's no damage. I'm leaning towards scenario C: one roll, you apply sword damage if roll is high enough for armor AC, spell damage if roll is high enough for touch.

(On a semi-sorta-unrelated note: How would you say Shocking Grasp's +3 to hit VS metal-carrying targets affects Spellstrike?)

Hullo y'all,

I'm looking for Witch-friendly prestige classes, but I'm not finding anything that leverages Witch's hexes etc. Am I missing something or is Paizo just being stingy?

Thanks!

So, here's my rules dilemma of the hour:

Would Witch's Cackle be countered by Bard's Countersong?

This is the problem I'm running into: Bard's Countersong grants everyone within 30' the ability to use result of Bard's Perform roll in place of their saving throws against the sound-based magical attack.

Cackle is Supernatural - thus, magical.

However, Cackle itself has no saving throw - it only extends durations of effects that have savinghtrows (Evil Eye, Agony etc) but aren't sound-based themselves.

My "trying to make sense" reflex is "Countersong creates enough sound interference to mess up Cackle, negating its duration-extending effect" (perhaps with a Perform VS Concetration if I really wanted to rule-codify it).

However, my rule-lawyering bone says simply, Cackle has no saving throw, Countersong specifically doesn't affect effects without saving throws, ergo fugeddaboudit.

Discuss? :D

Hey everyone.

First off, apologies if I'm in the wrong subforum - this looked like a reasonable place to ask. If I've misplaced myself, please lemme know :)

So, couple months ago, listening to one of PF podcasts, I heard mention of a third-party "rules summary" product for Pathfinder; name was some sort of a clever acronym - for some reason, my brain keeps insisting it was "SWORD". Of course, trying to Google "Pathfinder SWORD" is as helpful as googling "porn".

So, if anyone has any idea what's the product I'm trying to find, I'd appreciate the pointers :)

A.

PLEAS HALPZ!

I mean... help? Anybody?

Basically, I'm reading the rules on Wizards'/Witches' Familiars, and I seem to be missing something; the table I'm looking at here shows Familiars gaining AC, Int and specific Familiar-y stuff as character level increases, but there's no mention of skillpoints, stat points, or feats. So, what's up with that?

I'd guess they get 1+IntMod Skillpoints per level, Feat every odd level, StatPoint every 4 levels - or perhaps a bit slower (skillpoint accrual same as Animal companions?) But I'm not finding any info on this in the rules. Am I overlooking a rule or a table, or is there actually nothing?

Thanks in advance!

Hey everyone,

So, I'm running a game and I got one of players wanting to play a primarily combat-oriented druid, expecting to do most her fighting in wild shape. I'm unfortunately not too experienced in the finer points of wild shape and combat; I know wild-shaped attacks are natural attacks, but am not perfectly clear on which feats affect those and how?

So, any suggestions for combat feat progressions and any clarifications on which combat feats do/do not affect natural attacks would be greatly appreciated.

(Here's an example: Belier's Bite feat requires Imp. Unarmed Attack; since Natural Attacks do not seem to require I.U.A. to avoid attacks of opportunity, can they be coupled with Belier's Bite for that extra bleed damage? What about Weapon Focus etc? What about monster-feats such as Improved Natural Attacks? HALPZ!)

~Andro

I'm running a campaign and we just added a Summoner to the party; that sent me on a small research spree that turned up no definitive answers, so I'll be asking for y'allz help here:

What kind of action (if any) is it for a controller of summoned creature(s) to direct critters to a specific action? What are limitations?

Summon Monster spell says (quote) :

It appears where you designate and acts immediately, on your turn. It attacks your opponents to the best of its ability. If you can communicate with the creature, you can direct it not to attack, to attack particular enemies, or to perform other actions.

That seems to imply several things :

a) Unless summoner has means of communicating with the creatures, he doesn't have direct control of them, past the "they'll attack hostiles" stage?

b) Unless summoner spends time (and actions?) directing the creatures, they run in autonomous mode, attacking (presumedly) creatures summoner perceives as hostile? Or creatures displaying active hostility to summoner?

c) How is handling of multiple creatures resolved? Say summoner pulled out 3 fire elementals; how much a "management overload" does he have to deal with if he wants one elemental to go help fighter flank, another to stay between summoner and hostiles and third to cut off the enemies' escape routes?

