catdragon's page

catdragon wrote:

So I really want to create a leshy monk for Pathfinder Society play. Tangled Forest Stance at 8th level, obviously. But 8th level is a long time away in PFS play. So here is what i have so far: a pine leshy (yes i spent the ACP), ancestry feat of grasping reach and monk, the TFS at 8th, what would y'all suggest?

Not sure what grasping reach gets you (or put another way, I'm not sure what you're going for). I think it only applies to wielding a "melee weapon that requires two hands, doesn't have reach, and deals at least 1d6 damage".

Are you somehow trying to combine this with Tangled Forest Stance? Maybe take Monastic Weaponry then use a two handed monk weapon (sansetsukon or whip staff?) to impede movement within 10'? Though you could just use a bo staff without grasping reach for the same effect and without having to reduce your damage die.

Good point. My brain shirt-circuited i guess. I was thinking that the reach would be gravy on top of the reach of the bo staff. Obviously i was wrong! :)

catdragon wrote:

So I really want to create a leshy monk for Pathfinder Society play. Tangled Forest Stance at 8th level, obviously. But 8th level is a long time away in PFS play. So here is what i have so far: a pine leshy (yes i spent the ACP), ancestry feat of grasping reach and monk, the TFS at 8th, what would y'all suggest?

Not sure what grasping reach gets you (or put another way, I'm not sure what you're going for). I think it only applies to wielding a "melee weapon that requires two hands, doesn't have reach, and deals at least 1d6 damage".

Are you somehow trying to combine this with Tangled Forest Stance? Maybe take Monastic Weaponry then use a two handed monk weapon (sansetsukon or whip staff?) to impede movement within 10'? Though you could just use a bo staff without grasping reach for the same effect and without having to reduce your damage die.

Good point. My brain shirt-circuited i guess. I was thinking that the reach would be gravy ob top of the reach of the bo staff. Obviously i was wrong! :)

So I really want to create a leshy monk for Pathfinder Society play. Tangled Forest Stance at 8th level, obviously. But 8th level is a long time away in PFS play. So here is what i have so far: a pine leshy (yes i spent the ACP), ancestry feat of grasping reach and monk, the TFS at 8th, what would y'all suggest?

Unfortunately, that link is broken. I get the big ol' 404.

Have there been any guidelines mentioned/released/made up after the Remaster?

So far it seems to have a general guide of 4 cantrips, three 1st rank spells, 2 spells for each rank after 1st but before 9th, and 1 9th ranks spell. Then there are two school spells, one at 1st and 1 at 4th rank.
But that's my take.

Has anyone seen something different? Or can offer guidance?

Has anyone seen, or compiled a spell list for the spells in Rage of Elements?

Is there a page somewhere with all the characters you have created? Just curious (I like to download them and then read them offline -- especially at work when I am bored out of my skull).

So here's a quandary. There is a creature called a tallow ooze (Creature 11). It has this ability:

Greasy Seepage (aura) 10 feet. Any creature that starts its turn in or enters a square in the area must attempt a DC 30 Acrobatics check to Balance. A creature that takes a Step doesn’t need to roll this check.

So if a character is in the aura he must make a Acrobatics check to Balance. Does that take the character's first action, or is it an action that happens automatically at the start of the character's turn?

Since it is "Acrobatics check to Balance," do we apply the critical success/success/failure/critical failure conditions from the Acrobatics check to Balance? If the answer is yes, then does a failure/critical failure end the turn for the character?

It would be greatly appreciated if someone could shed some light on interaction.

Has anyone added any custom info for the shoonys? Especially for Ferny. My players are suffering from exhaustion and want to spend a day there. Its easy enough to hand wave the day, but i was looking for something that would liven things up.

The PCs are
goblin rogue-sorcerer
halfling cleric-medic dedication
gnome giant barbarian
leshy druid-juggler archetype

You would think that as ubiquitous as the web is these days, they would have put *links* in the text of the blog post. I mean, its simple to do.

Is it even available for pre-order? Or whatever?

And how is there no official art for Yiddlepode after all this time!?

I mocked up some art... I used GIMP to change the colors but that was all I did.

Yiddlepode
Trapmaster Tok
Pethjun

Some maps for you all...

Juniper Winzel's map (that the PCs find in the notebook)

Waterlogged map from the skeleton's satchel

Are wind-able watches available in Golarion? I don't think I have every seen reference to such a thing, but there are clockwork mechanisms of all kinds, from guardsmen to mages.

Seems like a logical thing to find, but on the other hand I could see definitely understand that watches haven't been "invented" yet.

I'm thinking of a champion of Pharasma, ardent over the destruction of undead, one a noble son and acolyte of the temple, but drummed or did to his expressing his opinions. Now starting over in the guard figuring that he can start at the bottom and work his way up.

Also considering a chiriogen alchemist who specializes in undercover work.

Lastly a goblin witch who continual gets into trouble. He was once a lamp lighter. Then became a guard at the post gate, now transferred to Edgewater.

I'm really having trouble coming up with a solid character concept...

Any suggestions or ideas?

TwilightKnight wrote:

Until/unless you have detected an enemy first, you cannot rage.

Could you cite the rules text that says that?

There isn't one, but I have seem GMs rule this way at tables. Basically the RAW says: This frenzy lasts for 1 minute, until there are no enemies you can perceive, or until you fall unconscious, whichever comes first. You can’t voluntarily stop raging.

Reversing that logically would say: This frenzy lasts for 1 minute, while there are enemies you can perceive, and you stay conscious. You can’t voluntarily stop raging.

Still the choice to rage or not (after all a barbarian doesn't have to rage every combat) remains in the player's hand IMO. So his point is moot as far as I am concerned.

BTW, I did go with option/reaction 3 and that is how I will play /rule it in the future.

So an interesting occurrence happened in my Friday night game. There is a barbarian that just picked up the Acute Scent (which gives him scent as an imprecise sense when he rages).

In the game (Extinction Curse if it matters), they entered a large room that was cut in half by bars (like an animal cage). On one side of the bars are the bad guys hiding in the foliage. The Players are on a different side, so the bars keep the sides from one another.

Can the barbarian rage and use his Acute Scent to detect if there are bad guys around?

Reaction 1: No, nothing seems to be an enemy so he can't rage.
Reaction 2: Yes, and while he does scent something not normal, he doesn't perceive it, so he then falls out of rage (and fatigued for a round).
Reaction 3: He rages, senses the bad guys, and continues to rage even though he can't find the bad guys.

I'm not sure how I should have run this. Especially since i am hesitant to take player agency away from them (e.g. not allowing them to rage when they want to rage.) At the time I went with the third action. But thinking back on it, I am not even sure the RAW is, much less what the RAI. Can anyone comment, explain, or offer a different explanation?

Whatever serves your game best, is the correct answer.

I believe the designers left the Recall Knowledge action vague so that individuals could decide just how much info to dole out with each success check or critical failure, rather than calling out what the exact DCs are as well as what kind of information can be sought.

But i also think they left it *too* vague.

YMMV.

So really the lesson is: Talk to your players. All the time.

And listen. LISTEN! I sometimes try to communicate with my players (and the GMs that i play 'under,' they have to LISTEN to what i am saying. Otherwise i feel like i am just there to warm a seat at the table.

Yeah i tried to go to the link, but i didn't have access.

Very nice! I really look forward to the next one.

Thanks!

So a flurry of blows is one action where you swing twice with one action, each strike taking the appropriate multiple attack penalty. So tonight my monk flurried and struck down the adjacent creature on the first strike. He then moved to the next enemy...

The question is did the second strike in the flurry happen? Did my monk swing at thin air? Or not?

Basically, can the monk move (an action) and strike (with the third action and a -8 penalty)? Or is the 3rd action (a strike) at a -4 penalty (since logically the monk wouldn't swing at empty air).

I can see both sides of the coin here. Anyone else want to chime in?

There's a special use of Arcana skill to prepare from another wizard's book. If you want to prepare without making and passing that check every day you have to spend the money and time to scribe the spell from the other wizard's book to your own. Presumably this is because formula are somewhat personalized.

So you use Arcana to copy the spell (spending the money) and its in your book. But if the spell is personalized, how do you overcome those personifications?

Maybe it just doesn't matter...

So to calculate the "value" or a spell book, i should calculate the cost to copy every spell, add it all up, and then halve it for the market value?

What do you mean by "unknown"?

A PC kills the wizard and finds that bad guy's spell book. That's an unknown spell book. The PC could have easily found a spell book or stolen it, but until she (or he) knows what is in it, its an "unknown" book.

But if I am understanding the CRB (and what posters have stated), then as long as i know the tradition (arcane, occult, divine, etc.) then i can read and understand the spells within that book.

Also, how do you "learn" a spell from an unknown spell book? Does it require "translation?"

Has anyone else encountered this? I can find a way to price spell books (explicitly). I could price out the cost of each spell as a scroll and then total that, but that seems (logically) wrong. Especially since spell books are usually encoded or done in a wizard's shorthand is some way.

So are we expecting guidelines for the creation of monsters/encounters? Or the modification of monsters/encounters?

I've been working on a home brew adventure and this has been my biggest stumbling block so far.

So my players and I got together last weekend to talk about Pathfinder 2e and create their characters. My plan was basically a Session 0, then start them through Plaguestone.

Then they created three goblins, a hobgoblin (based off the goblin rules), and a gnoll (repackaged half-orc) as PCs.

Anyone have any idea how to run this group? or suggestions?

A page of spell knowledge adds the spell to your spell list.
the PC is currently a paladin/warpriest but was once (in a previous life) a summoner.

so yeah, by RAW, nothing would happen. but imo that's boring! :)

So let me preface this with the fact that i know it isn't a rules question nor is there a tried answer for the dilemma that i find myself in.

So I'm running a Strange Aeons campaign. And i made up complete backstories for each of the PCs. One PC is a paladin/warpriest of Erastil who is very naive and innocent. However, in the backstory I made up (as the GM) she was a summoner who hated everyone, especially loving relationships, and used her eidolon to cause havoc, death, and heartbreak.

The character recently found a page of spell knowledge (summon eidelon) and is planning to use it to summon the eidolon and attempt to redeem the eidolon.

Regardless of whether the PC can do this or not, its a perfect opportunity for some role-play. But i am having trouble coming up with scenarios that would have resolutions. I think its a great idea and i would like reward the player/PC somehow.

ANyone have any ideas?

If you are looking for a full-sized version of the image, try here https://paizo.com/image/content/PathfinderBattles/20190121-HalfPage.jpg

As a side note, identifying potion with perception is based on the caster level of the potion, not the spell level. Not much of a difference, granted, but it does make it marginally harder to identify a potion with Perception.

