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One of my players is a samurai with a 20 (ugh!) in STR. He's lvl 6, and he's got a Katana that he's using 2-handed. He also has the Weapon Specialization, Power Attack and Vital strike feats.

Here is the damage we came up with.

1d8 +7(base) +2(weapon spec)= 1d8+9

With Vital Strike and Power Attack:

2d8 +7(base) +2(Weapon spec) +6(power attk 2 handed)= 2d8+15

Crit damage would then be 3d8+30.

If this is wrong, please tell me how so I can explain it properly. Thanks!

I just looked at one of these in my store, and it said second printing on the back. Are there any differences between the first and second printings?

avgbountyhunter wrote:

I may have missed something but how do you determine if a magic item is minor, medium, or major?

By where it appears on the tables in the PHB. A +4 weapon with no special abilities is available as either a medium or major item. To put it another way, it's both medium and major.

These categories only affect random generation of items, such as those available for sale in a community. If your character already owns the item, the category has no meaning or game effect.

edit: Are you asking because your GM has given you a medium item at character creation?

We're rolling level 10 characters and he says we can have 3 magic items, none of which can be major. When I selected this longbow for my ranger he said it was a major item and I couldn't have it, and that the highest bonus a weapon with no special abilities can have is +2. I'm just trying to figure out if I can make a case here. I'm the one who usually GMs our game and it makes sense to me that a regular weapon with a +4 enhancement could be considered a medium item.

I may have missed something but how do you determine if a magic item is minor, medium, or major?

Where would a +4 Composite Longbow(STR+4) fit? According to the magic item creation d100 charts it could be either a medium or a major.

Is there a more definitive way of figuring it out?

If the Longbow could be either medium or major, then could I just say that the one that my character has is medium? This is the main problem I guess. Thanks for the help!

Thanks for the info Tom!

Yeah got to say this isn't even a "high" AC for an animal companion:

Boar will have higher and that's before taking the armor feats (at level six I was looking at an AC of 30ish for my boar in LoF).

Ah, well, I just wanted to be sure I had everything right. My players use the dino as a meat shield ALL the time!

I just want to make sure I'm adding this up right. Any help is appreciated!

The druid in my game has a dinosaur animal companion at lvl 6 that took a point in DEX at lvl 4 and I need help making sure it has the correct AC. This is what I have:

10 - Base
4 - DEX bonus
1 - Base natural armor
1 - improved natural armor feat
1 - dodge feat
4 - natural armor (see companion chart in druid section of pfcrb)
2 - STR/DEX bonus (from same chart)

That brings us to an AC of 23. This seems high to me so I figured I would post it here to be sure. Thanks for taking a look.

avgbountyhunter wrote:

So let's assume the WoW is now glowing and totally visible. My rogue is flanking and wants to do a sneak attack. Since the physical thing he is hitting is a globe of spongy material (I'm assuming homogeneous), can he do sneak damage to it? Can it be hit critically? It's an aberration, but it also doesn't seem to have a weak point. If it's can't, can you point me to some sort of ruling on this kind of thing.

Spongy != Homogeneous. Spongy is a description of a solid surface that "gives" but bounces back like a sponge does. This does not preclude the possibility of underlying organs, which aberrations have (being just "really weird" living creatures).

But yes, if the WoW was glowing/other-clearly-visible then the rogue can sneak attack them under any condition that they would normally be able to do so (such as flanking). It can also be critically hit, for the same reasons (though it doesn't need to be visible to be vulnerable).

Ok, great! Thanks everyone for the help! :)

So let's assume the WoW is now glowing and totally visible. My rogue is flanking and wants to do a sneak attack. Since the physical thing he is hitting is a globe of spongy material (I'm assuming homogeneous), can he do sneak damage to it? Can it be hit critically? It's an aberration, but it also doesn't seem to have a weak point. If it's can't, can you point me to some sort of ruling on this kind of thing.

Kais86 wrote:

Vital points on a plant: it's roots.

Vital points on the Will-o'-wisp: it's jaw bone or eye sockets.

The Will-o'-wisp is functionally immune to sneak attacks, what with it being invisible all the time and all.