Any insight, RAW, RAI or IMHO is appreciated!

Andro

So, in the foreword to the Chapter 2 of the Sixfold Trial, ("The Six Trials of Larazod", p. 56) the last sentence suggests "The Dramatis Personae and history of this play can be found online at paizo.com/pathfinder."

Unfortunately, I've dredged up and down the website and found no information if the sort... am I looking in the wrong places, or is the info non-existent?

Thanks.

A quick and, hopefully, painless double-check to make sure I got the rules right... Alchemists use Strength, not Dexterity, for attack bonus with their bombs, right?

I've been entertaining myself with some exercises on odd character concepts and builds lately, and one of voices in my head just went "Dude, Druid / Witch / Mystic Theurge!" Obvious pro reason is both Druid and Witch are full progression classes, so Theurge is option at 7, and benefits to spellcasting progression are definite. Obvious con reason is, both Druid and Witch rely on many non-spellcasting level-acquired abilities such as hexes and shapeshifting, and multiclassing hurts those.

That being said, I haven't actually gone much further than the basic idea. So, here's my today's Exercise in Crazy challenge : what can you build in this class-set? Say up to 12th level? As detailed or as vague as you want, but please no "arguments against". I can think of those if I give it a thought, but they're beyond the scope of the idea :)

Andro the Bored.

A quick rules question:

Does a Rogue3/Monk4 have Flurry rate of:

+2/+2 (Monk Flurry @4th)

+4/+4 (Monk Flurry @4th, +2 for 2 lvls of Rogue)

+4/+4/-1 (Monk Flurry when his BAB reaches 4)

Other (Unlikely?)

Thanks!

I've been idly building some mid-high-level characters, and decided to see what can be done about vulnerability to mental control attacks etc. To my surprise, I couldn't find any magical items providing appropriate type of protection, so I went to try and see how one could be built.

My end conclusion is that Circlet (or whatever else) of continuous Protection From Evil is pro'lly the best way to go about it - but the cost is throwing me off.

Per rules, cost for continuous use magic item is Spell Level x Caster Level x 2000 [x spell duration-variable multiplier]. For Protection From Evil (1st level spell) the cost seems to be a meager 1 (SL) x 1 (CL) x2000 x2 because Protection from Evil is a 1min/level duration spell... so 4,000g gives immunity to mental influences AND +2 Deflection AC bonus and +2 Resistance Save bonus VS evil? That seems awfully cheap to me, and I'm assuming I'm doing something wrong?

Thanks.

So, for the reasons known only to me, I'm playing with building a "monk" type fighter. I won't bore y'all much with peculiarities of the build at this point, but I did have a couple of questions relating to unarmed attacks and the like.

The question plaguing me right now is, is a non-monk with Improved Unarmed Strike assumed to be using Natural Attacks, thus qualifying for multiple penalty-free attacks per round, or would he still require Two-Weapon Fighting or something akin to it to get extra attacks? This would also follow into the second question - eligibility for Improved Natural Attack?

So, I'm definitely liking the way Paizo is shaping up Golarion; however, I was wondering / hoping if there's any chance we may get some sort of distilled book on dead civilizations / cultures of Golarion? Enough of them are referenced throughout the various materials, but I reckon it should make a great sourcebook to distill and elaborate it it all into a standalone.

Does anyone know of good RP stuff trading websites? I have quite a bit of older RP stuff I'd like to turn into something newer / not yet tried... Not really interested in selling as much as just straight-out trading.

Mr. Aroden to the white courtesy telephone, please?

Anyway. I'm currently running a Council of Thieves campaign and, since Westcrown is the town strongly connected to Aroden, was thinking about offering players an Aroden-related side arc to toy with when I don't have the whole party around the table.

Problem being, Aroden-lore seems to be in a very short supply. Is there any info, preferably canon but homebrew won't be necessarily scoffed at, that's not covered here: http://pathfinder.wikia.com/wiki/Aroden

Thank you!

