awp832's page

sorry, i've not done pbp on this site before. it should all be better now.

I'd do it anyway, if there is space.

I'd play out of subtier as well. Sounds like you have a lot of interest.

1. Isidian Caissa Human (Taldor) Cavalier-1/Bard-1. Status of minor taldan nobility but of a bankrupt house. Seeks personal wealth to restore his family's name and to attain honor and notoriety. Isidian is a talented swordsman and upcoming knight. He is playing with standard rules.

2. I was at Nerosyan when the demons attacked. What they came for I do not know, perhaps they sought to aquire the information the Society had attained on a new Sky-Citadel for themselves, perhaps they were after our leadership, with so many of us gathered in one place. Perhaps they simply were drawn to an opportunity to cause mayhem, as demons often are.

None of us were prepared, there was utter chaos. We were cut off from our leaders and had to organize into smaller cells. None of us knew where the demons came from or what districts to defend, but they soon all came under heavy attack. I joined a small cadre of heros and tried to lead them into the fray, though all our courage was faltering. Uncertain where to strike a blow strategically, we tried to eliminate as many of the creatures as we could in our area. I saw many good men and women die that day, I should want to say they fought bravely but they had little choice; fight or be cut down, for no demon recognizes surrender. I very nearly fell myself, to this day I do not know how I summoned up the reserves to press on during the final attack.

Though the leadership may claim Nerosyan as a victory in that we held the city, the battle was nothing short of a disaster. I shall not soon forget the sight of the living siege towers they sent against us, belching forth their insectoid clouds of death. At Nerosyan I learned the burdens of those who would be leaders, and that no camp, however seemingly secure, however strong the walls, can ever be truly safe.

Could a Paladin simply get a friendly cleric of their deity to place a voluntary Geas/Quest spell on them with the instructions to "follow the paladins code"? For 1 day/level, which you should easily be able to refresh baring exceptional conditions, you mechanically are unable to fall. With all the Paladin falling threads that constantly pop up here... I would have thought more people would do this. Is there something I'm missing?

This would work for any class with a code of course, not just paladins.

Is it not considered to be walking the righteous path if you are compelled to do it? /interesting moral question.

run around the enemy and draw AoOs away from characters who are actually contributing to the fight. Also, hope they don't have Combat Reflexes. You may laugh but this has actually proved to be very valuable on occasion. Usually only do this vs foes with reach. Taking the Total Defense standard action before you do this is usually a smart plan.

Stand in the way. Sometimes blocking a door to stop an enemy from escaping is what needs to be done, or stand in the doorway to secure your own escape route against enemies who might be trying to cut you off. Positioning yourself between the enemy and somebody squishier than you might prevent them from charging an important ally.

Change the terrain, if you can. Knocking over tables to provide cover might work. Break a window to provide another entrance to the room if the only current one is being blocked by an enemy. Dump that cauldron of who-knows-what out on their heads. Maybe you need to secure a grappling hook and a rope to get across the chasm to where the archers are shooting you.

1. You'd pick between which Bite attack you were using, Hive Totem or Serpents Fang. They're not blended into the same attack, just because you are using the same part of your body.

2. No, because of 1.

3. Yes it does.

Any class could do well. People's definitions of pleasure can vary widely. Your character could also be a masochist, pack a vicious weapon, and bring on the pain. This concept is about how you roleplay it, not what your stats are.

yeah, the best way is certainly not to fight at all. Use political ties to just have the PCs arrested. If they don't comply they will likely have to kill a few town guards and will then be wanted enemies of the state.

have many escape ways ready, Teleportation spells are your best bet, but a Vampire's gaseous form will do just fine in a pinch. This should pretty much shut down the PCs until they start using Dimensional Anchor, and you should at least get a single escape in before they wise up.

Beyond that, having minions and bodyguards around to help keep the heat off for a while is always a good idea.

Listen, I'm not saying your build isn't a good one, but your character stats are just so crazy I find it hard to be compelled. Try this with 20 point buy and see if it still works well. At level 5 four out of your six stats are 18+: that is nuts. You would be hard pressed to build a weak character with those stats, no matter what you did.

Try with a standard race too.

