ancientdm's page

thank you everyone for your input. After looking over various archetypes I am going to go straight Wizard class with no specialization going to do bonded object also. It appears spell penetration and the ability to cast defensively are extremely important if you want to be effective so judicious use of skill points and the correct feat choices will simplify alot of things. Again thank you for your suggestions.

looking to build for the long term. want to be able to choose the appropriate feats that will help me at higher levels while being able to help the party at my current level. I am not a min max power builder but i do want to be effective as a wizard or sorcerer or such. I will have to look up Arcanist to see what that entails. Mu goal is primarily offensive but with enough of a skill set to have certain spells to change the course of battle like combinations of stinking cloud over a tentacles spell or such.

I am looking at making a spell caster for a brand new campain. Our DM says it will be Reign of Winter so I am assuming it will be alot of frozen or cold based places. My question is , having never played a spell caster what skills or feats should be concentrated on at low levels to make my spell caster (some kind of wizard or witch)effective at higher levels? Ie spell penetration etc. etc.

Will be starting at first level so maybe a template for a build might be helpful.

Also should i consider multi classing, arcane classes or prestige classes or just stick with the base spell caster?

everything posted so far makes sense but i cant seem to find a way to add it into my hero lab as an adjustment. I have a barbarian lvl 16 w 25 strength +7 weilding a +5 great axe with weapon focus greataxe +1 and a sacred bonus of +2 if i go power attack where does that put my damage bonus. currently according to Hero Lab (Pathfinder) I am +17dmg with my great axe. if i get the correct bonus I can make a Macro that will display it on the game ( Gaming on roll 20)even if i cant get it to show on Hero Lab..so do i wind up with a +20 damage bonus or +18???

4D6 is correct. Which is nearly identical to the increase gained from 1D12->3D6

ok thanks at least i have that resolved now.

I am considering putting Lead Blades onto my great axe (1d12 dmg)which then would make it (3d6 dmg). Now if i enlarge how much more of an increase would i get? according to the core rulebook i should go to the next category but i dont know what the next category would be from 3d6. Would it change it to like 4d8????? I put the numbers into Hero Lab and it changed it from 3d6 to 4d6 which doesnt seem like much of an increase.BTW I am running a standard Barbarian

Rikkan wrote:

You're mistaken. Bit of Luck works is in effect for the next round. In a round all creatures have a chance to take a turn. So you'd gain the effect when the next round starts and it lasts 'till that round ends.

I wish it worked as you seem to think it does: Magda's Luckbending ability would be that much better. Sadly, it is not so.

Yes, as you say, Bit of Luck is in effect for the next round from when you activate it. That means it ends at the start of your next turn.

Jiggys definition is the one the group decided on but thank you both for covering different aspects of the same rule.

thank you for helping me to figure this out everything seems to be defined on what next round means. I did not get the answer in time for my game session so i presented it to the DM and the group. They as a whole body chose to define next round as the round after my usage of the ability. So when i use the ability say in round 3 of combat i do not get the extra d20 rolls until the start of round 4 and it lasts until the 1st segment of round 5. I have just leveled up and chose quicken special ability which makes everything moot. The reason i chose this for myself isa house rule goes that if you roll a natural 1 on your d20 as an attack regardless of the number of attacks still available you lose any attacks you have left because of a fumble. so if you have 5 attacks and you roll a 1 on the first one then you lose the other four. By using Bit o luck it is nearly impossible for me to roll a 1 unless i roll double 1's. so the odds are in my favor i wont lose any attacks.

say guys could you go to the rules question and take a look at my question regarding bit o luck would like to get this answered. after going over 40 posts it still seems as unclear regarding the next round statement

Luck Domain and Bit of Luck Ability •

ok everyone thanks for the heads up that makes sense will make sure i let the DM know if he hasn't already checked it out for himself.

Last game session a Harpy was caught in a fireball which reduced her to 3 hp she did a full withdrawal and flew away down various corridors. I had to chase her for 4 rounds before i caught her at a large door she was having trouble opening. My question is in old school D&D there was a provision for winged creatures taking damage based on their wing type (feathered or Bat like). I could find nothing covering this at all. I am not saying just because of damage she would be unable to fly but damage from the fireball would have set her feathers ablaze which in turn would have prevented her flight or at least severely hindered it forcing her to land instead . Spoke with the DM on it he was willing to look into it and make a decision this week for future reference. Anyone have some input on this that i could use to make our case to the DM.