So, short story shorter, is there a feat or a Rogue talent that'd allow multiclass Rogue character to count at least some of his non-Rogue levels towards sneak attack?

(Example: Rogue3/Fighter2 with 3D6 sneak damage)

My search's been futile so far :)

Hi y'all,

so, one of my players plays a craft-oriented wizard, and she'd like her familiar to be built towards assisting her in the workshop; I'm willing to let her swap familiar's starting feat for something more utility-oriented than Weapon Finesse, but am kind of drawing a blank on what the replacement feat could be. Any advice is appreciated!

Andro

So, I'm preparing to start running Council of Thieves, and in laying down the groundwork I've noticed I'm missing some info on Westcrown.

1) Harbor and docks disctrict. It is evident from the position of Westcrown and the natural shelter provided by the curve of the river delta that it should be a (or the) major Cheliax port city. It should have a big harbor, a large docks district with shipyards and warehouses, and the like. Unfortunately, while Campaign Setting, Cheliax sourcebook and Part 1 of the Council of Thieves all provide fairly detailed info on Westcrown, apart from the mention of imperial Navy Docks there's very little information of value or relevance on the port. Is there a reason for this, or am I missing some info from some source?

2) Westcrown sewers. These are, purportedly, a massive and impressive piece of civil engineering, forming a vast network of underground tunnels beneath the city. Considering the fact that Westcrown rests on a peninsula and a cluster of islands, 2 major questions beg asking:

#1 Is the network interconnected, or does each "land segment" (peninsula and each island) have its own grid? Or is there no sewers sstem under islands, but just at mainland portion?

#2 How deep underground is the sewer grid? Common sense suggests sewers would dump into the river and the sea, an behavior of tides and risk of "backwash" with the surges of the sea. Based on that, I'd guess sewers level would be -higher- than sea level, and that sewers would dump into the sea and river.

#2.1 If this is the case, 2 side questions arise: First, it seems like a lot of coast is actually too low to provide clearance for the network to be above sea level (not to mention it'd get in the way of most buildings on street level having basements); Second, if the sewers dump into sea, where are the openings, how large are they and how are they guarded? It occurs to me this would make "underground" activities such as skulking and smuggling much easier and sewers far more intensely utilized by the seedy elements.

Andro

So, I have a couple of Elemental Fist-related Monkly questions:

1) Elemental Fist and Flurry of Blows : How do they interact? I see 3 options:
-a) EF doesn't apply to FoB - needs to be its own attack.
-b) EF applies to first strike of FoB.
-c) EF applies to whole FoB.

I'm leaning towards option B, but am having little luck documenting it.

2) Does Elemental Fist apply only to unarmed strikes, or would it be applicable when using special monk weapons as well? Brass Knuckles etc?

3) Eldritch Claws : Do Monk's unarmed strikes count as Natural Weapons?

Thank you in advance!

Hello everyone;

can someone authoritatively tell me which takes precedence: Taldor - Echoes of Glory PF Companion or PF Advanced Player's guide?

Namely, I'm talking about "Brute" trait:

PFG p.332:

"You have worked for a crime lord, either as a low-level enforcer or as a guard, and are adept at frightening away people. You gain a +1 Trait bonus on Intimidate checks, and Intimidate is always a class skill for you."

T-EoG p.14

"You have spent long hours working for a crime lord, either as a low-level enforcer or as a guard or bouncer. You are adept at frightening away people and gain a +2 trait bonus on Intimidate checks."

Right; Doc Genius here forgot there are a bunch of archery feats like Deadly Aim that will require Dex 13+... this will require some more numbershuffling...

So, I'm working on a Zen Archer Monk build, and I'm trying to evaluate the worth of Rapid/Manyshot feats, since Zen Archer already has the ability to use Flurry of Blows with his bow, and Rapid & Many cannot be used while he Flurries.

Looking at Rapid Shot: Full Attack action nets +1 attack, all attacks get a -2 penalty. Since it also doesn't get Flurry's Level=BAB bonus, it besically functions as gimped Flurry of Blows?