Example:
potion of cure light wounds: Spellcraft DC 16, Perception DC 16
potions of cure moderate wounds: Spellcraft DC 17, Perception DC 18
potion of cure serious wounds: Spellcraft DC 18, Perception DC 20

So, recently the bad guys attacked the PCs and one of the bad guys was a bard. Being a bard, it started off with inspire courage helping all the enemies of the players.

Then one of the PCs, an enchanter, charmed one of the attackers, turning it against the bad guy bard.

Is the bad guy still an ally of the bard? Does it require an action on the bard's part to drop the charmed fighter from the list of allies?

What does the hivemind think?

So i recently introduced the concept of time travel into my home campaign (Yes, yes, i know it wasn't smart but it is making a good story!).

But somewhere in my head i have an echo of an inevitable that is tasked with keeping time travel from happening. Did i dream this? If not, where did i see it?

Of course, if you have a suggestion for what that inevitable should look like/behave/be like, please feel free to make it. It should be a challenge for a group of 5-6 12-13th level PCs.

Thanks! I hope the group mind can point me in the right direction...

Most wonderful news! I think that moving forward will be productive and we will be stronger because of these decisions. Thank you!

So i have a great group of players. they generally let the story go and they don't mind "bumps" when the rules require modifications.

And then Clymes Prett happened....

The problem that was pointed out is you can't use corrupting touch with Spring Attack. Spring Attack is a full round action and corrupting touch is a special attack, which requires a standard action. So you can't combine the two.

We house ruled it and moved on, but a spring attacking ghost that can fade into the walls doing 7d6 with a touch attack will kill people.

How did anyone else handle this encounter?

Has any one done the stats of favorites/unfavorites or played/dmed?

As a GM
#1 Serpent's Skull
#2 Rise of the Runelords (ran it when it was 3.5, would love to play it with the revised book)
#3 Strange Aeons

As a Player
#1 Iron Gods
#2 Curse of the Crimson Throne
#3 Council of Thieves

/snip/ If you want to handle any and all Knowledge checks for the party you can fill that role masterfully especially as an Elf. Take Breadth of Experience and Live, Learn, Love the 1st level Transmutation spell Tears to Wine. Purify whatever liquid you cast it on making it safe to drink and when you drink it gain a SCALING bonus to Int and Wis checks for 10 mins/level. Keep close to max ranks in the five major Knowledges and with your Int, feat, and spell enjoy smashing even some of the absurdly high DCs later in the path BY YOURSELF. Laughing maniacally is optional, but suggested. /snip/

I found Breath of Experience and Tears to Wine but could hide nor hair of "Live, Learn, Love...." Care to point me in the right direction?

I'm one of those people that need color....like what the race looks like, behaves, stuff like that. Of course, time will tell whether or not that is true or not.

/snip/

They're not public at this time. I've been on and off toying with an idea of gathering the short stories I've written over the years into some sort of self-published anthology or shopping it around for publication or something, but that's something I've been thinking about doing for my whole adult life and I've not yet gotten the courage or self-confidence or time to go forward with pursuing that yet. Hopefully some day that'll change.

But before that DOES change, I'll need to go through all those stories once more and revise them so that they reflect what I've learned about writing in the 30 years in some cases since I wrote the original.

Well, you have a person ready to buy the dreamed-about book. I would love too see it in print/electrons.

Thanks 'Sani. Here they are again, with links...

Beyond the Wall of Sleep- Zandalus, In Search of Sanity.
The Music of Erich Zann - Viol found by the furnace, In Search of Sanity.
The King in Yellow (Robert W. Chambers)- Carcosa, In Search of Sanity and The Thrushmoore Terror, The Yellow Sign and Keeper of the Yellow Sign, The Thrushmoore Terror, and Hastur, throughout the AP.

At the Mountains of Madness - Elder Things, The Thrushmoore Terror - Shoggoth, The Whisper Out of Time.
The Shadow Over Innsmouth - Skum, The Thrushmoore Terror.
The Dreams in the Witch House - Ratlings, In Search of Sanity - Elder Things, The Thrushmoore Terror.
The Shambler from the Stars (Robert Bloch) - Star Vampire, The Thrushmoore Terror (at YouTube).
The Hounds of Tindalos (Frank Belknap Long) - Hounds of Tindalos, The Thrushmoore Terror and The Whisper Out of Time.

The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath - Gugs, Ghouls, Zoogs and the Enchanted Woods, The Bloodwind, Denizens of Leng, Moon-Beasts - Dreams of The Yellow King - Pretty much everything in Dreams of The Yellow King.
The Doom that Came to Sarnath - Sarnath and the doom that comes to it, Dreams of The Yellow King.
Celephaïs - Celephais, Dreams of The Yellow King.
The Nameless City - Abdul Alhazred The Mad Poet and the Necronomicron, Dreams of The Yellow King.
Pickman's Model - Leng Ghouls, Dreams of The Yellow King.

The Dunwich Horror - Spawn of Yog-Sothoth, The Whisper Out of Time.
The Shadow Out of Time - Yithians and flying polyps, throughout the AP.

Those are all the definite references, though there are many more throughout other Lovecraft stories, such as more references to the Necronomicron and the Mad Poet, references to Shub-Niggurath, possibly the origins of Xhamen-Dor, plus more asylums than you can shake a stick at.

Then there are the Lovecraftian stories that weren't written by Lovecraft himself, but by his friends and contemporaries. These are marked with the author in parenthesis.

OK, here I have a first draft of my version of Necronomicon.

Roll DC 35 or 1d6 Wis damage. This damage cannot be healed through magic, only resting (1 Wis damage per day). Wish or Miracle can heal it, though. If the Will roll is a natural 1, it can't be rerrolled and then you get 1d6 Wis drain, which again can only be healed with Wish or Miracle.

The Necronomicon gives you the following:

/snip/

I think i would not neatly divide things up, requiring a user to have to study the entire book at one time. IOW, the first time they study it (and make the save) they get an idea of what the book can accomplish, or perhaps some of what it can accomplish (for every five points they make the DC by, they get an additional possibility past the first).

And i would require the save each time they crack the book...

And here is an idea, treat study of the book as an addiction... they have to make a fort save or go back and read the book else suffer a point of Wisdom drain/damage as they continue to obsess over the book.

Or perhaps the first touch causes an obsession insanity....

IMO, the Necronomicon should be dangerous, sanity threatening, addictive, and obsessive.

Anyone have suggestions of low-level background music/sound to use? Hopefully something that isn't expensive....

I have found that the use of sanity points has heightened my players' sense of bad/horror. I have good players though, so YMMV.

Something came over me and I created this document. I tried to include every item other than gold or gems. And some of the items may not look how you imagine them, so feel free to modify as your see fit for your game. Each card is a 4x6 card for easy handing out to the players.

I hope somebody likes it. :). I know my players did.

Name: Mina Harker
Race: Dhampir
Classes/Levels: Sorcerer 2
Adventure: In Search of Sanity
Location: C12 Ruined Office
Catalyst: keeping the secret that she was a dhampir....

IBM also thinks its a malware site. Just so you know, not sure what you can do about that though.

Beautiful! Thank you (and him), this is fantastic!!

Ratling, not ratfolk.... Duh. Sorry guys

Psychic A, in his home at the Capitol on Golarion, casts create mindscape and then makes it permanent. They then tell a friend, Psychic B, who is currently in the Elemental Plane of Air.

Psychic A & B both cast mindscape door to enter this already established mindscape. There are now two doors, one to a house in Golarion, another to a place in the Plane of Air.

What happens if Psychic B then walks over and goes through the mindscape door to Golarion, and A goes through the other to the Plane of Air?

A magic rod that, while wielded, doubles the area of the user's channel energy (to 60' radius). I don't know what kind of price point to give this, since there's not really any equivalent.

While you're inside a mindscape, barring certain circumstances, you're not aware of anything done to your body. Would you persist in the mindscape if your unconscious body were killed? Obviously you die once you leave said mindscape in that circumstance, but performing actions beyond your death has consequences to considre.

If a character with HiPS is viewed as a non-hostile, could they use a Stealth check to snipe without being noticed as having attacked?

Other than liches and NPCs with class levels, what monsters have animate dead as a spell-like ability?

I have a potential villain to throw against the party, a level 7 halfling rogue against a level 7 party. The NPC has +30 Stealth modifier & expert sniper feat, which in an urban environment they'll be spoiled for cover options. Even while attacking, the party will have a lot of trouble even having a clue where the attack's coming from, & I'm not even being super focused toward the build's tactic. Should I be worried about this encounter being too tough on the party, and if so, what suggestions do you have?

My wife went to PAX West, followed by other travel plans, and returned home recently. I didn't attend, so I'm hearing about this now. She enjoyed herself and loved the convention, so don't think this marred her enjoyment on the whole. She tried out one of the Pathfinder one-shot tables, and evidently one of the first things asked as she was signing up was whether she was signing up for her boyfriend. While she was the only woman in the room at the time, that's not a good sign.

The pregenerated 1st level rogue she was handed was heavily modified - no weapons except flasks, race switched to halfling, only knew Common while everyone else in the party only knew Elven (RP was thus difficult for her). At one point she threw a flask, rolled a 19, and was told she hit herself with the weapon. Enemies repeatedly saw through her +11 Stealth (no rolling) and bee-lined to attack her character, provoking AoOs from flanking PCs to get to her. There was no stated story reason for the aggro. No PC got below half HP through the entire adventure, except her due to the focus fire - survival was only because the players recognized what was going on and the cleric spent most (all?) of their time healing.

I'm certain that's not all that happened, but just this bit is frustrating to hear about. I am disappointed that Paizo had such a DM representing their company at PAX, and I can only hope my wife's survey/review made it through the process.

You cast Secluded Grimoire, then travel to the Outer Planes. Is your book presumably inaccessible?

Is the Night Hag presumably a creature that leaves for the Material Plane? Because it's ability to go ethereal shouldn't work in the Outer Planes where there isn't an Ethereal.

Giff

The Giff are large humanoids with thick skin, enormous mouths, and tiny ears. Their faces look similarly to hippos or the goddess Tuart. Giff have poor hearing and loud voices. They delight in noise levels that are oppressive or even painful to races with more sensitive auditory nerves.