OK, thanks for the clarification.

I am using bit of luick intonights campaign which as a barbarian i can use six times per day. originally since i am hasted and have 5att per round i thought i would be using up 5 of my six times per day in my initial attack. but understanding what you are saying is with one casting i can withstand a hundred d20s as long as they all come before the end of the round. So what does the six times per day refer to? The number of times i can use it (it is a spell like ability)

"Bit of Luck (Sp): You can touch a willing creature as a standard action, giving it a bit of luck. For the next round, any time the target rolls a d20, he may roll twice and take the more favorable result. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Wisdom modifier."

Now i plan to move first then cast BOL. but either way the effects take place on the next round. so if i do this on round 1 then the effects take place on round two and last till round 2 is over thereby allowing me to make my attacks. is this correct? its all about the next round terminology

just finished reading over all your posts and there are many excellent suggestions I will forward these to the dm and see what he can come up with. Hopefully the group will see that there are things to do in the city that might lead to other adventures, I personally am hoping for more role playing opportunities with them rather than just another encounter or adventure ie. sewer run etc. Really would like to see them actually carry on a conversation with an NPC based on there characters personality and beliefs and y design based upon that personality actually get themselves involved by statements or actions instead of just looking over the job board.

thank you all for your excellent suggestions, hope to be able to use all of them.

Right now myself and the dm are working on a masked ball for one of the local holidays. It would be held at one of the major manor houses and somehow one or more members of the group are going to be invited. I am working with the dm on a general outline and he is doing all the details. We both hope this might interest some of them but not sure even the rogues will notice the opportunity presented to them. I think they will just show up and try to pick as many pockets and such rather than first making acquaintances and such to determine who the best targets might be and which rooms might be least guarded and such. Hopefully this will work.

Gotta run doing my fantasy football draft in an hour so I will be back to check out anymore responses. Again thank you all in advance for your help.

I feel the same as does the dm but can't seem to pull in the rest of the group into the quagmire of city adventuring. I think some of it has to do with role playing, a large portion of our group just doesn't. Oh they will on occasion when it suits there need but more likely they will just play the numbers or power game or something. really would like to get them involved more and both myself and the dm have tried at times but even when we throw obvious clues at them they just miss them. Right now myself and the dm are trying to put together a list of things to do in the city that may or may not require fighting and treasure but still offer opportunities for roll playing and hope to present this to everyone in the party. Our dm does give exp for quality role playing but again rarely do most party members take advantage of it.

I belong to a group of players currently in the capital city of our campaign. The problem is the rest of the party members only do 3 things then they want to leave. they will go to the temple for healing and potions, try to buy magic items at the local shops, or go to a tavern. Oh yes they do get a room at an inn but never try to interact with anyone, even when given the opportunity. So what I am asking is what else is there to do in the city that would interest this group of players to remain in town more than one day. Even when I have spent time at the temple and have talked with the dm about the time frame for either information or scrolls or such, when the dm asks the rest of the group they either say they want to buy certain items if available or go back to the tavern or in. Even when buying items they just want to get the item and deduct the cost and not really wander about the city taking in the sites or talking to people. I guess what I would like to bring to the game is something like a 100 THINGS TO DO IN A CITY sort of thing. For whatever reason they all seem bored in the city, while I find it filled with stuff for my character, but I don't want the whole time in the city to be just about me while everyone just sits around either. Hope you guys can help either with suggestions or links thanks.

ancientdm wrote:

... I looked over some of the approved pregens for PFS play and they all have 25 point makeups. ...

Do you mind my asking ... was that because of racial modifications, or something else?

I currently use something called hero lab to generate all my PFS characters and I tried making the exact pregen character with a 20 point buy in and it always comes up at 25 points which automatically disallows that character makeup. The only way I can get that character ability scored is to choose epic fantasy 25 point buy in unless for some reason the numbers total different. In the lab as you increase your ability score the cost of that score in points goes up. to get an 18 it actually costs 10 pts not 8 etc. etc.

Ok thanks cause I made duplicate sheets for each character one at a 20point and one at a 25 point buy in just so I would be covered. It is refereshing to constantly be able to ask a question and get real answers in a timely fashion. Paizo and the Society actually do thing right. Again thank you for your advice.