FTFY

Yeah, i'd say it's easy enough to rule that certain creatures are immune, but make it so that the character who has sneak attack (or critical training) can recognize this when they see the opponent ("Where are the weak spots, dammit!").

It should be noted that sneak attack immunity is only granted in two situations: made of one completely homogeneous material or made of a bunch of independently acting bits. Since the shambling mound is *not* a swarm, nor is it completely homogeneous, there must be something central to it to command it as one entity, which could then be attacked for massive damage.

Thank you! Is there a source for those two situations? WoWs are the only thing that I can find that can be sneak attacked, but probably shouldn't be possible.

Vital points on a plant: it's roots.

Vital points on the Will-o'-wisp: it's jaw bone or eye sockets.

The Will-o'-wisp is functionally immune to crits, what with it being invisible all the time and all.

Roots, I get, but a will-o-wisp only appears as a skull, but exists as a spongy mass according to it's description. And if a player uses Purge Invisibility, then it's no longer invisible, or is it? That's another debate in my group!

A discussion has been sparked in my group and I would like some outside input.

We're discussing what creatures should and shouldn't be immune to our rogue's sneak attack in PF. We are aware of the one's who are automatically immune, but there are two creatures that are sorta confusing.

The first is the Will-o-wisp, It's basically a spongy ball, with no appendages or thin spots, yet it isn't immune to sneak attacks? I realize that it has a discernable body, but where is its vital/weak spot?

Next is pretty much any plant type creature that is described as a tangled mass of vines, like Shambling Mound or Assassin vine. Would this not work like a swarm?

All help is appreciated! :)

Quick question about the Will-o'-Wisps. The Cleric in my group wants to use Purge Invisibility to see the Wisp and I'm not sure if it should work or not. Is the Will-o'-Wisp immune to ALL magic except for the spells that are listed? The beastiary says anything with an SR, but Invisibility Purge has no SR, so should it work? On the other hand, I sorta feel like it shouldn't work since the Will-o'-Wisp isn't technically turning invisible, it's just extinguishing its glow, and returning to its natural state. More like un-see-able rather than invisible, like oxygen. Thoughts?

Hello! Been playing the Kingmaker stuff for the past month and my players and I love it! We just started the kingdom building stuff, and I was trying to come up with a way to provide my players with a visual representation of what their kingdom looks like. So, with the magic of Photoshop, I put together a giant hexgrid that covers the entire stolen lands, made hex patterns for different types of terrain, put in all of the encounter markers, rivers and everything. I also have a way of highlighting the hexes that a currently controlled by my players, including farms and roads.

Using two monitors I update the map as they explore, save, and the changes are reflected on the screen they can see.

I'm not sure if anyone has done something like this yet, but I've included a few images and I'm not sure if it's ok, but I'm willing to upload it and share it with anyone interested (with some basic instructions). It will at least be interesting to see what people think! :)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v726/avgbountyhunter/map2.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v726/avgbountyhunter/map1.jpg

Separate initiative with separate modifiers. Each gets their own (full) turn.

Basically, pretend they don't know each-other.

Great! Thanks for the help!

How exactly does this work? Do the druid and the companion function as one, and share the same round of combat? For example, the druid can move and the companion can attack. OR, do they each get a full round of combat? If so do they share initiative or do they each make an initiative roll?

Hey again everyone! I have another question, but i feel like it may be a little too broad. It's about being a GM. I have the first of the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path books and I've read the first 15 pages like 20 times. I guess what I don't get is what information do the PCs get from the start. The book gives alot of back story to the adventure, and I'm not really sure what the characters need to know. My best guess is that the characters come up with some reason to be in Sandpoint, and based on that information, I tell them certain things. Like if anyone lives around Sandpoint, then they should obviously be informed of the events pertaining to the "Late Unpleasantness" because that's something their character would know. But should I tell them anything about Nualia, or the Adventure background? If not then does this information eventually become relevant?

