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I'm not sure to undertand correctly what this is doing.

First, here's the rule for inappropriately sized weapons :

A creature can’t make optimum use of a weapon that isn’t properly sized for it. A cumulative –2 penalty applies on attack rolls for each size category of difference between the size of its intended wielder and the size of its actual wielder. If the creature isn’t proficient with the weapon, a –4 nonproficiency penalty also applies.

The measure of how much effort it takes to use a weapon (whether the weapon is designated as a light, one-handed, or two-handed weapon for a particular wielder) is altered by one step for each size category of difference between the wielder’s size and the size of the creature for which the weapon was designed. For example, a Small creature would wield a Medium one-handed weapon as a two-handed weapon. If a weapon’s designation would be changed to something other than light, one-handed, or two-handed by this alteration, the creature can’t wield the weapon at all.

If I'm understanding this correctly it means that a medium creature can wield a large one-handed weapon two-handed albeit at a -2 attack rolls penalty, and can't wield a large two-handed weapon at all. Amirite ?

Now, Titan Mauler's Massive Weapons :

At 3rd level, a titan mauler becomes skilled in the use of massive weapons looted from her titanic foes.

She can use two-handed weapons meant for creatures one size category larger, but the penalty for doing so is increased by 4. However, the attack roll penalty for using weapons too large for her size is reduced by 1, and this reduction increases by 1 for every three levels beyond 3rd (to a minimum of 0).

Basically, this allows the Titan Mauler to wield a large two-handed weapon, but at a whooping penalty of -6 (-5 with the reduction).

So, either there's something I misunderstood or you just can't use this as the penalty is just too enormous for the benefits it gives you.

It's written that gravity in elemental plane of air works that way :

Subjective Directional Gravity: Inhabitants of the plane determine their own “down” direction. Objects not under the motive force of others do not move.

First, does "inhabitants" refer to any living creature in this plane or rather only outsiders from the plane of air ?

Second, do people just choose their gravity as free actions no matter how ? Is it an effort and something to learn and master ?

My party will maybe soon have to travel to the plane of air and I have no idea how they'll "behave" their. I was guessing that they would just float inhert unless they got a fly speed but apparently they can "fly" by choosing where they fall so i don't know anymore.

It's written that gravity in elemental plane of air works that way :

Subjective Directional Gravity: Inhabitants of the plane determine their own “down” direction. Objects not under the motive force of others do not move.

First, does "inhabitants" refer to any living creature in this plane or rather only outsiders from the plane of air ?

Second, do people just choose their gravity as free actions no matter how ? Is it an effort and something to learn and master ?

My party will maybe soon have to travel to the plane of air and I have no idea how they'll "behave" their. I was guessing that they would just float inhert unless they got a fly speed but apparently they can "fly" by choosing where they fall so i don't know anymore.

In my current play I have an unchained monk that also happens to be a gargoyle, so with a fly speed.

In our last play they encountered a patrol of horsemen and he did want to fly charge their captain to make him fall of his horse and have him grabbed.

The action makes total sense however I was caught off guard as I have no idea about how it would translate into game rules. On the move I told him that he couldn't grab and make him fall prone as both action requires standard action so he would grab the knocked prone foe on next turn.

However the action of flying towards him, grabing him on the way while using the momentum to precipitate him on the ground made sense as one action so if there's no existing rule about that I'd be tempted to make an homebrew feat. I require assistance ^-^

EDIT : not posting into homebrew because maybe this can be covered by existing rules.

At the moment, I'm the master of a game in which I plan to put the players in an arena in which they'll be up against a Tyrannosaurus, such as this one.

They're 6 8th-level PCs, including an (evil) priest, a monk and a fighter, among other spellcasters. I have several questions, I delved into the grapple rule (once more) and I'm still in doubt.

Tyrannosaurus have the grab special monster ability, which allows him to attempt a free grab on a successful hit. On the 2nd round, the monster can make his check without triggering an AoO since grappled condition removes all AoO.

But what happen if the monster take damage while grappling ? I don't see anything written about that but it would be legit that the creature doesn't maintain grapple so easily after an axe went 3 inches into his neck. Did I miss a rule somewhere ?