My question is, all my characters I have made todate have been made with the 20 point buy in (at first i was told it was 15 which messed me up major but got itworked out), then I looked over some of the approved pregens for PFS play and they all have 25 point makeups. So should I change to a 25 point buy in when making characters or should I just take a pregen and change the name therby getting a better start up?

Just recently started going to sanctioned events and would like to clarify before I go to ANCON friday.

Welcome to PFS.

All your GM (and the players) really need to do is to create an account and register for the Pathfinder Society here at paizo.com and get a Society number.

Once you get that, you can run the scenarios as private home games, and the GM reports the results here. You will want to download the Guide to Organized Play here . It gives you the info you need for what the guidelines are for character creation and what's allowed and what's not out of the Core rules.

If there's any specific questions, most folks around here are usually fairly quick to try and point you in the right direction.

Good gaming to you.

Thanks that is exactly what we needed, we all have registered characters here and each has a pathfinder card so the rest should be easy. Again thanks alot for the links.

any advice would be helpful or maybe a link to the proper information would also help.

Just a quick question, we have a group who enjoys playing sanctioned games but would prefer not traveling an hour or more to get to one. One of our members wants to gm sanctioned games but we are not sure what he needs to qualify or if he needs to sign up on a forum or something. We know he will need to buy scenarios and have all offered to chip in so as it is not any cost to him. So basically whats the scoop on becoming a gm for PFS?

first I want to thank you all for your advice, your input has cleared up a number of issues whether I agree or not and has allowed me to solve the problem as it currently exists. Since I am new to pathfinder I find my old school style sometimes gets in the way which is why I come here for advice.

Again thank you all. each of you has given me some bit of advice that combined as a whole solves the problem.

I like the "Divine Missions" idea, and the romantic subplot idea. I may explore both of those. Thanks Sylvanite.

Does anyone else have any ideas?

I have an Oracle with the haunted curse playin in my campaign and mostly they get in the way at the wrong time like when she is telling fortunes, sometimes they will turn the cards around so it reads incorrect and then she"ll get in trouble and have to lay low or find an alternate path out of the city. Also I have currently adapted the Arduin Grimoire module Citadel of Thunder in which resides an artifact called the time piece. To actually get it they have to reset a device which will transport them back in time to where the time Piece currently resides and she will get to meet the living personas of the ghosts which haunt her and maybe figure out why they do.

ancientdm wrote:

3.still havent resolved the issue about when you get healed from unconscious how fast do you become competent again.

Just flip it around. At the time of the Coup, did the Halfling qualify as helpless? The thing that had previously made the Halfling helpless was unconsciousness stemming from the negative hit points. Since the Halfling was no longer at negative hit points after the Witch's CMW, the helpless condition no longer applies. If the rules don't specify a "recovery period" there's no reason to add one, imo.

Yeah that makes sense just trying to prevent things from getting out of control at a later time by getting something concrete in place. I do hate to add rules, I have enought to try and remember as is. thanks

Since you are still reading, you must have said #2. Cool. You tell the player; the Witch has healed you and you are coming around, but the Ghost sees it too. He's going to take a full-round action to CDG you ... unless you can beat him in a Bluff / Sense Motive contest ... if you win, you fake him out and can roll away from the fatal blow at the last second. If you fail ... you die instantly! Give me a Bluff roll...

Now, you roll Sense Motive behind your GM screen. DO NOT announce the result... just look grim and describe the how the ghost carefully moves his enormous blade into place at the Halfling's throat and ...
THE HALFLING ROLLS AWAY AT THE VERY LAST INSTANT
... the ghost's surprise gives way to raging anger in less than half a heartbeat. The clever halfling better figure out something very fast!

(What about the roll behind the screen? Doesn't matter. At all. It was merely a prop to build suspense.)

When your player leaves the game, he'll talk about how his halfling bravely escaped almost certain death with an incredibly daring bluff.
THAT is cool. THAT is fun. That's why it should be your ruling; regardless of what the rules state.

Thats a bit of a problem

2. I am intrigued with the idea of the heroic effort but perhaps I could find a way for the witch to do something maybe throw herself in front of the oracle and take the blow or something then she could use her last fireball in her wand to finish the ghost off as he has only enough left to survive a minor attack and would most likely succumb to the fireball. I suppose thats a possibility.

3.still havent resolved the issue about when you get healed from unconscious how fast do you become competent again. Maybe we will have to do a house rule on this.