The Giff language is loud, and the first instinct of a Giff who has not been understood is to simply repeat themselves even louder. The subtleties of spellcasting requiring careful intonations are largely lost upon the Giff, but their scholars fair better in other fields on endeavor such as alchemy and artifice. The alchemists of the Giff gleefully experiment with explosive agents such as alchemist's fire and gun cotton that give pause even to Gnomes.

The skin of a Giff is thick and insensitive, and it is layered over a padded layer of protective fat. Giff simply do not mind repeated punctures with a tattooing needle, and it is quite common for a Giff to acquire quite elaborate tattoos on much of their body. Between this resilience and their poor hearing, Giff find nearby explosions to be amusing rather than terrifying as most other races do.

Giff are quite heavy, but are fairly buoyant, allowing them to float effortlessly in water even while asleep. Many Giff elect to sleep in a pool of water rather than a bed. The homelands of the Giff are marshy and overgrown. Many of the alchemical preparations that Giff use to acclimatize themselves to other lands are mixed with alcohol, which the Giff then drink in large quantities.

The mouths of a Giff are very large, and a Giff can eat a tremendous amount in a single bite. Giff are omnivorous and can eat almost anything. In Giff culture it is considered impolite to refuse to eat something offered, and Giff can generally be convinced to eat whatever other races happen to claim is food.

Away from the Giff homeland, most Giff that are encountered will be part of a military company. These corporations allow themselves to be paid as mercenaries or simply create their own adventure by invading places with lootable goods. Giff care somewhat for gold and silver, but are more interested in steel and still more interested in chemical agents. Giff military companies are willing to travel far and fight long odds to get their hands on valuable plant products that can be used to make dyes, medicines, spices, and explosives by their alchemists.

The most feared Giff weapon is the portable bombard. Too heavy for all but the strongest Human to even lift, it is essentially a bell which is filled with gun cotton and a catapult stone. The back of the bell is then struck with a hammer, causing the gun cotton to explode and the stone to fly out and wreak havoc. Creatures less resistant to sonic effects than a Giff would be well advised to stand far back when this weapon is used.

Racial Traits

Race Aging Effects
Starting Age 16 years
Middle Age 30 years
Old Age 45 years
Venerable Age 60 years
Maximum Age 60+2d20 years

Random Height & Weight
Base Height 6 ft. 4 in.
Base Weight 270 lbs.
Modifier 2d6
Weight Modifer x7 lbs.

Early Two-Handed Firearm
Weapon Name Portable Bombard
Cost 400 gp
Damage (M) 2d8/x4
Range Increment 50 ft.
Misfire 0
Type B & P
Weight 80 lbs.
Ammunition 5gp & 10 lb per bombard stone, 10gp per dose of gun cotton

Favored Class Bonuses
Alchemist +½ to bomb damage
Gunslinger Add +⅓ on critical hit confirmation rolls made with firearms (maximum bonus of +5). This bonus does not stack with Critical Focus.
Fighter Add +1 to the fighter's CMD when resisting a disarm or bullrush.

Presume you have ranks in Craft (mechanical) and are a 10th level wizard with Skill Focus. Cast Major Creation and make the skill check (likely +24). And now you can fairly reliably make a Death Ray for use in an upcoming fight.

It's established that they have a craving for humanoid flesh. What isn't established is how much they need to 'comfortably' subsist. How long can a ghoul go with just a single corpse before they need to refill their larder?

Sorry to intrude James, but on Telekinesis:

1) it uses the wizard's Int bonus to hit, which does a lot for overcoming the poor BAB
2) GMW on the weapons is usually +3 th/dmg or better. They are ammo, so you can do a bundle with one spell.
3) that's 60d6+180 damage potential for a 5th level spell (avg 400 pts). If half of them hit, that's 30d6 +90, or 200 damage. Not bad for a level 5 and level 3 slot.
4) An Item spell on your ammo takes care of all encumbrance issues.
5) the 4d6 per item is from using Colossal Javelins. Which are still ammunition.

As JJ noted, it's pure cheese.

In order to avoid derailing, I want to point this out. It's not pure cheese, and I find the implication that it deserves nerfing for the above reasons to be poorly thought out.

1] Yes, it uses the Wizard's Intelligence, but it's still using a BAB at half and has none of the weapon feats that an equivalent fighter is throwing down. A 15th level wizard is throwing down maybe +17.

2] Let's assume 'antics' for a +1 CL, and now we have a +4 from GMW. Javelins are not ammo, so we need to be using arrows, which lowers our damage to 3d6. If you notice, we're working at a +21 attack bonus, easily surpassed by the local archers.

3] I have no idea where you're getting the 180 number, because that's implying a [u]+12[/u](?!) damage bonus per arrow. A realistic damage potential is 45d6+60 (202 avg), with an average of 111 damage against a typical CR 15 monster's AC (half its HP).

4] We're already at a 5th level and 3rd level spell slot thrown into this combo. Throwing another 3rd level spell, especially if we're using familiars to ready them instead of doing something else, only reduces the efficiency. Efficiency is the key here, because at a certain point, it's more efficient to just throw

5] The javelin not being ammunition has been covered, so I was presuming bolts. If someone manages to find a workaround to get ammo a size category larger, then our average jumps to 140 damage.

Look at the final score here; our 15th level wizard of telekinesis is throwing down a damage that's comparable to archers in the DPR Olympics, except those guys are FIVE levels lower and have way more rounds of throwing down such attacks. Even if the AC was so terrible to permit a theoretical maximum of 255 average damage isn't all that mind-blowing at level 15 when you can throw down a suffocate, or have a draconic sorcerer's empowered fireball hit just 4 monsters.

If you look at lower levels, a level 9 is averaging about 65 damage with a single casting of one of their very few level 5 spells (and a GMW, and some gold for a porter to carry them around) against an equivalent monster. I'm not impressed there either, since that's about 50% greater than an empowered fireball which can hit an entire group of monsters.

It's like a poor man's disintegrate, statistically speaking. You just need a decent amount of preparation, additional magic to handle logistics, and does as well as a fighter...for a round.

It's an established option that limited wish can grant a creature the ability to automatically hit on their next attack. Can you wish to automatically succeed on the creature's next saving throw? Can you wish for the next attack on that creature to automatically miss?

Is it possible to wish for the auto-hit on a different trigger; such as on the creature's second attack, or next against against an undead, or the next attack after a certain trigger (when I say 'take that!')?

Say you're making a magic item using uncommon rules, such as Ship Combat or Boons. Would you just add a line of (see Fast-Play Ship Combat) after the effect that uses language from the rule?

I've seen a lot of FAQ regarding this archetype, and it's...robust. And even then, there seemed to be a lot of discussion surrounding it.

What would be the problem with switching out the Fused Eidolon traits with just giving them Merge Forms at level 1? Add a line stating they always count as being within reach of the eidolon for class abilities, state that any worn gear transfers to the eidolon if the eidolon is able to wear it, and clarify that the summoner can use his own skills so long as they aren't tied to the physical ability scores.

I'm looking at making an elf from the Mordant Spire, which is a little difficult since there's a grand total of two paragraphs about them in the Elves of Golarian sourcebook. and I was wondering if they're equivalent to any other culture, mainly so I can get ideas of what kind of masks they wear; or even why they wear them.

What is the stance on Golarian elves and lifespan? The rules conflict notably with the flavour text. In the flavour text, they can potentially live for thousands of years, and the only real way to tell their age is by their face looking more handsome and ethereal. You almost can't go two pages in Elves of Golarian without being reminded of a lifespan that will see monuments erode into dust.

In the rules, their average max lifespan is two centuries longer than dwarves, far short of a millennium (750 is the max). Conversely, dwarves are not described as a nearly timeless race (barring their craft-work), and in fact their comparable longevity is heavily downplayed. Elves physically suffer from age like any human, becoming weak and frail with time. Because of their lower Constitution, an appreciable fraction of elves will flat-out die at 350; as it's quite possible for an NPC to be two below average, and thus be born with a 6 Con, where the -6 from venerable will knock them to zero.

Two deeper darkness spells already inside a closed room at the end of a twisted tunnel on a moonless night, someone carrying a continual flame casts daylight. What happens?

Has your familiar ever turned out to be better at some things than its master? With the size bonus, it being better at Stealth is assumed, and it's unsurprising for Perception to be better if it's got a racial bonus (such as an owl or a hawk).

Imagine a wizard with a low Charisma (don't faint in surprise), and took Improved Familiar for an imp, mephit, or especially a faerie dragon. They have a Charisma of 14 or 16, Bluff as a class skill, and it wouldn't be out of line for the chosen skills of the imp or mephit to be switched to include Diplomacy. They're nearly guaranteed to be more social, even and especially if the wizard took max ranks (I've seen it), with a 'simple' alter self if looking like a human'd help.

Heck, if the wizard chose Strength as a dump stat too, then those three could be physically stronger; moreso if the imp or faerie dragon used alter self, as they'd have a 16 and 15 Strength respectively.

I was given an idea by someone awhile back, as to designing a class that has spells such as color spray that continue to scale, but only retain the ability to use them a number of times per day as a wizard, falling back to the ability of a fighter afterwards. Basically taking the mechanical difference between a 1st level wizard & fighter and maintaining that difference precisely rather than proportionally.

In that vein, I've designed this with the intent of being on-par with a 3.5 rogue in power, while looking like a paladin/barbarian/duskblade. I can only hope I'm meeting this goal in having it be a contributing member to a party (unlike the 3.5 fighter) without being overpowered (like the 3.5 druid). Flavour-wise, I wanted to return to a more 'true' form of Vancian spellcasting than D&D currently uses; as the Dying Earth saga limited their actual spells per day to a handful, but were generally of such power that the mere threat of its could be sufficient.

Pact Maker
Flavour Text: There are creatures out there. Entities of immense power beyond the Maelstrom, whose divine nature resonates with worship, but can only be called worship in an archaeological sense. If worship were to be described as a set of rules, the pact maker would be worshipping by the letter of the law, not the spirit. With the right mindset & knowledge of ancient rites, they can be called, they can be flattered, and they can grant both favors & knowledge to those that please them; or at least evoke responses mortals can equate to pleasure.

Amongst the easiest of favors to ask for is knowledge of martial prowess. Mantras, runes, techniques, magical herbs of enhancement, & spells of might all work towards making the pact maker a warrior of some skill.

But this is nothing to the power of direct intervention, where the pact maker calls upon an entity directly for action to be taken. The confidence of its power and those who are aware of what the pact maker is capable of can mean the end of a fight with the mere threat of its use.