Generally my advice is: DON'T scale the DCs of skill checks as players level up. This can be excruciatingly hard to do as a GM, but I still think it's the best option.

For example, the DC of the diplomacy check to make the King/Queen accept your proposal should be based on the strength of your proposal, not how high level you are. Say it's a pretty good plan, you might set the DC at 15 because the King/Queen have learned to be cautious of the advice of strangers. That's the DC. That's the DC whether they're level 2 or level 20.

You want to bluff the level 1 bar bouncer into letting you in. He's big and tough but not too bright, he's got a rank in Sense-motive though (he wont let just ANYONE in) and probably found a way to make it a class skill, maybe he's a rogue. So his opposed sense motive might be somewhere in the area of +3 if he has a negative WIS mod. Again, his opposed check should be about +3 whether the party is level 2 or level 20.

Now if there is a good reason that said NPC might have better stats than by all means, if instead of the bouncer at "The Lucky Dumpling" the NPC is the King's personal bodyguard, they might have a significantly higher WIS score and be higher level.

Try to set the DCs based on the situation and the NPCs involved (if any) and not at how good the PCs are at overcoming such challenges. Otherwise you only make their skill ranks meaningless as the DCs get harder as they level up. You also will run into another problem: At high level the party bard will still be able to talk his way past anything, but your party Barbarian won't even have the slightest chance, even if their proposal/cover story is a very good one.

I think you do not need a heal check to have someone count as "being attended". At the point you are at, the cleric is not in danger of immediate death by bleeding out or the like. Now if you actually want to help him, a heal check, sure. But all you seem to want to do is to make sure he stays alive while he recovers on his own.

You're doing excessively simple things, like making sure he doesn't choke to death on his own vomit, trying to pour water down his throat every now and then, making sure he doesn't freeze to death at night, not letting him get eaten by wolves, that sort of thing. So you don't have to make a check at all, the fact that you are there and trying to not let him die is enough.

maybe so, but such a druid might say that it is the role of enlightened beings to rise above the natural state of violence and be guardians of life.

Consider Vash the Stampede from Trigun if you have seen it. Vash is aware of the brutality of nature, and yet still seeks to protect all life, in a memorable scene he tries to save a butterfly caught in a spider's web, delicately trying to remove the caught creature. His brother Knives walks up and kills the spider, informing Vash that he has accomplished Vash's goal of saving the butterfly, and after Vash objects, reminds him that saving the Spider's prey from its clutches is equivalent to killing the spider as the spider must eat to survive.

Maybe Vash's stance is paradoxical, but his desire to save everyone -even the wicked- is what makes him an interesting and ultimately likable character.

I've seen this asked before, I believe it is the case that the damage from Vicious is untyped damage (I'm even a little wary of calling it untyped energy damage) and therefore it is not subject to any sort of DR whatsoever.

The scenario is either in error (it does occasionally happen) or the author wished for that particular enemy to be a specific exception to the rules for one reason or another.

I for one, am with you. I've often thought about House-ruling haste to be 5th level. I agree with about everything you said. Blessing of Fervor is also powerful but it is 5th level, so appropriate.

direct me to where it says reach weapons follow the rules for ranged attacks? one of my players asked this very question.

the mistake here is in thinking that this was not something you could already do. Slotless magic items have been in Pathfinder since the beginning, they were in D&D 3.0 when I started playing, and I imagine they were around well before that.

Suppose you wanted to wear a Belt of Giant Strength and also a Belt of Mighty Constitution at the same time. Well, there is functionally no difference between having a "Tattoo of Mighty Constitution" and having an Iounstone that gives an enhancement bonus to Constitution.

It was, and is, something that people can already do. The only difference is now there is a feat for it that you technically don't need to take, as I already went over -you can do everything a Tattoo will do with Craft Wonderous Item-.

it depends on the type of creature. A creature that gets turned into a zombie loses all of its HD from class levels, so if you turn a Level-20 human Fighter into a zombie, he is not a 20 hd zombie, he is a 1 hd zombie.

You can make more powerful zombies by using a corpse of something that is more powerful. A basic Dragon, for example, does not have class HD, so it keeps its racial HD when you calculate its abilities as it turns into a zombie.