4. ooohhh I just thought of something let me run this by you. The witch has a fox familiar which until now pretty much stays out of the fight I could have the fox take the blow and then the witch could just resummon it (once there out of the dungeon as I dont think she could just do it right there but I will check that out.) or even have the witch attempt to cover him up to take the blow and she hears a fearful yip as the fox jumps in to save her.

either 2 or 4 might just solve the issue but neither answers the question or the one about the cdg vs awakening character as well as what happens to the initiative order.

IIRC if the halfling made stabilization rolls, that used his initiative each turn. If the halfling took no actions but remained alive, that would imply he was delaying his initiative. If he took no action last turn, including stabilization rolls, I would rule that as a delay and allow a turn before the ghost. Otherwise, use the original initiative.

i could grant him stabilization after each ghostly drain and that could be on his initiative but the fact remains he is unconscious and has been for 4 rounds therefore how do I justify giving him a free turn before the ghost, Just because he has no action to take should not award him 1st initiative especially in the middle of a round. BTW: the orininal initiative order was Oracle, Witch, Paladin. I understand the delay part but if your unconscious how could you delay something. Also there is the issue about instant recovery versus coup de grace after all he is still prone and essentially flatfooted by his original inititative order alone. Or am I putting to much into this.

First off I apologize for the length but it is neccessary....
]
I currently am running a game in which I have a halfling Oracle which had been reduced to -5 by a spectral Paladin which had succumbed in a battle with a greater Evil and is now forced to slay any living creature which enters its lair {blah blah blah} the point is the oracle drops at witch point another player (witch) continues magic missiling the paladins ghost. The ghost ignores the witch and continues to feast on the fallen halfling for 2pts negative energy draing per round, in three rounds the halfling will be dead. The witch takes the time to kick the body of the halfling out from under the ghost in an attempt to prevent the draining which did actually give the halfling an extra round to hang on. Hope that sets the picture, now comes the problem the witch casts CMW for 17 points on the halfling oracle minus the -9 he was at (2pts for 2 rounds added to the -5) would leave him at +8 done on the witches initiative. next would be the ghost who knowing what the witch has done planned to coup de grace the halfling with his spectral sword(formerly a +5 holy avenger). First the halfling player pipes up with "I should be able to defend myself because I am at +8" to which I explain that he has been out of the initiative order for 4 rounds and dying and cannot act until the next round which he would have to re roll for new initiative since he is effectively rejoing an ongoing combat. Then he explainse from one of his skills or abilities or such he automatically stabilizes when he goes to 0 or less and cant take any more damage. I explain he can indeed continue to be damaged but it must come from additional attacks on his limp body ( the -4 additional drain point). And regardless of his current hit point total even if we used his original initiative, it would still not come until after the ghosts coup de grace. Now when you get healed after being down for more than one roungd do you automatically jump up and can get right back into the fight or is ther some time frame before your head clears allowing you to fight???? can find no real clarification on this. Also should the ghost get the coup de grace if he is truly awake or does that mean he is no longer considered helpless????? if that is the case then I would feel correct in classifying him as flat footed at the very least. To this last bit he informs me he cannot be caught flatfooted except by a rogue of equal or higher level. Which is fine for combat but this is essentially a special circumstance. I stopped the game for the night at this point so I could review and come up with some sort of fair judgement. If anyone could read this and point me somewhere for a definitive rules answer that would be great otherwise I will just have to make a DM judgement which no one may like.

darkmadden wrote:

Hello eveyone,

I am planning on running a few Pathfinder events at AnCon 2010
May 21 - 23, 2010 Clarion Inn Hudson, OH
I should have the events up over the weekend and you can sign up for the events at http://www.warhorn.org/AnCon2010/. You can also check out the convention as a whole at www.anothergamecon.com.

I would love to meet a few of you at the con if possiable...

I also am running game days for Pathfinder in Toledo, but that may be a little out of the way for you all... but if you would like to come up and vist send me an e-mail at: OhioDragonSlayers@gmail.com. I would love to hear from you!!!

Sorry about the dealy but i meant to update this more over the weeks. Pre-registration is closed now but I still have plenty of room at the tables for those interested in playing.

Just show up at the day of the convention and bring your dice. See you at the Con

Our group has signed up for every PFS event at ancon and the only two GM's I can see running are Nancy Ludden and Lars Logue. As of today I havent seen any other events running for PFS unless Warhorn needs to update the AnCon event schedule. Always looking for more games provided they can fit into the time frames alloted. That is usually the big problem trying not to overlap. There is one game in particular run by Nancy on saturday that we are hoping can be moved or re-run in another time slot so we can get to play all the PFS events. Right now that is the one event we may miss because of the slot it is in. Hope to see you there and maybe get into one of your events.