Hit Dice: d10
Class Skills: Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Heal (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (religion, arcana) (Int), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis), Spellcraft (Int), Use Magic Device (Cha)
Skill Points at 1st Level: (4+Intelligence modifier) x 4
Skill Points at each additional level: 4+Intelligence modifier
Weapon & Armor Proficiency: Simple & Martial Weapons, all types of armor & shields (except tower)

Base Attack Bonus: As fighter
Saving Throws: Good Fortitude, Poor Reflex, Good Will

Spells per Day
........0...1st...2nd...3rd...4th...5th...6th...7th...8th...9th
1st....3....0.....—......—....—.....—......—.....—....—....—
2nd...3....0.....—......—.....—.....—......—.....—....—....—
3rd....3....—.....0......—....—.....—......—.....—....—....—
4th....4....—.....0......—....—.....—......—.....—....—....—
5th....4....—....—.....1......—.....—......—.....—....—....—
6th....4....—....—.....1......—.....—......—.....—....—....—
7th....5....—....—.....—....1.......—....—.....—....—....—
8th....5....—....—.....—....1.......—....—.....—....—....—
9th....5....—....—.....—....—.......2......—.....—....—....—
10th...6...—....—.....—....—.......2......—.....—....—....—
11th...6...—....—.....—....—.......—.....2......—....—....—
12th...6...—....—.....—....—.......—.....2......—....—....—
13th...7...—....—.....—....—.......—....—......3.....—....—
13th...7...—....—.....—....—.......—....—......3.....—....—
15th...7...—....—.....—....—.......—....—.....—....3......—
16th...8...—....—.....—....—.......—....—.....—....3......—
17th...8...—....—.....—....—.......—....—.....—....—.....4
18th...8...—....—.....—....—.......—....—.....—....—.....4
19th...9...—....—.....—....—.......—....—.....—....—.....4
20th...9...—....—.....—....—.......—....—.....—....—.....4

Class Abilities
Spells: A pact maker casts divine spells, which are drawn from the pact maker spell list. A pact maker must choose and prepare his spells in advance (see below).

To prepare or case a spell, a pact maker must have a Charisma score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a pact maker's spell is 10 + the spell level + the pact maker's Charisma modifier.

Like other spellcasters, a pact maker can only cast a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. His base daily spell allotment is given on the above table. In addition, he receives bonus bonus spells per day if he has a high Charisma score.

He must choose and prepare his spells ahead of time by getting a good night's sleep and spending 1 hour meditating and communing with extraplanar entities for spells. A pact maker may prepare and cast any spell on the pact maker spell list, provided that he can cast spells of that level, but he must choose which spells to prepare during his daily meditation.

As a reminder, the spells per day chart is not cumulative. With the level increase, the pact maker will lose the ability to cast spells of the lower spell levels as he gains access to the new spell level. For example, a 10th level pact maker can only memorize one 5th level spell, and additional spells per day from a high Charisma modifier only apply for level 5 spells (2 5th level spells with a Cha of 20+, 3 with a Cha of 28+, etc).

Pact Maker Spell List
0 Level: arcane mark, detect magic, ghost sound, prestidigitation, read magic
1st Level: burning hands, color spray, power word (pain)*, shocking grasp, silent image, sleep
2nd Level: acid arrow, blindness/deafness, cloud of bewilderment*, scorching ray, shadowspray*, ghoul touch, glitterdust, web
3rd Level: deep slumber, fireball, ice storm, lightning bolt, major image, mesmerizing glare*, shadow binding*, stinking cloud
4th Level: charm monster, cone of cold, evard's black tentacles, finger of agony*, phantasmal killer, solid fog, wall of fire
5th Level: baleful polymorph, cloudkill, friend to foe*, host monster, magic jar, symbol of pain, wall of force, wrack*
6th Level: acid fog, circle of death, endless slumber*, eyebite, flesh to stone, heartfreeze*, incendiary cloud, programmed image
7th Level: control weather, forcecage, evil glare*, finger of death, insanity, mass hold person, prismatic spray
8th Level: flensing*, irresistable dance, mass charm, maze, power word (stun), trap the soul, wrathful castigation*
9th Level: dominate monster, imprisonment, mass hold monster, reality maelstrom*, wail of the banshee
* - Non-PHB spells

Patron's Blessing: At 2nd level, the character makes a pact with a specific patron from the Cerulean Void, pledging alleigance to it and serving as a one of his chosen. Available patron lords are enigmatic entities that hold little interest in the realm of mortals, so rarely demanding anything from their chosen, seeming satisfied with flattery and a simple vow to prove their pledge.

The vow associated with the patron is simply a show of loyalty, and rarely has anything specific to the patron's vested interests. It is a taboo of behavior that the character must adhere in order to access his patron's blessing ability. Failure to follow the vow results in the character's inability to gain their patron's blessing for minimum of 24 hours, followed by an hour of prayer and supplication to appease their patron lord. Available taboos include, but are not limited to...
* Cannot eat meat
* Cannot own more than he can carry
* Must make a daily offering (such as food, flowers, or incense)
* Cannot bathe
* Cannot cut her hair
* Cannot touch a dead body
* Cannot drink alcohol
* Cannot wear a certain color
* Cannot light a fire
* Cannot sit facing in a certain direction

The patron's blessing can be called upon once per day, as a swift action. The character can call for an additional blessing per day every three additional class levels (2/day at 5th level, 3/day at 8th level, etc).

The exact benefits vary with the patron lord chosen, and all bonuses are sacred bonuses.
* Lesuxie: Similar in many ways to an ooze, but made out of flower nectar, Lesuxie holds a deep seated hatred for writing. The pact maker must not hold book nor scroll in hand while invoking Lesuxie's blessing.
...Blessing: +2 to save DCs of spells cast, +(Cha mod) to spell penetration, & gain arcane blast ability for (Cha mod) rounds
...Arcane Blast (Su): Close range, ranged touch attack, 1d6 force damage per caster level
* An'am'il: One of the more powerful entities, An'am'il is a true shapeshifter, taking the form of a nondescript member of one of the local sentient races. The one constant is that An'am'il's true goal is to dig. Calling upon a blessing from An'am'il requires there to be a dug hole within sight of the pact maker. While a dug hole that has a layer of stone does not count (such as a well), a wound on the pact maker that has been picked at does, as does a handful of upturned soil or debris.
...Blessing: +(Cha mod) to attack & damage for 3+(Cha mod) rounds
* Lekarn: Lekarn is a sentient wall made of stretched and tanned leather of such great size and peculiar geometry, that the sun rises on both sides of it at the same time. The shadow on one side promotes the growth of plant life it touches, the other impedes. It is this duality that must be acknowledged in order to receive Lekarn's blessing, by their either being two light sources of similar intensity nearby, or by the pact maker holding two plants of the same species yet opposite states of life (alive or freshly cut vs dead or crushed).
...Blessing: +(Cha mod) to AC, saves, & 5*(Cha mod) temp HP for 3+(Cha mod) rounds
* Dotorga: Similar in nature to an earth elemental, one part of Dotorga is constantly being carved into the shape of a new face as if by an invisible stone carver with supernatural speed. It never gets smaller and leaves a trail of rock dust wherever it goes. Dotorga holds immense respect for the ability to imbibe (taverns are considered an arena), and will not respond to a request for its blessing if the pact maker holds a broken drinking vessel.
...Blessing: Gain an additional move action each round for 3+(Cha mod) rounds
* Salonc'ii: As a golden sphere of invulnerability, it constantly travels so that it can witness one thing become two or more. As equally fascinated by childbirth, woodcutting, or parsing, it will never respond to a request for its blessing if the pact maker has an adhesive in hand; which includes glue, webbing, or tanglefoot bags (in their container or exposed on the hand).
...Blessing: Under the effects of sanctuary & gain SR (5 + Caster Level + Cha mod) for 3+(Cha mod) rounds.

Bonus Feat: Gained initially at 3rd level, and every 4 levels after that (7th, 11th, 15th, 19th), a bonus feat for the character. These bonus feats must be drawn from the feats noted as fighter bonus feats. A pact maker must still meet all prerequisites for a bonus feat, including ability score and base attack bonus minimums.

Mastery: At 1st level, and every four levels afterwards (5th, 9th, 13th, 17th), the pact maker gains a bonus metamagic feat from the list below.
* Empower Spell, Enlarge Spell, Energy Substitution, Extend Spell, Explosive Spell, Heighten Spell, Maximize Spell, Sudden Empower, Sudden Enlarge, Sudden Extend, Sudden Maximize, Sudden Quicken, Sudden Silent, Sudden Still, Sudden Widen, Quicken Spell, Silent Spell, Still Spell, Transdimensional Spell, Widen Spell
The pact maker must still meet all prerequisites for the bonus metamagic feat.

Trackless Step: Starting at 4th level, a pact maker leaves no trail in natural surroundings and cannot be tracked. The pact maker has become something that the land no longer recognizes, and cannot deactivate this ability.

Imbued Resilience (Intellect Fortress): Available at 3rd level, and must be wearing a specially prepared set of masterwork (or better) armor, requiring 100gp of materials and an hour-long ritual to attune the character to the specific set of armor. At a later point in time, the character can choose to no longer be attuned to the armor and go through the ritual again with a different set.

Once attuned to the armor, the character can activate its ability as a full-round action while wearing the armor. Once activated, its protection lasts for 24 hours or taken off (whichever comes first). The effect must expire before it can be reactivated.

For as long as the ability is active, the character is protected from attempts at mental control as if under the effects of a protection from law spell (with no other benefit as would be expected with the spell).

Imbued Resilience (Elemental Mastery): Gained at level 5, while under the effects of Imbued Resilience (Intellect Fortress), the character is bestowed energy resistance 10 against all energy types.

Forsaken Footsteps: Starting at 7th level, the pact maker is no longer impeded by natural terrain or undergrowth. The ground could be sandy, muddy, swampy, filled with natural thorns/briars and other overgrown elements; but the pact maker moves at normal speed and without other impairment. Areas that have been magically manipulated to impede motion (including, but not limited to entangle, rock to mud, etc) still affect him.

Imbued Resilience (Mortal's Supremacy): Available at 8th level, while under the effects of Imbued Resilience (Intellect Fortress), the character is also warded against bodily contact from summoned creatures (as per protection from law).

Water Walking (Sp): Starting at level 10, the character can cast water walk (as the spell) 3/day.

Imbued Resilience (Elemental Dominion): Gained at level 11, while under the effects of Imbued Resilience (Intellect Fortress), the the character is bestowed energy resistance 10 against all energy types. This replaces the Imbued Resilience (Elemental Mastery) ability.