Otherwise I don't see how any 8th or even 9th level player without any spell can escape the grapple of a 39 CMD creature, unless they have some compulsion spells (which they don't have). Even if the whole party try to aid another ... 39 CMD !

Ok so Saturday we're supposed to play but unfortunatly one of my players can't join in.
Since every one else still want to play their characters from this playthrough I'm coming up with something that is happening where they are now, which is a small town in Taldor that I made up for the occasion. It's supposed to last about 4 hours and they shouldn't die or be serioussly harmed or shackled.

Whatever.

The story is that a rather mad and evil person (always gotta start by one of them) decided that he wanted to die to a bogeyman as he wants to experiance the deepest fear he could imagine. Since he couldn't find a bogeyman to eat him, he decided to create one.

So one day, he kidnapped a pregnant woman of the countryside and locked her in the cellar of and abandoned farm he built his lair in. He then dropped strange trinkets in several houses in town, that would connect nearby persons to him. Some, he dropped them himself, others he had them dropped by burglars paid for the job. Then he'd do dark rituals that would instill fear and grow nightmares into his victims minds.

He would then recover the essence of his victim's fear, and inoculate it in the kidnapped woman's and his child-to-come's mind, in the hope that she'd give birth to the monster he's expecting.

My question is : what kind of monsters that are related to fear and nightmares could I add to this session ? Obviously I can't add a real bogeyman as it wouldn't make sense and anyway my PCs are 2 level 3 so they wouldn't stand a chance. I could add other evil fey but there are so many of them and I'm quite new to GMing pathfinder, that I need advices if I want to get this done by Saturday. I'm also pretty proud of my plot, I must admit, but I take any advice to enhance it !

Thank you for reading !

The current skill system have been used on all my plays to this day, but there are always been 2 major flaws that were a problem to me, and I think to many other players as well.

First is that to be decent in a skill that isn't combat related, you have to put rank in it which means level up in a combat class. For example, if I make a character that has been working at his village's bakery until he decided to seek fame and fortune by adventuring, he'll start level 1 and be a crappy baker no matter what because he'll have 1 rank in his profession skill. Same goes with a scholar in geography who want to see the world he studied by his own eyes, etc.

The second main problem is that a player with a high enough level, knowing nothing about a subject, can suddunly become an expert because he has leveled up and invested all his ranks in it.

So thought about it and came up with this system.

Each skill has its own individual XP bar, and whenever you roll for it you earn XP. When having sufficient XP you earn a rank, regardless of your current number of HD.

You earn skill XP in the following way :

- If you roll a skill opposed to a DC and succeed the check, you earn an amount of XP equal to the DC in the involved skill. If you fail by 9 or less, you earn half XP, and if you fail by 10 or more you earn no XP at all. Additionally, if you succeed by 15 or more, you don't earn any XP as the task is too trivial for you to be able to learn anything.

- It works the same way if you're rolling an opposed skill check (e. g. perception vs stealth) but you count the opposed check for the purpose of earning XP.

- You can also spend time practicing your skill, provided that you have what's required to do so. You'll need books to practice knowledge, trees or a cliff to practice climbing, a mount to practice riding, etc. When doing so, every day of training, roll a d20 as if you were making a check and add the result to the XP bar of the ivolved skill. You can roll untrained skill for the purpose of training them.

- You can have a master helping you in training, doing so double the amount of XP received but the master need to have at least 5 more ranks in the involved skill for this effect to work.

- Anytime you receive any amount of XP to a skill, multiply this amount by the number of skill rank per level you'd normally earn (you still add your int. modifier). This ensure that classes designed to be very skilled will earn new ranks in skills they use much faster than other classes.

The main issue with this system is that it can be tedious for the GM to count skill XP everytime someone roll a given skill but I hope I'll manage that. I might even make an automated spreadshit for this purpose.

What are your thoughts about this system ?

I'm currently trying to write an adventure to play in Pathfinder for some friends of mine, that should last ~25 hours. This isn't a hardcap and we'll have the time to play.

It's the frist time I'm writing a Pathfinder adventure scenario. In fact, it's the first time I'm writing a medfan adventure at all, so I'm not very familiar with this kind of world.