I was looking to find a game to get into and Columbus/Cincinatti are pretty far away. Any Pathfinders in NE Ohio area?

I have also recently moved to pathfinder from 3.5 and will be attending An Con in Hudson. The only sanctioned game I am aware of is in cuyahoga falls at Underhills on state street. They play on alternating wednesdays and our group now makes it a point to have one or more players present. The GM Lars Logue is really good and everyone has a great time. There is no cost and the game runs from 6pm till 10pm just be sure your on time if you want in. A second GM has offered to run an additional table if interest is up and the primary GM Lars, will be running at An Con. Our group travels down to cuyahoga falls from Jefferson Ohio, takes about an hour depending on traffic.

ancientdm wrote:

I recently signed up for the campaign setting and ordered the rule of fear along with a mini and the carrion crown deck. Well everything came in fine and undamaged but you sent me 2 carrion crown decks. Looking over my account I dont believe I was charged for the 2nd deck and was wondering how to return it. I thought perhaps after I ordered the original deck maybe one was supplied with the campaign subscription or maybe the rule of fear module. Just wanted to try and clear up this mistake.

Thanks for taking the time to review this 1669823 was the original order number and was moved to 1669723 hope that helps you locate things.

It appears that you did order (and pay for) the Carrion Crown deck twice. The first time you ordered it was as a preorder on order 1644188 on March 22nd, and set to ship separately from the other items you ordered at the time. Then you ordered it again on order 1669823 and set it to ship with your subscription shipment.

To return the extra deck, just ship it back to us in salable condition, along with a short note indicating why it's being returned (please include one/all of the above order numbers) to:

Paizo Publishing
Attn: Store Returns
7120 185th Ave NE Ste 120
Redmond, WA 98052-0577

Upon receipt, I will credit your refund as either Paizo store credit or back to the originating card (please include your preference in the short note.

Thanks,
cos

Thanks for the information I just didnt want to keep something I hadn't paid for. One of my players wants to do a Harrower and has offered to buy the deck so I will keep it and offer it to him. Guess i will have to be more careful when ordering.....limited grey matter and agent orange play havoc sometimes..... again thanks for the info now I feel better.

I recently signed up for the campaign setting and ordered the rule of fear along with a mini and the carrion crown deck. Well everything came in fine and undamaged but you sent me 2 carrion crown decks. Looking over my account I dont believe I was charged for the 2nd deck and was wondering how to return it. I thought perhaps after I ordered the original deck maybe one was supplied with the campaign subscription or maybe the rule of fear module. Just wanted to try and clear up this mistake.

Thanks for taking the time to review this 1669823 was the original order number and was moved to 1669723 hope that helps you locate things.

So an Eidolon, in my opinion, should be able to be a Biped, with two Reach Evolutions, one for each claw, both holding a two-handed weapon with reach, and benefit from reach given by the Reach Evolution as well as reach granted by the reach weapon.

I find this part of your premise the most interesting, it would seem that if the eidolon had two arms (each with reach) he could swing a "TWO HANDED" weapon and gain reach with it. Now if he has a two handed weapon in each hand I would think he would be at some sort of minus in addition to that suffered for the off hand/secondary weapon since one of the requirements to use a two handed weapon is to have two hands free. Or is that another change in the rules I haven't discovered yet? I am new to pathfinder and constantly find my assumptions do get overruled. Would be nice to know in case I haveto resolve the whole two handed argument.

That works really well once people get used to it. Sadly, there is no cure for people who are just incredibly slow at mental... [/QUOTE

Just happened to be browsing saw this and thought it was great, my group will soon be at that level and am not particularly looking forward to all the lag time in game for decision making rgading actions, spells, etc. These are some wonderful tips. As we are all new to pathfinder we generally have a larger then normal amount of lag because so many things are different from 3.5 and especially 1st edition (Old School DM) which leaves me at times ready to pull my hair out. I thouroghly enjoy the game and will conintue to play it just have so much to learn all over again. You know what they say about old dogs and new tricks............