Dual Patron: Gained at level 11, the character is able to perform the rights with sufficient eloquence to be able to gain the blessing of a second patron lord. Choose one additional patron lord. When patron's blessing is activated, both benefits are imparted to the character.

Arcanist's Bane: Gained at 13th level, takes a full-round action to activate. Imbues a weapon with a single use of greater dispel magic (targetted version only), that is cast upon the first entity struck by the weapon. Caster level is equal to class level.

Air Walk (Sp): Gained at 14th level, the character can cast air walk (as the spell) 3/day.

Dimension Stride (Sp): Gained at 17th level, the character can cast quickened dimension door (as the spell) 3/day.

Say you're a sorcerer with two-weapon fighting and the abyssal bloodline. Can you dual-wield and attack with your weapons, then use a free action to drop your weapons and attack with your claws as secondary natural attacks in your routine (four attacks)?

What if you have Oversized Two-Weapon Fighting, two-hand your first attack, left one hand go to off-hand with it for your second attack, then drop the weapon to continue attacking with your two claws?

While we're at it, replace this sorcerer with a thri-kreen. With Oversized TWF, can the thri-kreen dual-wield longswords with two hands on each to keep the x1.5 strength modifier while still running with only -2/-2? Or to combine the above, dual attack with the two longswords, release a hand on each to get two one-handed off-hand sword swings, and drop them both for four claw attacks.

Because of how natural attacks mix with normal weapons, does the Two-Weapon Fighting feat at all interact with someone with both a slam attack and a wielded one-handed weapon?

I was looking at this magic item that was included in the Council of Dust issue, and I had a question concerning one of the paragraphs.

"This spell can only be reproduced while the kite is flying, a process that takes 1 minute to achieve."

Does this mean that the burning hands ability the item grants effectively has a one minute cast time, or is the minute of flight a preparation, and once it's at that state it can fire off all three of its charges in 3 successive rounds?

Does such exist in the current Pathfinder setup? Even if you ignore the priorly extant boot knives and extra limbs (such as gaining a tail or bite attack), you can still wield three weapons through a weapon in each hand and armor spikes; or even four if you have Improved Unarmed Attack as well.

Amulet of Mighty Fists (Throwing)

I think you see what I'm getting at here. Do you need the Returning quality?

Am I to assume that it takes a standard action to initiate the aura, which lasts until you decide it should be over? Or is it on whenever? This is rather important for a first round action queue for a cleric that may or may not also whip out Holy Word or something after some of the party is hit with a fear effect.

Question on this feat.

The way it's worded, the doubling of damage specifically states Strength, weapon properties (such as flaming), and precision damage (such as sneak attack) being exempt. Does this mean that Weapon Specialization, the class bonus given by the Ranger/Fighter, the basic weapon enhancement bonus (the +1 part), and similar, will continue to get doubled?

Phenyekashi, Plucker of Wings, Destroyer of Second Chances
Bone Devil Cleric of Irori 7
What if I meet an Enlightened One?
Kill him.
What is an Enlightened One?
Seven chain links, an unused spear, a child.
Years ago, Phenyekashi consumed an ascetic priest of Irori that continued chanting his god's full name and select excerpts from the Unbinding of Fetters. Something remained, and Phenyekashi began to view its own acts of physical and mental evil as fetters.
Description: As fearsome of a bone devil as one would ever see, every bone outlined. The stench of decay that follows its kind remains, but warmer and drier, like not-quite-dry dung. It sits in a lotus position, holding a set of prayer beads that slowly rotate in time with telepathic chanting, filling the minds of any within 100'. The mouth opens rarely, its physical voice short and rasping and always on the subject of enlightenment.
Motivations/Goals: Introspection is its first and primary goal, attaining a greater spiritual purity the likes of which have never been seen amongst its kind. It has eschewed base acts of evil, instead meditating and performing penance, while its spiritual evil grows. Its presence and chanting causes nearby life to slowly corrupt, though it is at best only peripherally aware of this effect, having forsaken desire or pleasure for corruption.
Schemes/Plots: Part of its meditation is watching the world decay, making it reluctant to leave an area that retains innocence. Once an area is sufficiently degraded, it moves again, wherever fate decrees it must go. Those corrupted are influenced by its discarded desire, becoming quicker to anger, more depraved. Many follow Phenyekashi out of an instinctual understanding that it's the source of their power.
Adventure Hooks
* Celestials from Nirvana are sent to watch Phenyekashi, an example of evil changing its ways. Its spiritual corruption has caused their fall. Now believing it to pure and innocent, they purge the land of any traces of evil, so as to remove distraction and temptation.
* During a period of self-flagellation, Phenyekashi saves many people from a burning building, which explains why it sits unmolested in the town square. Does it might explain the tiefling born to a human family, the declining crops, or the ?
* Sufficient research into the Unbinding of Fetters reveals that those who perform sufficient penance and meditation in one lifetime will be granted a boon from Irori himself in the form of a godly miracle, the power of which can cause great devastation if this is Phenyekashi's true goal.

Key of Closed Doors
Aura moderate conjuration; CL 7th
Slot - ; Price 7,000 gp; Weight 1/2 lb.
Description
A wrought-iron key with the image of a closed eye engraved on the handle. With a command word and placed in an area no greater than 12' in any dimension, an upright door is created to fill the space. The door attaches and hinges itself to the opening.

The key creates a strong wooden, iron-barred, non-magically locked (DC 25) and arcane locked door. The lock is tied to the key that created the door. The door created is an actual item and cannot be dispelled. The key can create one door per day.

In addition, the key casts open/close (close option only) upon anything it touches.
Construction
Requirements Craft Wondrous item, secure shelter, open/close; Cost 3,500gp

Does anyone happen to know what's happened to The Gaming Den? I've tried to go the forum for the past few days, and the internet seems to have decided it doesn't exist.

In the proficiency list, last I checked, monks were not actually proficient with unarmed attacks. The bonus feat, Improved Unarmed Strike, does not grant proficiency inherently.

Please add proficiency attainment in either one of these locations, so that RAW monks don't suffer an automatic -4 to all attacks.

This was originally made public by the creation of the hulking hurler, but can exist due to the current rules for falling objects. That problem is the fact that carrying capacity from strength is logarithmic, while damage due to weight is linear.

As of right now, damage due to falling objects are based purely off of weight, which means a block of steel does more damage than an equal size block of cork. Logically, this makes sense. However, for it to be purely linear allows those of high strength to perform acts of damage where 'escalating' is simply insufficient terminology.

So, basically, it should not be +1d6 per +200lbs of weight. This allows rocs to do more damage dropping boulders than is considered sane. Just taking an off-the-cuff number, it should be +1d6 damage for every doubling of weight past 200lbs.

I can go into more detail, but if you've ever been in a game where people drop things onto people, you'll see the problem very quickly unless you houseruled it.

And in case you take the falling rules damage cap, that 20d6 limit is only for the falling part of the damage, the weight contribution doesn't have such a cap.

I'm really, really confused by the Lady of Graves. If a priest of Pharasma chooses the Death Domain, they gain undead creating powers, and yet the goddess is apparently very anti-undead.

This has been a facet of 3.0 since it came out, and while it is rarely even made aware of, it exists as something that is houseruled universally.

Monks do not have proficiency with unarmed strikes. An unarmed strike is a simple weapon, and monks don't get a hand-waved proficiency list, rather a select list that happens to not include unarmed strike. Improved Unarmed Strike does not actually grant proficiency, but makes you count as armed for purposes of AoOs and can choose between lethal and nonlethal without penalty.

Considering how the game expects monks to work, I suspect this is a rather important rule that's obviously an oversight, of which repair is a simple addition of ", unarmed strike, " to the proficiency list text.

Monks are support and mobility combatants, generally speaking, useful in moving around the battlefield to assist with problems. In this regard, they gain a number of abilities that allow them to work without the aid of others, which many of the other, straight fighter classes, lack to one degree or another.

Telling me that this is just a band aid, without any playtesting, because they do not get a full BAB, is not very helpful to my development.

This is something to keep in mind in terms of goals to shoot for. And, of course, I'll be playtesting this class rather than making assumptions. We're shooting for a 50% (+/- 10%) success rate on average, and significant variance past this range is a sign of either too much power or too little. My method will involve three trials per challenge, and the environment will tend towards the creature's natural habitat or a dungeon room if no such location is given. Because of the monk's sneak bonus, he will generally get to pick the vector of engagement, which gives him an advantage.

As a reminder, I would prefer we not have this thread filled with the same arguments towards the validity of this playtest style. It has been argued ad nauseum, and sufficient numbers have become entrenched in their opinion to the point that further discussion borders on beligerence.

Robert Greyfriar the Half-orc Monk - Level 5
Stats (High Fantasy): Str 20, Dex 14, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 16, Cha 7

Skills: Acrobatics, Climb, Perception, Stealth

Feats: Deflect Arrows, Weapon Focus (unarmed), Toughness, Dodge, Improved Grapple

Equipment: Belt of Strength +2, Bracers of Armor +1, Boots of Elvenkind (+5 sneak), Cloak of Resistance +1, 3 potions of lesser vigor, Climbing Kit, Quarterstaff, Sling w/bullets, Shurikens, Troll killing equipment

Challenges
* Huge animated iron statue: We have two options here, neither work. Ranged is just not an option due to a lack of damage output (and only a 10' superiority in speed). Melee is a slaughterfest. The best our monk has to hope for is the ability to run away with his stealth, which is still a loss. 0/3 here.

* Basilisk: First fight, he dies in the second round because of the gaze, and a 35% fail rate is just too high a risk, so we're going to fighting blind from here on. The next two fights are grueling, filled with blood and tears on both sides, but the monk manages to take out the basilisk by the skin of his teeth. 2/3 is the score for this challenge.

* Large Fire Elemental: Like McNinja Senior, the elemental realizes that ninjas such as Robert won't try to punch or grapple when it's on fire. This cuts down our damage and attack bonus. I don't even need to bother here, the monk's fighting a foe with a better AC, attack bonus routine, and damage; and this is before factoring the noticeable chance of the monk being set on fire or the noticeable DR. We've got an anti-hat trick going on. 0/3

* Manticore on the wing: We don't have trees of note, so Bobby's going to jump for the nearest deep bog, go total defense, and shout out disparages concerning the flying manticore's heritage until it runs out of spikey doom. However, despite only getting hit twice (on average), this proved to be enough of a lead all three times for the manticore to rip the monk to shreds. On closer inspection, the spikes weren't even necessary for the manticore to win. It just plain did more damage and has half again the monk's health. 0/3.