Check the Animate Dead spell and the rules for "Creating a zombie" in the bestiary. They are pretty well spelled out.

yeah, seriously. They are all up and arms because a daughter worked at a whorehouse so they murdered the owner and then... they want to run their own whorehouse? Seems like a huge disconnect.

Beyond that I am pretty sure that "I killed the last guy" does not make you the legal owner of the place. Just because they found the deed does not mean they are the owners.

lol, this build actually looks like a lot of fun.

IMO, why not go firearms? Muskets do d12s of damage. EWP-Musket, Rapid Reload and Paper Catridges and you can reload as a move action, at a cost of only 2 feats. Alternatively, 3 level dip into Musket Master and never have reload problems, naturally picking up Deeds and Prof in musket along the way. Tempting as that is, I'd suggest the first option as you will be able to maintain sneak attack progression.

Vital Striking you're looking at multiple d12s+sneak attack, and assuming you're in 30 ft and Vanishing, you're targeting their touch AC, flat-footed. So basically anything-but-a-1 is going to hit forever. That means you don't need weapon focus, for sure. Amateur Gunslinger would be good to pick up. Most likely you can hold out on both Point Blank Shot and Precise Shot if you're feat starved, you're going to be hitting a lot anyway.

At higher levels add Devestating strike, naturally. Enlarge person won't do a thing for you because as soon as any projectile (does not matter bow or gun) leaves its device, it shrinks and becomes a standard size projectile. True story.

Sniper Goggles will be a must, of course.

OR you could be a zen archer monk. 7 con doesnt hurt nearly as bad if you engage everything form 100+ feet away.

the characters who are considered to be flanking get the bonus.

A.M.G
...X...

Where "A" is an Ally, "M" has a Menacing Weapon, "G" has gang-up, and "X" is the monster, "G" (and only "G") would get the menacing bonus.

When using handle animal, how often do I need to issue a command? For example, my animal knows the "Attack" Trick. Must I command the animal to attack each round, or will it continue to attack the same creature once the command is given. On one hand, the Handle Animal text says simply that the Animal will preform the indicated command on it's next action, however the text of the "Down" Trick in particular indicates that the animal continues to attack on its own.

If I am a Treesinger druid archetype, does the DC of all of my handle animal checks go up by +5 because I am using the HA skill on a "low intelligence non-animal"? Seems like yes but... ouch.

What happens if I use the ability score increase as my Animal Companion advances in levels to increase its INT score above 2? Anything special? I ask because it is suggested that if it has INT of above 2, it can not be an animal. OtoH, the Animal Companion skill implies animals can have an INT above 2, as it says that animals with a INT of 3+ can select any feat they can use.

For the "Come" trick, in what situations would this apply? EG: When would an animal 'normally not come' as I call it?

What is the "default" behavior for a companion in combat? That is, what happens if the command I issue fails? The animal does nothing? If my animal knows the "defend" trick and I fail to issue a command, does its behavior revert to "Defend"?

What does "defend" really mean anyway? Will my animal move to attack creatures attacking me? Will it make AoOs against creatures that come towards me?

Not really a rules question but, advice for feats to give my Companion? The list was relatively unimpressive.

Basically what I want to know is this:

Is using your off-hand to help wield a 2handed weapon considered "using that hand to wield a weapon" thereby making you lose the buckler's AC bonus for a round?

Can I attack with a greatsword and still get the AC bonus?
Can I attack with a bow and still get the AC bonus?

I saw Battlefield Surgeon, but this does not seem to be enough. Anything that would make Treat Deadly Wounds or Long Term Care better, more effective, or faster?

Hi everyone. I'm looking for advice on playing a very thematic elven treesinger. The stats were built with a unique stat generation method and they are a bit high as I rolled very well. I'm not really looking to destroy everything in combat, what I'm more interested in is a large array of plant-themed abilities and honestly I'm sort of at a loss. The best I was able to come up with was to go archery while my plant companion grapples and constricts things.

One additional thing, we were all awarded an additional bonus feat at level 1.

the working character sheet is below the fold.

Because WoF is a swift action, you can activate it during combat without losing a significant part of your turn. ODW is a standard action, so you would have to activate it pre-combat if you wanted to take a standard action on your 1st initiative, not that this is usually an issue.