PS. there are so many new players that havent done 1st edition that the old tricks still work..heh..heh... :-)

I agree with Abraham - it's not a terrible choice at all. And there is *definitely* room in Society play for great interesting characters and roleplay, optimal stat choices or not. Whichever you choose to progress in, you got a decent boost out of the other (just don't split them evenly!) As Wizards and Witches both use Int, you're not even spreading your ability scores out.

However:

ancientdm wrote:

(15 points is pretty hard to spread around favorably).

If you meant ability score point buy points, society uses 20 point-buy, so you should double check what you used.

Now thats interesting information my original character buy in was 15 points starting with all 10s and 70 gp for equipment. Las week was my first sanctioned event and today I downloaded the updated society rules and find out I should have had 150gp to start and now you say 20 points to add. Would have made a huge difference in my character makeup. Do you suppose I should run this past the GM as we have another sanctioned game next week. I also found out I coud make money using my skills between games as well as picking up some listed traits. All of which I would have done had I been aware. All my creating was done off 2nd hand info from guys who have played at conventions, which is what I plan to do next at ANCON.

ancientdm wrote:

Abraham spalding wrote:

Useful but not optimal would be my answer.

I am primarily a role player who believes in heavy characterization, unfortunately there is not much room in sanctioned games but I still want to build her as a character with a distinct personality. I am thinking along the lines of a gypsy or fortune teller type. Originally I was going to go bard/witch but my high stat is INT so if I go Wiz/witch I am good othere wise I am going CHA/INT and my stats wont allow me two exceptional ability scores.

I am sorry -- I didn't explain my position clearly -- by useful I mean if you take a single level in witch you would gain useful abilities without giving up too much else. As such while you do lose some optimal power it isn't enough compared to what you gain to make it a horrible trade.

Since you are level 1 you could go with a single dip in either class and just sticking with the other one equally well.

Actually I was looking at the additional spell slots from her spell list, plus hexes, plus patron spells, that makes a nice boost in spells for basically a 2nd level character.

I have started working on a war campaign without any DMing experince so I would like some tips on creating a campaign from scratch, thanks.

I would suggest something like the river kingdoms 6 mod set as a starter until you can get more familiar. Any of the modules could be run just as they are and each has plenty of info and explanations to help you get started. Then once you feel comfortable running things you can slowly get away frome the mods into soething yo have taken he time to create yourself.

I would create something small first and very open ended so no matter where your playes go you can cover it either by module or quick creation. Try to stay away from linear styles as it limits both yours and your players creativity. In my opinion.

I have ben DMing since 1976 so I feel I have some input but this is based strictly off my personal opinion.

Ps take time to make and outline of your campaign or adventure, doesnt have to be to in depthbut enough so yo can expand or follow the storyline you have set as well as results from you players actions.

Hope that helps

As I understand it, bonded items are the exception to "no crafting" in PFS. You can craft anything you want into your bonded item, even though taking the feats to do it to other items is illegal. I don't know how the cost associated with that works, though. You'd also still have to carry your spellbook around to prepare the wizard spells you did know, or else you have an effectively dead level. You might be better off just creating a new witch for the next game and starting over.

That is interesting I had thought I would be able to teach my wizard spells to my familiar, but thats alright if I can't. If I can augment my bonded object thats great, after reading the society rules for sanctioned events it didn't seem like I woul be able to do that. Thanks for that info.

Useful but not optimal would be my answer.

I am primarily a role player who believes in heavy characterization, unfortunately there is not much room in sanctioned games but I still want to build her as a character with a distinct personality. I am thinking along the lines of a gypsy or fortune teller type. Originally I was going to go bard/witch but my high stat is INT so if I go Wiz/witch I am good othere wise I am going CHA/INT and my stats wont allow me two exceptional ability scores.

If PFS games are as hard as I heard they are I would not do it unless I thought myself a very skilled player. It is actually better to stay with one casting class.

PS:The familiar abilities would stack. You would not get 2 of them. If I misunderstood I apologize in advance.

I am not looking for an optimal build merely something befitting her background that would not imbalance the game. As a wizard she took bonded object instead of familiar and now I find that crafting skills cant be used to make magic items in sanctioned games, by taking witch I can regain the familiar and not have to use or carry around a spellbook. Plus I could get the additional bonuses from the familiar which I could use to beef up some of my abilities that are lacking. (15 points is pretty hard to spread around favorably). I also plan to look over some of the Wizard buildssince I specalize as a conjuror it also seems to fit well with the whole witch stereotype.