* Mummy: As soon as combat begins, our monk falls to the mummy's despair and then gets his neck snapped. On the third fight, he's only out for a round, which doesn't give our mummy time to get over and perform the coup de grace. It does, however, give our little monk time to contemplate the horror he's facing and still fails. 0/3.

* Phase Spider: This creature's fighting style eliminates what little advantage could be had with flurry of blows due to the requisite readied action, and the poison is a noticeable danger. Fortunately, the phase spider's attack bonus against a non-flat-footed target is subpar, and thus can't keep up with even the monk's single attack. The third fight resulted in our monk failing the first two bites (and scratching the spider), and sufficient poison damage was dealt to take him down. 2/3.

* Troll: Regeneration makes ranged combat a non-option for Robert Greyfriar, but at least he has the mobility and stealth to open up with a divebomb attack. While it would be cool to bull rush him into a chasm, or do anything involving a combat maneuver, it's bonus makes it so our monk needs a natural 19+ for anything to happen. Our fight opens with a banzai shouting monk that punches the troll in the face and then opens with three more punches before it gets to go. A comic whimper is given by Robert when the troll finally turns around and grins down at the little half-orc, and tears him limb-from-limb in that first round. This happens a second time, and the third fight our monk got to spit up blood and cry for mercy before going down on round two. Our most painful 0/3 yet.

* A chasm: About bloody time something goes our way. Our monk can jump across if it's 35' across or less without even rolling. 3/3, huzzah!

* A moat filled with acid: Much like the chasm. I sincerely doubt we're going to be seeing a 50' wide moat, so this is yet another 3/3 for Robert. It feels like his loyalty to this class is finally coming through.

* A locked door behind a number of pit traps: So far, it seems that the only real challenge that our monk can handle is a hole in the ground. He gets past the pit traps without comment, either being too shallow or not doing enough damage to matter where he can then climb out readily. The door however, proves to be the biggest hurdle. He does enough damage with his staff to actually harm it 50% of the time. So it only takes about a minute of wailing on the lock with a stick to get it open. Rather loud, but technically a victory for 3/3.

* Pit filled with medium monstrous scorpions: Our monk only failed the check against falling in once, which did result in a most horrifically violent death. The other two times, he walked around it. 2/3.

* Centaur archer duo in the woods: It would seem that their rank in survival goes towards hunting half-orc monks, which is all that's needed when they go faster, shoot farther, and hit harder. They have the technology, you see, sticks and string. 0/3.

* Howler/Allip tag team: The howler, by itself, can take out the monk. The Allip simply seals the deal and sends the corpse to the madhouse. 0/3.

* Grimlock Assault Team: Both sides are quite stealthy, except for the fact that grimlocks can smell the fact Robert is apparently one of those types of monks that abstains from bathing, and are very much on the alert. The element of surprise lost, he goes in, fists a-flailin'. He suffers a lucky critical and goes down, but the other two times we simply output barely enough damage going full flurry to take them all out. 2/3

Observations
We're only at level 5, and already the monk's barely got a score of 35%. His speed didn't even reach that of a barbarian's until level 3, and all his mobility means nothing when he has to stand still to actually bring his full (& subpar) offense to the table. His defense is mediocre, with an AC noticeably less than any armor wearer (at greater cost), combined with 'meh' hit points. His saves aren't great at any point either; as there's a difference between a great save and a non-crap save.

I don't need to continue for the most part, because the upgrades that have been given to the monk raised his performance by about 10% in the areas I expected it to improve. The performance of the original 3.5 monk were increasingly debilitating as the levels got higher, and the bonuses given have already been shown to be insufficient at level 5, and they certainly aren't getting increasingly better to account for the monk's destiny of failure.

The monk doesn't actually get proficiency in unarmed strike (notice his proficiency list). Improved Unarmed Strike doesn't grant proficiency, only negates the AoO and allows for the option for lethal damage. I performed this playtest on the assumption that the text is reworded, but it remains a flaw in the class that needs attention.

Scorpion Style has a conceptual problem, outside of its uselessness in solo. Because it's a full-round action for only one attack, you are sacrificing both your mobility and your damage output in exchange for the monster's mobility. Also, because you are keeping the victim in melee range, this lends itself towards you becoming the tank; of which you are not designed for nor even intended towards (by Jason's stated goals).

Grapple is a wash in terms of effectiveness. The monk is only marginally better at the best of times (so far), and he still gets just as stabbed in the face as before. Because it's a standard action to perform, this is visibly worse as a combat tactic than flurry of blows, except as a delaying maneuver. Delaying a monster by hugging its teeth is about as bad as the Scorpion Style, an obvious tanking maneuver for something that's explicitly not a tank.

Jump doesn't get a bonus from faster-than-normal speed anymore, I noticed. Was this intentional? Also, fly is available by level 5 to spellcasters; and this isn't even counting levitate two levels earlier. Even with High Jump and max ranks, our monk isn't even getting 15' off the ground until level 10 or so (we better hope that ceiling's only 25' high).

Ever see some fantasy movie where a spellcaster unleashes a wave of magic, then just focuses it on his victim for a significant amount of time, eventually releasing the energies and letting its effect take hold? Sometimes it's a line of energy, cascading and eventually wiping them away. Other times its some kind of transformation or mind control where the victim struggles and fights back, occasionally showing glimpses of losing control (minor shift of the ears if it's a transmuting spell). And of course, if there's a spellcaster involved, they throw their own magic back and we have eldritch energies weaving back and forth.

Well, that's not available in the epic fantasy that is D&D, so I'm going to attempt to fix this.

Grappling Spells
Repeatedly in a spellcasting grapple, you need to make opposed checks against an opponent. Your bonus is:
Ensorcel Modifier: Caster level + Spellcasting Ability Modifier + Queue's Spell Level (0 if not present)

Starting a Spell Grapple
To start a grapple, you need to apply your Ensorcel Modifier and hold your target. Starting a spell grapple requires successfully casting a spell upon your target. You may only use a spell that requires a saving throw.
* Step 1 (Grab): You make an opposed spell grapple check. Your opponent may choose to resist with their normal grapple modifier rather than their Ensorcel Modifier.

If you succeed, you and your target are now grappling.

If you lose, you fail to start the grapple. You automatically lose the spell cast to start the grapple. Unlike normal grappling, you may attempt to hold if the target is two or more size categories larger than you are.

In case of a tie, the combatant with the higher modifier wins. If this is a tie, roll again to break the tie.

Queue: The spell used to initiate a spell grapple, or brought into the grapple. You gain a bonus to your Ensorcel modifier equal to the spell's spell level while it is in Queue. Each combatant involved in a spell grapple may have one Queue spell.

Spell Grappling Consequences
While you're grappling, your ability to attack others and dend yourself is limited.
No Threatened Squares: You don't threaten any squares while spell grappling.
No Dexterity Bonus: You lose your Dexterity bonus to AC (if you have one) against opponents you aren't grappling. (You can still use it against opponents you are grappling.)
No Movement: You can't move normally while grappling. You may, however, move at half speed after a successful spell grapple check.

If You're Spell Grappling
When you are spell grappling (regardless of who started the grapple), you can perform any of the following actions. Some of these actions take the place of an attack (rather than being a standard action or a move action). Unless stated otherwise (such as Escape), you use your Ensorcel modifier while your opponent resists with either their Ensorcel modifier or their normal grapple modifier.

Range and Line of Sight: If Line of Sight is broken between those involved in a spell grapple, or if all spells in Queue are outside of their range, then the spell grapple is broken and the spells in Queue are lost.

Move: You can move half your speed by winning an opposed spell grapple check. This can break range or LoS.

Cast a Spell: You can attempt to cast a spell while spell grappling, provided its casting time is no more than a standard action and you can use it to start a spell grapple. This includes any spells activated from a magic item.

You cannot Wither or Telos your opponent unless you cast a spell, in which case the two actions are combined into one standard action (no need to go through starting the spell grapple).

If you cast a spell, then that spell becomes the one in Queue. If you already had a spell in Queue, then the older spell is lost without effect and then replaced by the new Queue.

Wither Your Opponent: While spell grappling, you can reduce your opponent's ability to make saving throw against the spell that initiated the spell grapple. Make an opposed Ensorcel check. If you win, then your opponent has a -1 penalty to their saving throw against any spell they're subject to in Telos or Reverse Telos. This penalty is cumulative, and is removed if the spell grapple ever ends.

Telos: While spell grappling, you may make an opposed spell grapple check. If you win, your opponent makes a saving throw against the spell in your Queue. If you lose, or if your opponent makes their saving throw, then nothing happens but the spell grapple is maintained.

Escape: Make an opposed spell grapple check using either your Ensorcel Modifier or your regular grapple modifier. If you win, then the spell grapple is ended and any spells in Queue are lost without effect.

Reverse Telos: Make an opposed spell grapple check. If you win, then you force the effects of Telos with your opponent's spell in Queue.

This is not my creation, but something created by dedicated and insightful people, where more of their work can be found HERE. This is a properly balanced barbarian, and something that can actually stand on its own with the likes of wizards, clerics, and dual-acid-flask rogues.

Barbarian
"My name is Sharptooth of the Wolf Tribe. Your women, lands, and riches are mine."
Playing a Barbarian: Playing a Barbarian is actually very easy. In general, you hit things, and they fall down. A Barbarian's action in almost any circumstance can plausibly be "I hit it with my great axe!" As such, a Barbarian character can be a good method to introduce a new player to the game or kill some orcs when you've had a few glasses of brew.
Alignment: Every alignment has its share of Barbarians, however more Barbarians are of Chaotic alignment than of Lawful Alignment.
Races: Anybody can become a barbarian, and in areas with little in the way of civilization, a lot of people do.
Starting Gold: 4d6x10 gp (140 gold)
Starting Age: As Barbarian.
Hit Die: d12
Class Skills: The Barbarian’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Hide (Dex), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge: Nature (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), Survival (Wis), and Swim (Str).
Skills/Level: 4 + Intelligence Bonus
BAB: Good (1/1)
Saves: Fort: Good; Reflex: Poor; Will: Poor

Level, Benefit
1 Rage, Fast Healing 1
2 Rage Dice +1d6, Combat Movement +5’
3 Battle Hardened
4 Rage Dice +2d6, Combat Movement +10’
5 Sidestep Hazards , Fast Healing 5
6 Rage Dice +3d6, Combat Movement +15’
7 Great Blows
8 Rage Dice +4d6, Combat Movement +20’
9 Great Life
10 Rage Dice +5d6, Combat Movement +25’, Fast Healing 10
11 Call the Horde
12 Rage Dice +6d6, Combat Movement +30’
13 Watched by Totems
14 Rage Dice +7d6, Combat Movement +35’
15 Primal Assault, Fast Healing 15
16 Rage Dice +8d6, Combat Movement +40’
17 Savagery
18 Rage Dice +9d6, Combat Movement +45’
19 One With The Beast
20 Rage Dice +10d6, Combat Movement +50’, Fast Healing 20

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Barbarians are proficient with simple weapons, martial weapons, light armor, medium armor and with shields.