My plot is rather classical. The mayor of a small town is calling the PCs, who're already fairly renowned in the region, to help him solve a case of townfolks disappearing without traces.

Eventually, PCs would find that it's the mayor rapturing those people, and that's where I need help. I want him to be of a extraordinary type of creature that infiltrate humanoid society, eventually earning their love and trust, and turning them into cattle to feed, satisfy their needs for another's suffuring, or any other evil intent.

The obvious choice would be, I believe, a vampire, but I think it's a bit too obvious and I want to surprise my players.

I also know that it doesn't have to be any kind of extraordinary creature, in fact if I was writing this just for me it would be an ordinary human, but I know my players would be pleased if it's some kind of creature.

It would also help that he's forced by his nature to lay clues for PCs, e.g if it's a vampire, PCs may note that he's avoiding daylight and garlic.

First things first, a reminder of what this deeds exactly says :

Dead Shot (Ex): At 7th level, as a full-round action, the gunslinger can take careful aim and pool all of her attack potential into a single, deadly shot. When she does this, she shoots the firearm at a single target, but makes as many attack rolls as she can, based on her base attack bonus. She makes the attack rolls in order from highest bonus to lowest, as if she were making a full attack. If any of the attack rolls hit the target, the gunslinger’s single attack is considered to have hit. For each additional successful attack roll beyond the first, the gunslinger increases the damage of the shot by the base damage dice of the firearm. For instance, if a 7th-level gunslinger firing a musket hits with both attacks, she does 2d12 points of damage with the shot, instead of 1d12 points of damage, before adding any damage modifiers. Precision damage and extra damage from weapon special abilities (such as flaming) are added with damage modifiers and are not increased by this deed. If one or more rolls are critical threats, she confirms the critical once using her highest base attack bonus –5. For each critical threat beyond the first, she reduces this penalty by 1 (to a maximum of 0). The gunslinger only misfires on a dead shot if all the attack rolls are misfires. She cannot perform this deed with a blunderbuss or other scatter weapon when attacking creatures in a cone. The gunslinger must spend 1 grit point to perform this deed.

There are few things that I'd note. First, it says that you make as many attack rolls as you can, based on your BBA. While this is unclear and, AFAIK, not really sorted, it means that this deed doesn't take care of extra attacks coming from rapid shot, haste, or any other source.

Second thing is that it's a full-round action, so it can't be combined with vital strike.

Considering this, I don't get the point of this deed. It's pretty much a vital strike that cost grit and doesn't allow you to move, or a full attack that doesn't allow you to take a 5-foot step and that deals less damages.

Well, it has some pros. It can help with DR, help for crits, it's easier to hit but that's just not enough imo to justify the cost of 1 grit point. Anyway you have clustured shot for DR, and even with 4 BBA you aren't going to crit THAT often so you'd rather make all your attacks either way. And if you really want to crit there's the lethal patience deed at level 15. Finally, hitting has never been hard with gunslingers, especially at higher levels.

It costs only 1 ammo to shoot, yes, but anyway as a gunslinger you need your reloading gears and feats so this isn't relevant by the time you can actually perform the deed.

All this to say that I can't find a good reason to use this deed. What about you ?

I can't find a clear answer to that question. I'd tend to say that I deal bludgeoning damages, but I can't find anywhere where it's specifically stated. Do I have to chose which kind of damage I deal ? Can I slot Impact on an amulet of migthy fists ?

I've already played a gunslinger Musket Master and actually it was one of my favorite character ever.

I now have to make an other character and I want to return to the gunslinger, but with a different approach. I thought I'd play a Pistolero but my GM doesn't want to allow advanced firearms and I don't really see a Pistolero without a revolver.

Fair enough.

So I thought I could play some sort of prowler expert in long range shooting, waiting the perfect moment to pull a devastating shot etc.

Perhaps he would have been a profesional monster hunter, or a hitman. With his parents dead he would have spent his early years in a orphanage, until a mysterious stranger adopted him and raised him into a strict way of life, before teaching him the art of patience and endurance before shooting into something that people with money want dead.