I currently have a female Andoran wizard lvl 1 Arcane:Conjuror with bonded item that worships Pharasma. Her background indicates she learned her magic skills from a mid wife hermit (witch). I am thinking of multi classing into a Wizard / Witch. which should grant me additional spells from the witch spell list plus another opportunity to acquire a familiar. Does this sound feasable and would the benefits if any unbalance gameplay? She is my first Society character so I have at least two more games to play beore making that choice. Any help or info wouldbe appreciated. I have looke over the witch messageboards and find a great deal of useful info. Just wanted the community input as to the viability of such a dual class.

ancientdm wrote:

Severalmembers of my group were looking at the inquisitor class recently, If at 1st lvl you get one judgement and then as a swift action you can change that judgement to another type wouldn't that be considered 2 judgements? and therefore not usable until attaining 4th level when yo actually can cast more judgements?

Incorrect. Think of the Judgement use and the bonuses as two separate things. When you use the swift action to start a judgement it uses up 1 use per day, and then will last until the end of combat.

When you start the judgement you choose one of the bonuses, let's say +1 attack for this example. However if 3 rounds later you've been hit by the big bad evil pugwampi, and decide you could use more HP, you can use a swift action to change your judgement bonus to fast healing 1. You aren't starting another judgement, you're changing the bonus from one thing to another.

prd wrote:

When the inquisitor uses this ability, she must select one type of judgment to make. As a swift action, she can change this judgment to another type.

Also to be certain people understand, a 1st level inquisitor can make his judgement bonus to be anything from the list, and as said above can change it once per round to a different bonus. This combined with bane and monster lore is why an inquisitor is one of the most versatile classes. They'll know what the monster does, can judge to defend against it and/or bane and judge to attack against the monster's defenses.

Thanks that does clear things up one of the problems was that it appeared as though you could change the bonus every round if you wanted to even at first level and that didnt seem correct.

ElyasRavenwood wrote:

A question of judgment.

I have a quick question. An Inquisitor gets the use of one judgment a day at first level. Does he pick one judgment that he gets to use once each day, or does he choose from the list of judgments, and pick what he wants spontaneously like a sorcerer, as he uses his judgment class ability?

Thanks

Like the sorcerer, he chooses it when he use the judgement.

He is even permitted to change the judgement currently used to another with a swift action (although this resets the bonus).

Severalmembers of my group were looking at the inquisitor class recently, If at 1st lvl you get one judgement and then as a swift action you can change that judgement to another type wouldn't that be considered 2 judgements? and therefore not usable until attaining 4th level when yo actually can cast more judgements?

ZappoHisbane, 10 minutes ago
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ancientdm wrote:

The intent is to make them wary and add to the dangers of the game to make them still wonder should they just do this or should they take precautions. with some of the new methods IE. skill points is there any need then to tie oneself off to insure they dont slip and fall or have someone fly up and secure a second rope etc etc . with the new skills it pretty much eliminates that and I want to put the mystery and wonder back into the game. with a DC of 5 the most they could miss by would be 4 which is not enough to garner the4 threat I intended as a counter balance to making the climb with just one roll. therefore the 1 became the counter balance not the actual 4 that it would ordinarily be. Cause mostly by the condition of the surrounding environment not the characters skill set.

I would have set the wall you describe at a DC15 (10 for rough surface with handholds, +5 for being slippery/crumbly). Characters who are decent at climbing can take-10 and make it automatically. Those who can't can either risk it, or improve their chances by having a capable climber use Aid Another, drop a rope down (DC5 if knotted, DC10 if not), or any other of the myriad ways of improving a skill check. Tying off a character with a rope has no affect on their Climb checks, but it will stop them from falling if they do slip.

In other words, if the characters who aren't good climbers are reckless and just go for it, they've got real danger of falling to their death. If they stop for a moment and think it through though, work as a team, then they can probably get through it. Sounds exactly the way its supposed to work to me.

Parka, 7 minutes ago
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Sorry, ancientdm, I didn't mean to imply you like to arbitrarily punish your players. It was more aimed at the same "they" conspiracy theorists talk about.

I tried to mention this, but even with a DC 5 climb check, if any player is wearing armor with a check penalty or has a strength penalty, they can fail the climb check by 5, or more. Heavy gear, if you track encumbrance, can do this too. If you want to encourage your players to loop their rope around themselves and things like that, tracking encumbrance ought to help get them in the mindset of "everything you do and carry has an effect." It's not my preferred style of play (my favorite games handwave a lot to get to the interesting bits), but it has no less merit.