Likewise, Manyshot: First attack in Full Attack action fires 2 arrows. No to-hit penalty, following attacks as normal, available to Monk at 6th level. At that level, his Flurry to hit is same as his BAB (+4) but gives him 3 attacks (+4/+4/-1). So, I get 2 chances to hit at my full BAB (instead of one with Manyshot), and also additional 3rd attack.

Can anyone give me a reason to even consider these 2 feats?

Additionally, while trying to number-crunch the comparison, I ran into another question:

Flurry of Blows assumes BAB = Monk's Level; it adds assumed TWF on top of it, resulting in actual Flurry to hit mods lagging behind behind monk's level by 2 (-1 at 1st level, 1 at 3rd etc). Since shooting a bow isn't actually a two-weapon attack, would my Flurry to-hit mod lose that -2 TWP penalty, or (as I assume) would the penalty stuck since Monk is offloading arrows like mad?

So I'm drafting an archer build - I'm still in very rough stage, but I noticed a feat that made me wonder if concealment is something I should be concerned about.

Namely, the feat I'm looking at is Elven Accuracy; it allows bow attack roll that missed due to concealment to be re-rolled. Pre-req is, obviously, Race: Elf.

Now, this will have a significant impact on the build : Going for this feat requires me to go Elf, which means I'm netting 2 feats less than Human archer (losing 1st level bonus feat, plus feat slot spent on Elven Accuracy). So, is it worth it? :)

PS: I noticed picking Elf would also open "Stabbing Shot" feat to me - allowing me to make melee attacks against adjacent opponents; succesful hit pushes the target back and allows me to follow up with ranged attacks in the same round. Does that sweeten the deal? I'm still on the fence - there are tons of archery feats I could be burning slots on.

Thanks,
Andro

So, I'm planning on drawing up a PF Society character and finally venture forth to play; to that aim I've been tossing around some character concepts... here's one of them:

The concept, in this incarnation, is that of a morbid and death-obsessed Keleshite Bones Oracle / Hungry Ghost Monk; I do realize the build is perhaps not as powerful as it could be under some other options, but I did try to give flavor and theme at least some priority over optimization.

Please, shred away :)

LN Keleshite Human Bones Oracle (8) of Pharasma / Hungry Ghost Monk (4)

Str 14
Dex 14
Con 10
Int 7 +1 12th
Wis 17 +1 4th
Cha 15 +1 8th

Lvl | Class | Feats | Selected Class Abilities
1 | Oracle 1 | Extra Revelation; Lost in the Crowd | Clouded Vision; Armor of Bones; Death's Touch
2 | Monk 1 | Dodge
3 | Monk 2 | Combat Reflexes, Belier's Bite
4 | Oracle 2
5 | Oracle 3 | Weapon Focus: Unarmed | Raise The Dead
6 | Monk 3
7 | Oracle 4 | Extra Revelation | Voice of the Grave
8 | Monk 4
9 | Oracle 5 | Extra Ki
10 | Oracle 6
11 | Oracle 7 | Deepsight* | Soul Siphon
12 | Oracle 8

*Oracle Curse: Clouded Vision grants Darkvision 60' at 5th level, Deepsight would double this to 120'; however, seeing (pun intended) as this is the character's only vision mode and is supposed to be a major drawback, is taking Deepsight extra-sticky cheese melt?
**I didn't bother cluttering the progression list with the 'fixed' abilities; I figure anyone commenting on the build will know those already :)

Traits: Impressive Presence; Cliff Jumper

Skill Choices

Acrobatics Full points
Climb Partial
Diplomacy Partial
Heal Minimal
Know: Religion Emphasis
Perception Full points
Swim Minimal

General idea is to rely on the combo of Monk's AC Bonus, Dodge, Lost in the Crowd and Armor of Bones to lend the character some toughness (AC 22 without spells or magic items off the bat; up to 25 barebone AC at lvl 11) with Unarmed Striked with Bleed (Belial's Bite) providing damage dealing; spell list focus would be on buffs and utility spells; probably relying on inflict wound spells for additional damage.

Thoughts? :)

Cheers, Andro