My issue is that I don't have any idea on how to pull a proper build for this. There's the natural Dead Shot deed at level 7 that somehow allows you to do this but it's still happening each round.

Aren't there any rule that allows you to prepare your shot for a / several round(s) to make all the damages at once, or perhaps something that allows you to wait to get a guaranteed crit threat ? Or firearms alternate rules that allows you for custom firearms (just like with the crossbows) ?

I watched The Green Mile a few days ago and it's inspiring me to create a new character from the idea of a kind, shy and pacifist giant. It would probably be a druid or a bard, I don't know yet.

And I want to accentuate the idea of the solitary, sweet, giant man, so I'd like this character to be large-sized. Problem is that I don't really know how to do it. I know I could use enlarge and permanancy but it doesn't work right as the character is supposed to be naturally large, born like this.

My GM would probably agree on giving me this especially if it's not a charcater that would greatly benefits from it, however I don't like to play off the rules, so do you know any rule or tool that would allow me to do this ?

Here's the rule :

Choose one Craft or Profession skill in which you possess at least 5 ranks. You receive a +2 bonus on your chosen Craft or Profession skill. Ranks in your chosen skill count as your caster level for the purposes of qualifying for the Craft Magic Arms and Armor and Craft Wondrous Item feats. You can create magic items using these feats, substituting your ranks in the chosen skill for your total caster level. You must use the chosen skill for the check to create the item. The DC to create the item still increases for any necessary spell requirements (see the magic item creation rules in Magic Items). You cannot use this feat to create any spell-trigger or spell-activation item.

Basically, this feat allows you to craft magic weapons and armors even if you don't have any magic or if you don't have the required spells for a specific magic property.

However I can't figure how it works.

The feat says I use my skill rank as if it was my caster level, however I don't see where my caster level is used.

Under the Magic Items creation rules, it's written that the DC to craft a Magic weapon or armor or whatever is 5+ the item's caster level and 5 per required spells not known, but I don't find what is the item's caster level.

For exemple, if I want to craft a +1 Corrosive Long Sword, my DC will be 5 + 5 because I don't know the Acid Arrows required spell + the item's caster level which is 10 so the total DC is 20 but do I NEED a CL of 10 or does this only increase the DC ?

I can't figure out if the enhancement bonus of a weapon still applies when you have a property.

In other words, let's say I want to craft an Igniting rapier. Igniting is a +2 enhancement bonus equivalent and what I don't understand is if when enchanted the weapon gets both the Igniting property and the +2 enhancement bonus, or if when I enchant to +2 level I have to choose between giving the bonus or the magic property ?

So I got no idea how it works, does misfire stacks with fumble, or replace it ? As if I roll a 1, is it a misfire AND a fumble, or simply a misfire ?

For the first time I'm trying a character that will be able to craft weapons and armors, as I wanted to play this and figured out it would be helpfull for the party to have someone able to create usefull gears.

My character isn't only a craftman as he's now a level 6 human gunslinger with most of his feats directed toward combats. However he got +4 int which allows to pick up some skills after you maxed perception and acrobatics. My forging skills are now maxed and I have master craftsman and masterwork tools to give me together a +4 bonus so for a level 6 character I don't think I can do much more.

But my concern is about the rules of crafting weapons and armors, and more precisely the time it takes to do so.

According to the rules I can find online this is how it works.

The basic function of the Craft skill, however, is to allow you to make an item of the appropriate type. The DC depends on the complexity of the item to be created. The DC, your check result, and the price of the item determine how long it takes to make a particular item. The item’s finished price also determines the cost of raw materials.

To determine how much time and money it takes to make an item, follow these steps.

Find the item’s price in silver pieces (1 gp = 10 sp).
Find the item’s DC from Table: Craft Skills.
Pay 1/3 of the item’s price for the raw material cost.
Make an appropriate Craft check representing one week’s worth of work. If the check succeeds, multiply your check result by the DC. If the result × the DC equals the price of the item in sp, then you have completed the item. (If the result × the DC equals double or triple the price of the item in silver pieces, then you’ve completed the task in one-half or one-third of the time. Other multiples of the DC reduce the time in the same manner.) If the result × the DC doesn’t equal the price, then it represents the progress you’ve made this week. Record the result and make a new Craft check for the next week. Each week, you make more progress until your total reaches the price of the item in silver pieces.