I feel like the above might be a bit much, but my next conundrum should be a little bit easier. Starting with Part One: Festival and Fire, how would I get my players from the start of the "Swallowtail Festival" to "Goblins in the Streets?" Am I just reading the Welcoming Speeches, Swallowtail Release, Lunch and Consecration sections? Or would I just describe what's doing on during the festival? I guess my overall question is how do I start this particular campaign? It just seems like I could say the characters are at the festival, mention a few things that happen, and as Father Zantus takes the stage, Goblins attack the city. It's definitely a nutshell, but is that basically it? I feel like once I can visualize everything until the first encounter, I'll be solid, but I just can't seem to get over this hump. Thanks!

Thanks for the info Jace! I'll definitely be using this!

And Kalderaan, I think you may be forgetting the +2 to any ability that Humans get, or any other class or race bases bonuses. The Cleric is listed at:

STR: 13 (3pts)
DEX: 10 (0pts)
CON: 14 (5pts)
INT: 10 (0pts)
WIS: 18 (17pts)
CHA: 12 (2pts)

For a total of 27, but if you subtract 2 from WIS, the points needed becomes 10 (instead of 17) for a total of 20. Hope this helps!

Awesome! I never considered throwing in a few NPCs to help the players if things get tough during combat... which is perfect for this opening scene. As far as the first three encounters go, I pretty much agree on everything.

Hello again, everyone! So I've been studying everything about the game as much as I can, and I'm really trying to set up my first campaign. I figured I would just start with the Pathfinder Adventure Path vol. 1 since I could just follow the basic story given there and introduce myself to Sandpoint. I've also been reading some of the Pathfinder Chronicles stuff which I find fascinating. Anyways, I've been studying "Burnt Offerings" and writing down some notes about moving the story along and stuff like that but I have some questions. When I eventually begin playing this game with others, there will only be three of us. Two players and one GM. The encounters in the first adventure path, and I'm assuming all subsequent adventure paths, are designed for four players. How would I go about down-grading an encounter to suit two people?

Also, to determine the CR my players would be suited for, I take the APL and subtract 1. Would two players at level one then have a CR of 0?

Taking the very first encounter on page 11 for example: Goblins(3) have a CR of 1/3. Does this mean that each Goblin has a CR 1/3 and therefore is worth 135xp (405xp total)? Or is the encounter itself a CR 1/3 and therefore worth 135xp total?

On page 13 there is another encounter where players face a Goblin Commando, Goblin Dog, and 4 Goblins. How would you make this more suitable for 2 players and what factors would you take into consideration when making changes?

Really if anyone can just make this a little bit more clear for me, I would appreciate it. I understand that it's not an exact science and I can just do whatever I want, but I just think there must be some way to down-grade these encounters so that they give the 4 player feel to two players.

Cool, I guess I figured that that kind of stuff would be necessary. And I can see how having a few random items could make the game more fun.

Still not sure about the range penalty thing though... maybe I'm just overlooking something? I checked the index of the rulebook but didn't see anything...

Also, Happy Thanksgiving! Thanks again everybody for everything!

So this is going a lot faster that I thought it would, but I have a few new questions!

How do I find my range penalty? I'm trying to get an attack bonus for a Short Bow, but I can't seem to find anything about its range penalty.

Also, if I were creating a character for the first time and bringing it into a new game with new players, what kind of gear should I have besides weapons and armor? Do I need food? Soap? Spyglass? A Tent?

As a Gamemaster, would you anticipate your players need to buy some of these things and suggest they stock up on certain items? Or do you not even worry about this kind of thing? Like in movies, you don't HAVE to see people eating a going to the bathroom to know that they do it every day...

Great! Thanks for the help everyone! Sorry about the size of the pictures, they were scanned in haste this morning before work, I didn't even know they were so small! :)

Looks like I totally forgot to add the +3 for toughness, got weapon type down now and how it relates to DR, and I fixed my weapon damage.

Next up, I'll be starting a Rogue Elf. I want to make a character of each type eventually to familiarize myself with the different races and classes, and hopefully get the character creation process running a smoothly as possible!

Character Sheet 1

Character Sheet 2

I've been working on this character and I'd like for all of you to take a look at my character sheet and point out my mistakes. I forgot to fill in my flat footed AC which I think should be 15... The name age height alignment, etc. should be ok, since most of that stuff is arbitrary. I added two points to one of my ability scores already.