Rage (Ex): When doing melee damage to a foe or being struck by a foe, a Barbarian may choose to enter a Rage as an immediate action. While Raging, a Barbarian gains a +2 morale bonus to hit and damage in melee combat and may apply any Rage Dice he has to his melee damage rolls. He also gains a +2 to saves, a -2 to AC, and he gains DR X/- with “X” being equal to half his Barbarian level +2 (rounded down). For example, a 1st level Barbarian has DR 2/- while Raging and a 10th level Barbarian has DR 7/- while Raging.
While Raging, a Barbarian may not cast spells, activate magic items, use spell-like abilities, or drop his weapons or shield. Rage lasts until he has neither struck an enemy for three consecutive rounds nor suffered damage from an enemy for three consecutive rounds. He may voluntarily end a Rage as a full-round action.

Fast Healing: Barbarians shrug off wounds that would cripple a lesser man, and have learned to draw upon deep reserves of energy and stamina. At 1st level, they gain Fast Healing 1. At 5th level this becomes Fast Healing 5, Fast Healing 10 at 10th level, Fast Healing 15 at 15th level, and Fast Healing 20 at 20th level. This healing only applies while he is not raging.

If a Barbarian ever multi-classes, he permanently loses this ability. A multiclass character does not gain this ability. A character with 4 or more levels of Barbarian gains this ability even if multiclassed.

Rage Dice: While Raging, a Barbarian may add these dice of damage to each of his melee attacks. These dice are not multiplied by damage multipliers, and are not applied to any bonus attacks beyond those granted by Base Attack Bonus. These dice are not sneak attack dice, and do not count as sneak attack dice for the prerequisites of prestige classes or feats.

Combat Movement: While Raging, a Barbarian moves faster in combat, and may add his Combat Movement to his speed when he takes a move action to move.

Battle Hardened: At 3rd level, a Raging Barbarian’s mind has been closed off from distractions by the depths of his bloodlust and battle fury. While Raging, he may use his Fortitude Save in place of his Will Save. If he is under the effects of a compulsion or fear effect, he may act normally while Raging as if he was inside a protection from evil effect.

Sidestep Hazards(Ex): At 5th level, a Raging Barbarian learns to sidestep hazards with an intuitive and primal danger sense. While Raging, he may use his Fortitude Save in place of his Reflex Save.

Great Blows (Ex): At 7th level, a Raging Barbarian’s melee attacks are Great Blows. Any enemy struck by the Barbarian’s melee or thrown weapon attacks must make a Fort Save or be stunned for one round. No enemy can be targeted by this ability more than once a round, and the save DC for this ability is 10 + half the Barbarian’s HD + his Constitution modifier.

Great Life (Ex): While Raging, a 9th level Barbarian is immune to nonlethal damage, death effects, stunning, critical hits, negative levels, and ability damage (but not ability drain).

Call the Horde(Ex): An 11th level Barbarian becomes a hero of his people. He gains the Leadership feat as a bonus feat, but his followers must be Barbarians. In campaigns that do not use Leadership feats, he instead gains a +2 unnamed bonus to all saves.

Watched by Totems (Ex): At 13th level, a Barbarian may immediately reroll any failed save. He may do this no more than once per failed save.

Primal Assault (Ex): At 15th level, a Raging Barbarian’s may choose to radiate an effect similar to an antimagic field when he enters a Rage, with a caster level equal to his HD. Unlike a normal antimagic field, this effect does not suppress magic effects on him or the effects of magic items he is wearing or holding.

Savagery (Ex): At 17th level, a Raging Barbarian may take a full round action to make a normal melee attack that has an additional effect similar to a mordenkainen’s disjunction. Unlike a normal Imordenkainen’s disjunction, this effect only targets a single item or creature struck.

One With The Beast: At 19th level, a Barbarian may no longer needs to be in a Rage to use any Barbarian ability.

Now that there has been a rogue and a fighter playtest done, let's move on towards one of the big guys, the wizard.

Halfling Generalist Wizard - Level 15
Stats (32 point-buy): Str 6, Dex 18, Con 18, Int 28, Wis 14, Cha 8
Feats: Improved Initiative, Empower Spell, Extend Spell, Greater Spell Penetration, Quicken Spell, Scribe Scroll, Spell Penetration, Sudden Maximize, Sudden Widen, Toughness, and another two
Skills: Spellcraft, Craft (Trapmaking), Knowledge (Arcana, Dungeoneering, Nature, Planes, Religion)
Equipment: Heward's Handy Haversack, Spellbook filled with secret page, Headband of Vast Intelligence (Appraise, Craft - Alchemy, Fly) +6, Cloak of Resistance +6, Belt of Dexterity/Constitution +4, 45 colossal crossbow bolts with extended greater magic weapon cast the day prior, +2 Twilight Mithral Chain Shirt, Ring of Protection +2, Ring of Featherfall, Amulet of Natural Armor +2, +3 Mithral Buckler, Lesser Rod of Quicken

* Marut: An incredibly easy fight, as the wizard goes first every time and fires off a maximized disintegrate and a quickened disintegrate (first from Sudden, second from class ability), not even letting the marut go from the damage.

* Yakfolk Cleric + Dao Party: Knowing the power of the wish engine, the wizard opens with a maximized empowered chain lightning on the cleric. As a side-effect, most of the dao are killed, and are readily handled with a quickened chain lightning. Once again, they never get to go.

* Warparty of Cloud Giants: Our wizard opens with a quickened mirror image and a widened glitterdust. One is horrifically killed through a readied prismatic wall, another through a high-damage trap made with major creation. Quite a few resources are used up, but he manages to persevere each time.

* Rube Golderg's Weird & Symbols of Pain on an artifact: Detect Magic shows major mojo, forcing our fearless arcanist to attempt a greater dispel, followed by just walking up to artifact with an antimagic field.

* Gelugon and Iron Golem Bodyguard: Not wanting to be nice, we open up with banishment & quickened acid fog. Only the first fight gave the gelugon a chance to teleport out in melee, but did a pirouette for 8 rounds. The golem was readily handled by waiting for it to escape the acid fog while a summoned monster and a painful trap wait for it.

* Cornugon: The first fight is painful because both spells fizzle against its SR, at which point it charges and stuns and fears and enjoys a fine halfling meal. The second fight goes much the same way because it wins initiative. The third fight finally goes right, and the cornugon is banished.

* Death Slaad riding a Titanic Toad: The wizard was lucky and won initiative twice, banishing the slaad and doing cleanup work on the nonflying toad. Things were a touch more dicey on the third fight, where he got smacked with a power word blind and then implosion while attempting to recover.

* Mature Adult White Dragon: The first fight looks good when the wizard teleports over and casts a quickened extended irresistable dance. The second and third fight look fairly harrowing when the dragon rolls well on initiative, giving it the chance to bite and snatch the halfling. However, grappling doesn't prevent spellcasting anymore, so it does the tango anyway.

* Pair of Glabrezu: We try hard here to use banishment, which works as long as you throw in a quickened one for the first round. However, on the third fight, one stayed standing through both and used power word stun. It then summons a vrock and the two rip the wizard to shreds before he can act.

* Harem of Succubi: Our first fight does not go down well, because the wizard buckles under pressure and rolls a one on the very first charm monster. A quickened widened empowered maximized fireball (boy is that a mouthful) manages to overcome this incredibly sexy challenge the next two times, however. Also, I'm noticing that the double entendres are rather thick today.

* Twenty Dire Bears: He can fly, they can't. He can make large walls of stone to pen them in and fill it with cloudkills and acid fogs, and they can't.

* Dozen medusa mounted archers on hellcats: First fight, he gets stoned. Second fight, he unloads a handy quickened widened maximized empowered fireball. Third fight, he survives being petrified, but gets mauled unto death by a lot of pouncing hellcats.

* Forest made of lava and infested with hostile fire-element dire badgers: Wow, this is easy, what with teleport as a spell-like ability.

* Pair of Beholders: A very bad fight for the wizard because of the antimagic cone, especially since his little legs make it difficult to get out. Wins through dumb luck and two castings of telekinesis on the second fight.

* Slaughterstone Behemoth: Painful fight here due to limited movement options in a cave. The wizard actually loses initiative the first two times, and goes down painfully. The third fight goes better with a readied prismatic wall.

Score: 80% success rate. Several of these fights would've gone differently had it not been for the metamagic ability of the generalist, which would bring score to a bit less than 70%, and might've gone down another 5% if we didn't have the versatility of the bonded item and limited wish 1/day.

One important thing to keep in mind is that our wizard loses those significant advantages after the first encounter, dropping to a level roughly equivalent to the rogue.

I was looking around, and I noticed that alot of playtest threads are on the General Discussion thread. Did I put the Fighter and Barbarianresults in the wrong place by sending them to the Races/Class subforum?

I had considered going alphabetical, but that would mean I playtest the cleric next. The cleric hasn't seen much change in power compared to the original one, and that class is balanced for the most part (if a bit on powerful side). I was thinking of trying to test a TN necromancer, but not until the death domain ability is fixed, there's not much point.

We've already seen how a rogue fares, a touch on the powerful side, but only a touch and after particular maximization. Here's to seeing if the fighter fares as well at level 15.

A couple notes. Cleave is useless once you can attack more than once per round, and Great Cleave is about the same level of use (yes, that's a very backhanded opinion).

Dwarven Fighter Playtest - Level 15
Stats (32 point-buy): Str 24, Dex 18, Con 20, Int 14, Wis 16, Cha 6

Feats: Backswing, Careful Targetting, Combat Expertise, Deadly Aim, Devastating Strike, Exact Targetting, Greater Weapon Focus, Greater Weapon Specialization, Improved Critical, Monkey Grip, Overhand Chop, Pinpoint Targetting, Power Attack, Toughness, Weapon Focus, Weapon Specialization

Skills: Intimidate, Perception (cc), Ride, Survival

Equipment: Belt of Str/Dex/Con +6/+4/+4, +1 ghost touch mithral full plate of moderate fortification, Cloak of Resistance +6, +1 cold iron scythe, composite longbow w/25 +1 arrows & 200 nonmagical arrows, Ring of Protection +2, +1 Heavy Wooden Shield, Potion of Air Walk x3, Potion of Haste x3, Potion of Enlarge Person (CL 10) x3

* Marut: While there are spells that allow you to overcome construct immunity, it's only for sneak attacks, meaning our fighter is going to have to try to barrel through. He can't run away to try ranged (d-door at will), but he'll at least move away to try and quaff a haste potion for the first round. The fast healing and DR make it so he can barely do damage, all the while suffering blindness and being hit by a freight train. Loses all three times.