ODW is a 15th level ability, which means you can only grab it with Greater Eldrich Heritage. Wings of Fire is more similar to Wings of Heaven, a 9th level ability.... which means you need only Improved Eldrich Heritage to get it.

Usually a player has no right to call metagaming on the GM. You are assuming a lot about your foes. Maybe your enemy is under the employ of a BBEG whos spies have informed him about your abilities and he has warned his minions. Maybe the caster simply has fought somebody with Step-Up before and decided to invest in appropriate countermeasures. Step-up may or may not be a bit unusual, bur reach weapons certainly are not, and the good old acrobatics trick would foil a reach weapon user just as easily.

A caster could get a good acrobatics if they want one, between dex and traits to add Acrobatics as a class skill or multiclassing. Nevertheless, they are investing part of their character in this defense, as opposed to just out and out killing you, so you should be happy.

Honestly it would be easier for a caster to simply pick up Combat Casting, or Mirror Image, or Greater Invisibility, or Displacement, or Fly, or any of the other plentiful options at his disposal for foiling a pure melee character. Your GM is throwing you a bone by having them *not* do that. I recommend you not spit it back in his face.

thats true. Bow+Rage= all good. Arcane Archer+ Rage might give you a bit of an issue, particularly the spellcasting bits.

you absolutely can. It's just there's less direct benefit to ranged-rage than there is to melee-rage, so it's not as common.

it's not the first feat that does absolutely nothing. Ferocious summons or no, your summoned creatures return to their home plane at 0 hp.

It depends. Most mosters are disabled at 0 hp and die at -CON score. There are a few exceptions.

*Undead are destroyed at 0 hp.
*Constructs are destroyed at 0 hp.
*Summon creatures are effectively "unsummoned" at 0 hp.

However, things that are alive and not summoned pretty much always are disabled at 0 hp, unconscious and dying at -1 or less hp, and dead at -CON score hp.

1. Well even in a sandbox, you still have goals and quests am i right? Once they complete something you as a GM feel was an important goal, then level them up.

2. No, I meant adventures. Call it "sessions" if you like. You could convert to hours if you want. PFS assumes 4-5 hour adventures. So after you play for 20-ish hours of game time level up.

I sort of rarely give out XP anyway... there are a few ways you can do it.

1. Level your characters on completion of a part of the story. This puts emphasis on game objectives rather thank killing monsters. IE: Once you've fought your way through the city, the castle, saved the princess, and got her to safety; go up a level.

2. PFS levels the characters after every 3 adventures. Personally I think every 4 is more to my taste. Easy, simple, regular progression.

3. track xp.

yeah, ray of frost should work.

eeeeeee...... now I'm waffling. I was referring specifically to this FAQ: Rays and this one Rays Again. Upon reading Acid Splash however, Acid Splash is not technically a ray. It is an effect of one missile of acid. How that is different, I don't know, but apparently there is some distinction.

I would certainly allow it, I'd say most GMs would, but technically...... technically... acid splash isn't a ray, the FAQ wouldn't apply.

Upon reading the FAQ, I'm inclined to say, yes you can.

i'd agree, no, that's not something childscent could do.

It's not, however, totally out of the realm of possibility of something a creepy old wizard/witch could do. There's a 3p spell Detect Pregnancy that is perfect for this.

OP: I think you have somehow missed the reason why splitting the party is generally considered a big error. It's not because it's less fun for people who aren't involved (though that may be the case).

It's because in every horror movie, etc, whenever anybody splits up, the person by themselves dies a grisly horrible death. Not "gets thrown in jail and is rescued later or something", no, grisly... horrible... death. It's sort of a trope.

You need to instill the fear of gods into your players. Your PCs should never know when they have to fight. Fights should not be limited to "okay, I guess we've buffed up for the day and are all together now, so lets wander around in a dungeon and kill things." Even in town, there are plenty of threats. It could simply come from an NPC who is legitimately stronger than them. It could be something more sinister, a Vampire hiding out and preying on the weak, a serial killer, a doppleganger, a cleric/wizard who needs someone to sacrifice (hold person/ tie up/ KO/ move to fun location/ coup de grace).

Make a plot point out of it. Also, kill the hell out of that guy.

really good article, but as someone who uses CMs a lot myself, I have to quibble with one point.