Thanks everyone these last two seem to express what it was i was looking for, I will both assign a better DC to fit the situation as well as look for armor penalties and encumbrance thank you everyone for your insightful replies to my dilemma

On experts in their field suffering accidents- those are usually due to bad circumstances. Equipment failure during a race (combined with a poor roll), bad weather/weak ledge/forgot something/got drunk (combined with a poor roll), botched a ranged to-hit (bad pitch/slice/serve - notice, that's not a skill check, so 1 could auto-fail). Pretty much any of those could be explained through penalties applying to a low roll despite a pretty good skill level.

In the case of the Climb skill, it has your "don't roll a one" situation built into it already. If they miss the DC by 5 or more, they fall, otherwise they catch themselves and don't make progress, but don't lose progress either. They can still miss a DC 5 climb check by this margin thanks to penalties, but they'd have to roll pretty close to 1 to do that.

On the subject of "1 is auto-fail," I hate punishing players despite success. If they have accumulated legitimate bonuses enough to dodge the effect (and didn't game the system to do it), then by all means, don't take their success away from them just because of some arbitrary notion about statistics.

I agree with your statement about not punishing the players which is not my intent. The intent is to make them wary and add to the dangers of the game to make them still wonder should they just do this or should they take precautions. with some of the new methods IE. skill points is there any need then to tie oneself off to insure they dont slip and fall or have someone fly up and secure a second rope etc etc . with the new skills it pretty much eliminates that and I want to put the mystery and wonder back into the game. with a DC of 5 the most they could miss by would be 4 which is not enough to garner the4 threat I intended as a counter balance to making the climb with just one roll. therefore the 1 became the counter balance not the actual 4 that it would ordinarily be. Cause mostly by the condition of the surrounding environment not the characters skill set.

ok having read all the answers let me see if I can better clarify the situation. the party had an 80foot climb up a rope which was near to a collapsed interior circular staircase so they have viable footholds at some points to help with the climb. i assigned a DC5 climb skill to it and as a circumstance due to some of the remaining stair features being able to crumble out of the wall and the darkness they were climbing in I added that as long as they did not roll a 1 they could make it all the way to the top with one roll.. the response back to me was you cant fail a skill check on a 1 only on saves or UMD. Thats where it didnt make any sense to me. Granted a highly skilled person doing the same thing repeatedly might even be able to do it blindfolded but knowledgable mountain climbers still fall, great race car drivers still crash, the best golfers still hook or slice it into a hazard. Thats how I see a 1. Now in this case it did not mean they would fall to the ground and kill themselves but it did mean there footing gave out or there grip loosened and they would have to then make another climb check to avoid falling and if successful would be able to regain control as well as there hold on the rope. To fall would have required successive 1's.I have looked in the SRD as well as the players guide the advanced pg the game master guide for both skills and climb and NOWHERE can I find any reference about 1 affecting or NOT affecting anything, so I am curious as to how anyone came up with the term 1 is not an auto fail or 1 does not affect skill checks. As stated I am old school and new to all the changes in pathfinder and just want to make fare a relevant decisions that dont unnecessarily bias the campaign one way or the other.

again my take is if your going to allow them a bajillion skill points why bother to have a dc at all?

If your characters are high enough level or magically augmented enough that they can't fail a Climb check on a 1 for a routine climb, then they are cool heroes and don't fail that sort of climb. Falling to your death from that sort of climb shouldn't happen to heroes of a certain level.

Falling off of a greased, burning rope, on the other hand....

Exactly my point but i get the rebuff the RULE states you cant fail a skill check with a 1 which I find ridiculous at best.

I have a summoner in my campaign with high ranks in use magic device (Pathfinder game)he uses it to use items not specifically available to him as a summoner like various wands and scrolls. I also have a witch in the campaing and the summoner makes the case that the witch must us the use magic device to cast an arcane spell from a scroll. Since the witch is arcane I say she doesnt need to do a use magic device to cast the scroll so long as the spell is available in her repertoire even if not necessarily in her current spell list. If she is able to learn it at some time then its just a check of her ability vs the ability at which it was written and that is covered in the using scroll description. My take is use magic device is meant to give you the ability to do something magical like a scroll or device that you would not ordinarily be able to use due to your class or ability limitations.so then the question is do mages have to do a use magic device to cast from a scroll just because it is not in there current spell book.