Let's say, to make an exemple, that I want to craft a Rapier that is 20 gp.

20 gp is 200 sp. We'll assume I have collected the materials. According to the table the DC for a martial weapons is 15, so I roll my dice for one week of work. Let's say I roll 10 (average) and add my bonus (+15) so the result is 25. I succeeded, so now I multiply the DC by my check result : 15 x 25 = 375 which is more than 200 so I successfully made the rapier in roughly 4 days of work.

Am I right ? Is it how it works ?

If yes, then here come the troublesome part :

You can make a masterwork item: a weapon, suit of armor, shield, or tool that conveys a bonus on its use through its exceptional craftsmanship. To create a masterwork item, you create the masterwork component as if it were a separate item in addition to the standard item. The masterwork component has its own price (300 gp for a weapon or 150 gp for a suit of armor or a shield, see Equipment for the price of other masterwork tools) and a Craft DC of 20. Once both the standard component and the masterwork component are completed, the masterwork item is finished. The cost you pay for the masterwork component is one-third of the given amount, just as it is for the cost in raw materials.

Now assuming that everything I've made before was right, imagine that I instead want to make a masterwork rapier.

The price of a masterwork rapier is 320 gp which makes for 3200 sp, DC is 20 so again we'll assume I roll average (10) and add my bonus of +15 to make a 25.

25 x 20 = 500, so in one week I made a progress of 500 over 3200 which is roughly 15%. In other words, to create a "simple" longswords (so before even thinking of being able to enchant it) it'll take me more than 6 weeks !

And this is for a single, simple weapon of only one party member. If someone wants a crossbow it'll take me half a year to make it. I know that making a sword can't be done between 2 tea sips, but high quality blades such as katanas were made in hours or a day or two. Even the ulfberht that's probably the best analogy "masterwork" took "only" a few full days of work to a man that made one for the first time.

So taking months to make such crafts doesn't make much sense to me, despite being undoable in campains in which time is an important factor which is very common. So did I miss something, am I doing it wrong or is it really how it works ?

Hello,

Are longswords, scimitars, cutlass etc. considered as both slashing and piercing weapons ?

And if so, does swashbucklers finesse adds to slashing grace when attacking with such a weapon ?

When looking up at firearms rules on d20psfrd you can see that firearms make touch attacks only when in a given range and when not using feats such as "deadly aim".

__

"When firing an early firearm, the attack resolves against the target’s touch AC when the target is within the first range increment of the weapon, but this type of attack is not considered a touch attack for the purposes of feats and abilities such as Deadly Aim."

__

However, deadly aim is more or less essential for decent damages, if an essential feat for marksmen neglect the only advantage of firearms, then why go for a firearm that has shorter range, can missfire and sink at least 11 gold instead of a crossbow that will do almost as much damages while criting more often and be much more reliable and easy to reload ? That makes no sense to me.

Also, when looking for gunslinger's guides authors are treating deadly aim as if it wasn't neglecting the touch attack. See there :

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?213035-PF-The-Gunslinger-s-Ha ndbook
http://rpgbot.net/pathfinder/characters/classes/gunslinger/

So I'm really confused. Fortunatly my GM agrees with me and will allow me to touch attack while using deadly aim, yet I'm wondering how it really is ? Is d20psfrd not up to date or is it really how it's supposed to work ?

Hello,

I was taking a look at rage powers and came across spirit totems, lesser which says that spirits attack a foe nearby the barbarian each time a round, dealing 1d4 damage + barbarian's charisma.

However, in the case of a Skald, who will cast his raging song, all allies in hearing range (which means all allies in most cases) will be affected by the totem.

Does it really mean that at level 3, if the party is engaged in cqc, the spirits will strike once for every player in cqc ?

That would mean that in a 5 players party, a skald will deal 5x 1d4 + 4 which averages at 30 and can go up to 40 each round, by doing nothing else than using his raging song ?

Does it really work that way or am I missing something ?