* Yakfolk Cleric + Dao: Much like the rogue, it's all over if he goes after the dao first with the wall of force closing him off & poison gas killing him off. Unlike the rogue, he can't get out of a wall of stone after killing the cleric; except through violence. He can only bash down 4 inches per round, against the dao's combined 16 inch thick layer every round.

* Warparty of Cloud Giants: First fight, I try melee, and charge with Devastating Strike and Power Attack. While I do well with damage, it's actually not enough to take it down (damn close). They then proceed to rip him limb-from-limb. Other tactics are tried, but they output a combined attack power that is just too much for him to beat. Loses all three times.

* Mature Adult White Dragon: Dragons have what some call the (Awesome) subtype, and are actually tougher than what their CR indicates, which is why he's fighting a CR 12; because it's true power is actually CR 15. The first fight was a censored bar of gore (all hit, two crits) when the dragon witlessly tried to get in melee with the fighter. The second fight involved the dragon going invisible and moving away and doing some buffing, and opens with a full attack while surviving the received full attack and finishing him off the next round. The third fight is the same result. 1 out of 3.

* Death Slaad riding a Titanic Toad: Our poor little fighter is blinded every time for a noticeable amount of time. Every fight, he flails blindly in the air while getting pounded on by the frog and the death slaad laughs out of reach and hurls piddly fireballs, unto death. I discover that Power Attack is a joke in this fight, because I take too big of a hit in attack to even bother. I even assumed the fighter got to start the fight with haste. Three losses.

* Cornugon: Illusions abound at first, giving the cornugon a chance to get within 25' and open up outside of his 5' step reach. He's just barely able killed the first fight, but the second two fights are painful deaths because he failed one of the saves against stun.

* Gelugon and Iron Golem Bodyguard: The first fight is rather pathetic, because he moves to charge the gelugon, does some damage, and then runs in slow motion until killed. The second & third fight is a valiant attempt to stay out of melee, but the gelugon just surrounds himself with ice and gives its side unholy aura, making the terrain such that the fighter goes in melee with a punching golem surrounded by a cone of cold. He fails to overcome this challenge at all.

* Rube Goldberg's Weird & set of Symbols of Pain on the artifact: The pair of symbols of pain fail to do anything, but weird kills him on the first attempt. The second attempt results in him taking sufficient strength damage to stagger beneath the weight of his gear, which he can then just drop the tower shield and walk completely unhindered. The third attempt hurts, but he continues. Two out of three, our best yet.

* Pair of Glabrezu: With chaos hammer and mirror image, he is absolutely unable to do sufficient damage from range to survive, so we have to suck it up and go melee. He gets surrouned by over a dozen glabrezu (of which he misses the real one), gets grappled, and gets pounded to paste; all three times this happened. Never even bother to used power word stun.

* Harem of Succubi: I'm going to assume he has some kind of immunity to charm, because otherwise this fight is over before it begins. It's not so much a harem (16) of succubi, as it is 15 succubi and 4 vrocks (6 on the third fight), because he pretty much kills one succubus while the others attempt to summon help. He ends up having to close his eyes for a real chance to actually hit the vrock, but it's still not enough to survive this abyssal horde. Ultimately loses all three times even after giving the succubi a severe handicap of being unable to use compulsions.

* Twenty Dire Bears: About bloody time he can do something. He has enough arrows for him air walk out of reach and kill them at his leisure. An actual hat trick for the very first time. Just ignore the fact any slob at level 5 and a hippogriff mount can do the very same thing.

* Dozen medusa mounted archers on hellcats: A good idea to get out of reach with his eyes closed until he's 40' or higher in the air (easier to sprint). Fortunately for our fighter friend, his AC is such that they need natural 20s to hit him, and the hellcats can't even reach him. Unfortunately, he can only do this to kill the medusa (invisible hellcats). He attempts to reach the ground using total defense & shield, and dies from the sheer volume of attacks. Triple loss.

* Forest made of lava and infested with hostile fire-element dire badgers: While he can survive for a long period just by drinking his potions of air walk and going over it, the forest needs to be less than 15 miles deep, because otherwise he runs out of potion and dies to the environment. He has Survival maxed out, so we can assume if there is a thin part of the forest that can be trekked through, he finds it. Because this is based on luck and geography on the DM's part, I'll give the fighter a 2 out of 3.

* Pair of Beholders: They both open with fear, slow, & sleep, which takes him out half the time right there, the other half he lives long enough to kill one before being killed by the other. Triple loss.

Notes: The results were pathetic, slightly less than a 20% success rate. His few successes were practically freebies that could be gotten by characters five levels ago (or sooner in the case of the dire bear). This was a build that was heavily focused on making his numbers as big as possible, which not only were insufficient against the opposition, but his versatility was virtually nonexistant and yet wholly reliant upon his gear at the same time. Attempts to spread himself so as to actually have some versatility would make his numbers at any activity too subpar and thus still be unable to overcome enough challenges to make a difference.

Currently, the way the 4th level ability is written, a cleric can make for itself any skeleton/zombie it wants because a base body isn't needed like the animate dead spell. This means you can have a Pseudonatural Paragon Half-fiend Ogre Skeleton at 4th level.

I'll be doing more later today. I'm using a prior poster's proposed method of analysis, where the class analysis is done with them fighting a series of challenges with the EL equal to its level. The ideal we're shooting for is roughly 50%.

Half-Orc Barbarian - level 5
Stats (32 point-buy): Str 20, Dex 14, Con 16, Int 8, Wis 14, Cha 10
Feats: Power Attack, Overhand Chop, Weapon Focus (Greatsword)
Skills: Climb, Intimidate, Perception
Rage Powers: Surprise Accuracy, Intimidating Glare
Equipment: belt of strength +2, +1 breastplate, +1 greatsword, potion of enlarge person, 2 potions of lesser vigor, heavy wooden shield, mighty (+5) composite longbow
Challenges
[u]Huge animated iron statue[/u]: This is not a fight the barbarian can afford to be thrifty with, though we're fortunate that it's AC is so low. For the first three rounds, he uses Surprise Accuracy and Power Attack for booku damage at a near guaranteed hit. Then it was mop-up, though on the second fight I did get crit by one of its slams and had to take a lesser vigor potion before coming out of rage. Overall, the fight took virtually all of the barbarian's rage points, and it still took four rounds. Just to try it out, I experimented on the third fight by not using Surprise Accuracy. I barely made it, but it only took a round longer to actually kill it.
[u]Basilisk[/u]: I'm only failing 10% of the time, so I started off just fighting with my eyes open. I opened with a Power Attack and Surprise Accuracy to make sure I could only miss 20% of the time, and then died to a natural 2 on the second round before I attacked. That was an anomaly, as I then proceeded to kill it the next two times.
[u]Large Fire Elemental[/u]: Damn, this is a close fight, looking at the numbers. However, I got semi-lucky and managed to remain standing by the second round thanks to those virtual HP from raging for two fights, though I just plain lost the second of the three. 2/3 ain't bad, though this was a more struggling fight than the basilisk.
[u]Manticore on the Wing[/u]: I wait to rage until it's within reach, since the barbarian can't fly or reliably shoot ranged. Unfortunately, that magic critical with my bow never appears, and I die a horrific death the first time through. The second go around, I try to hunker behind a shield and wait four rounds, and I still die. I try one more time to wait behind the shield, and survive the thing's barrage, only to die from one round of melee because I was incapable of dealing 57+ damage in that one attack I had available.
[u]Mummy[/u]: First fight brings death. The barbarian gets his revenge in the second fight and kills it back. Unfortunately, this seems to be an alternating pattern, as the barbarian dies horrifically in the third fight.
[u]Phase Spider[/u]: It gets the first bite, but once the barbarian goes on the alert, it dies on the second swing. Even failing against the poison proves to not be enough for the spider. This is a hat trick for the barbarian.
[u]Troll[/u]: The barbarian surprisingly does well here, taking it down and then putting a torch to its face all three times. They deal comparable damage to each other & have identical hit points, but the troll doesn't quite do enough in two rounds to take him down.
[u]Chasm[/u]: Proves to be doable, if a bit time-consuming, since the barbarian is having to do it the old-fashioned way.
[u]Moat filled with acid[/u]: This is really damn embarrasing. I assumed the moat was an almost trivial 10' across, which means I have to roll an 8+ after a running start with Acrobatics (Dex based). I failed to do so three times in a row. I'll give him a pity win to account for the bad luck, which brings it up to 1 out of 4 for this challenge.
[u]Locked Door Several Pit Traps[/u]: He survives the traps, grunts at the lock, and proceeds to smash open the door with 7 rage points and a single attack.
[u]Pit Filled with Medium Monstrous Scorpions[/u]: On the first and second run, the barbarian rolled poorly enough to miss the pit and falls in. Twelve are just too many for him to survive, especially since he's only killing one a round. Now, on the third fight, he sees them and laughs as he fills them full of arrows (like shooting scorpions in a pit?).
[u]Grimlock Assault Team[/u]: Like lambs to the slaughter. These guys just can't do enough damage and die from being breathed on, even though one of them got lucky and crit before going down, which brought our barbarian to the fairly hurt stage (still able to stand without having to drink a potion).

Final Result: At 5th level, he's doing quite well for himself (got a score of 65%), and does almost exactly as well as an optimized paladin (still different in strengths/weaknesses). He effectively blows his entire load in two fights, but that gives him more staying power than the paladin. This is a rather typical build, with simple feats. I would almost venture to say that this is almost too good for this level. Even a relatively minor reduction in the actual numbers would turn a couple of fights from wins to losses because they were so close (the elemental and statue, namely); or even being more frugal with rage points and not using Surprising Accuracy.

One other thing I am somewhat disappointed by, which is the option for Intimidating Glare. It's too expensive to even bother, doubly so with the fights being so short.

Am I misreading the altered blink spell in the document, in that the attacker doesn't count as invisible (thus making all victims flat-footed unless they have see invisible)?