Just let me know if something isn't filled in correctly, or I'm missing something important.

I'm also wondering what the weapon type stands for. Mine are P and S.

I just forgot to fill in the speed with armor, which I know is 20ft.

Should the armor check penalty associated with the armor I chose go in the AC misc. modifier?

I wasn't sure if i just totally missed this, but would I have any special abilities?

Should I list my armor in AC Items as well as my gear?

And finally for now, I just wanted to make sure that the Domains/Specialty School section applies to some other class besides mine.

Thanks! :)

Thanks for the link Brock, I'll definitely be checking this out. Thanks for the help!

Thanks for the help! And I'm starting to understand why the purchase system is so attractive right now and by the time I actually have a game going, I will probably be using it. :) I don't think encumbrance is something I'll be using off the bat, but what about Lift Over Head, Lift off ground, and Drag or Push? I can see myself wanting to use these actions, but how do I determine the weight for each one?

That's all I can muster right now, but I'm sure I'll have more questions later!

So I'm creating a character now. I've had to do it off and on all day, but it's coming along. I've been reading about skills, and feats, and gear, and everything, and I have a few more questions.

I've started a human fighter because I figured it would be the easiest as far as just working everything out. I generated my ability scores, and added 2 to one of them for my race.

I assumed that the d10 listed next to Hit Die meant that I roll a d10 to get my HP, so I got an 8. Am I supposed to add to this, or do I just get 8?

I think I have skills and skill ranks and skill class bonus down, and feats and bonus feats were pretty easy to figure out.

How to I determine my DR?

When determining AC, I realize I first need to get some Armor and maybe a shield, but do humans have any natural armor? And if not what race does? I couldn't really find anything about natural armor.

I'm not sure I understand Encumbrance Effects either. If I have a medium load, what exactly does this do?

Thank you all for the continued help and welcoming!

Hmmm, I'll have to think about it. I like the idea of using dice but the purchase system would let players make the character they want to make every time. I also really like the system BabbageUK uses. I'm actually leaning towards it. Thanks for the input and I'm sure I'll have more questions later!

Gotcha! Thanks for the help! I've started to take lots of notes as I read through the rulebook, but I have another basic question. This probably applies to roleplaying in general, but as a GM, would you ever establish a minimum ability score to prevent a player from having to use a 3, when they've already rolled 4 or 5 decent ability scores? My thought was that 7 would be a good number, since it's pretty easy to get using the standard method, and it's modifier is only and -2. What do you guys think?

Ok, great! :) I think I got the Hit Dice thing down now, thanks for the help, and the kind welcoming! I also understand the Channel Energy Spell now, so that's a huge help. One more thing I can think of now is "touch" and "flat-footed." I understand that if we begin a round and my initiative is higher and I attack you before you've had a chance to do anything, your AC is flat-footed... at least I'm pretty sure. My question is what is touch AC and when is it used as opposed to the regular AC?

Assuming the regular AC is used after one round of battle, is that when the modifiers are used? A skeleton's AC is listed as: AC 16, touch 12, flat-footed 14 (+2 armor, +2 Dex, +2 natural). What do the modifiers mean and when are they used?

I've never played an game like this before... ever. I know enough to understand the basic function of playing a game like this, but some of the terms and stats are going way over my head. Like what is the difference between hit points and hit dice? Skeletons, for example have a HP of 4 (1d8). My only guess is that I can either let the Skeleton have 4 hp, or have 1d8 hp. Or maybe I'm supposed to add 1d8 to 4 to get the total hp? I'm totally lost. I've been scrutinizing the "example of play" on page 13 of the core rulebook, and another thing I don't really get is where the DC 15 Will saving throw comes from. Does the 15 come from the skeletons stat block? Or does this come from the Paladin's channel positive energy? And finally, when I dove even deeper I found that channel positive energy uses two of the lay on hands ability, which doesn't allow the Undead a saving throw... If someone could just explain some of this to me, I would really appreciate it. I've heard so much about this game, and I love the books I've bought so far, I just want to finally understand some of it.