Suggesting that a CM-PC can get a full attacks worth of CMs against a flatfooted opponent after beating them at initiative is being way over-generous. Most likely your PC will have to move and be restricted to one combat maneuver. And that is if they win initiative in the first place, many monsters have very high init scores, thanks to a lot of monsters having Improved Initiative.

he just knows dcs off hand? That's actually kind of impressive. I mean, I could tell it was a mind flayer by what you're describing but I wouldn't know it's save DCs...

Regardless, assuming he isn't blatantly cheating by looking up the monster's stats in the beastiary at the table (in which case you have a different problem) just take him aside, and explain that unless his character has Knowledge [insert appropriate skill here] then he doesn't know jack about the monster, and should keep such comments to himself. If he does have the appropriate knowledge roll and succeeds, then you tell him what he knows, and anything beyond what you tell him, he should assume he doesn't know.

You said you'd talked to him about the issue before. Don't let up. Bring it up every time he does something.

player: "Oh, it's breath weapon is like 9d6"
Gm: "you have no knowledge of that information, please keep it to yourself."

Say it every time, he'll get it eventually. In the mean time, I suggest tricking him. Deliberately create a monster and mess with its stats so that it is something besides the vanilla monster in the bestiary. If you're fighting a Medusa, make it an advanced Medusa so it's stats change a bit. Make a description of a creature that turns out to be another creature of a similar appearance. A skeleton and a Mohrg look awfully similar. Describe things in a way so that he guesses wrong.

battle herald looks great, thanks for brining it up!

I want to play a Cavalier in an upcoming PFS event, he will likely be my PFS character for a long time. Issue is, I know I often get bored of just meleeing constantly. So I want to be able to do something else. I noticed the Tactician ability, which is cool, but I'm not sure what feat to take with it. Shield Wall is pretty good but it requires another player to use a shield. Precise Striking requires me to have DEX-13 which I'm not sure I want to have, but I might.

Mainly though, I'm looking for an option that isn't just doing damage. Cross classing is not out of the question, feats/abilities are a good route to go too. If possible I'd like to push the "leader" aspect of the cavalier, buff allies, etc.

Any ideas? (I don't need this to be optimized)

Not really. There is only one environmental penalty to magic that I know of, and that is attempting to cast a fire spell underwater.

ice in the desert, fire in the tundra... that all works fine.

i want to read the rules in a way corrosponds to the book. If you can provide any support for "the spell grapples, not you" I'd love to hear it.

So far all I hear is "it works this way because that makes sense to me" which is not compelling.

yes, I think so. As I've been saying, it's a normal grapple.

It could have it's applications though, for example, you instantly pull an enemy from all the way across the map to be right next to your fighter buddy, who full attacks and creams him.

ravingdork: yes, the caster would also gain the grappled condition. The caster would be able to maintain the grapple by using the grapple action again on telekinesis.

Resolve these attempts as normal, except that they don't provoke attacks of opportunity, you use your caster level in place of your Combat Maneuver Bonus, and you add your Intelligence modifier (if a wizard) or Charisma modifier (if a sorcerer) in place of your Strength or Dexterity modifier.

I don't buy "wizard isn't grappling, the spell is" It seems like the wizard is the one referenced as doing the grappling to me... " Resolve these attempts as normal" seems like a pretty odd thing to say if you were supposed to be breaking basic rules of grappling.

Well that is what I had originally thought, but there is absolutely nothing in the rules to support that viewpoint as far as I can tell. In fact the opposite is true. I was wondering if there was a FAQ or something that indicated otherwise.

If you successfully grapple a creature that is not adjacent to you, move that creature to an adjacent open space (if no space is available, your grapple fails).

bump?

I'm confused on how the Telekinesis spell works when used to make the Grapple combat maneuver.

I understand how to make the check and such, what I'm having trouble grasping is what happens if the caster succeeds.

The way I read it, the target will instantly be moved to an adjacent space with the caster. Telekinesis has a 400ft+40ft/caster level range. So, a 9th level wizard can move somebody 960 ft with a successful grapple check. At that point, it is a normal grapple, the target can attack the caster with a one handed or natural attack.

am I correct?