dndculix _'s page

The campaign I'm playing in right now is city-based (Riddleport + home brew) and heavy on intrigue. The mage's guild is trying to control all magic and access to magic, and has a ton of spies, secret agents, public enforcers, and so forth. My character wants to hide a few of his spells from the guild, so that they don't know exactly how powerful he is.

The plan is to use secret page to hide some spells in a book no one would ever look at ("The Dwarfa Sutra"?). But I don't want the guild to know I'm scribing them. These are the steps I've come up with to try and hide my activities. I'm only level 5, so I don't have access to all magic.

So:

1. Can you think of other things I could do to try and hide my scribing? Things you could do as a normal character and/or level 5 wizard.
2. Can you think of higher-level things I could do when I have more money or levels?

For the purposes of this post, assume the mage's guild is an evil, conniving entity with an unlimited budget and many wizards on their side :P

Feel free to be as devious as possible ;) Feedback is welcome.

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1. Call the monk and the paladin up to my room at the inn where we stay. Get the paladin to cast detect evil and I cast detect magic. We look at the room. The paladin can then leave.
2. Cast see invisibility. Look at the room.
3. Along with the monk (who has the highest Perception score), Take 20 on Perception checks to search the room. The room is 16 squares so at 2 min each it should take 32 minutes to search the whole room. See invisibility will still be on. The DC to notice hidden divination sensors: 20 + spell level, so 29 max.
4. Thank the monk, and he leaves. My character closes and locks the door.
5. I stuff a bunch of blankets and sheets around the bottom of the door to stop physical things from walking in.
6. Cast nondetection on myself.
7. Cast alarm on the room with an audible warning, so people can hear it outside.
8. Take 5ft of chopped rope and cast rope trick. Take all my supplies and climb inside the rope dimension. As it is an extradimensional space, this should give me a bonus against any scry or hopefully other divination spells they might use.
9. Once inside the rope trick, cast detect magic and check for auras. Hopefully none other than my own spell.
10. Using a pearl of power, cast a second alarm spell inside the rope dimension. This time it is a mental alarm. That should cover intruders to the internal pocket space.
11. Cast fog cloud to hide what's going on inside the space anyway. This blocks all forms of vision (including darkvision, and should foil 'true seeing') beyond 5 ft. Should still be enough to let me use my lights/candles and do my scribing :)
12. Use my hat of disguise to make myself look different. Who knows, may help against spells that go by description or are foiled by illusion.
13. Cast detect magic again and search for auras. Should only take 6 rounds to check every direction. Check to make sure they're the same as when I came in + my own spells. If not investigate/abort.
14. S.O.P. is then to pause briefly every 2d6 minutes of game time and cast detect magic again. Check the auras. This only takes 30 seconds every time.
15. Begin writing my spells! :D

* I write secret page into a book and then cast secret page on the spell itself to hide it.
* Repeat with other spells I want to put hide
* I'm going to try to use Linguistics to make the spell writing different than my other spellbook (not sure if this is possible; still working out details with the DM)
* Also use Linguistics to make the cover/fake/visible handwriting of the book look different than my own.
* I then have S.O.P. to cast 'magic aura' on this book every morning so it detects as non-magical. Stuff it in a handy haversack with a bunch of other books and hope nobody notices.

Spells needed:
alarm
alarm
see invisibility
rope trick
fog cloud
nondetection

Can you think of any other precautions?

So intelligent magic items in Pathfinder can be given ranks in skills. This may be a silly question, but do you think any skills possessed by intelligent magic items could be considered class skills? e.g. Say a king owns an intelligent sagely staff that gives advice. The staff has ranks in Diplomacy and Sense Motive. Does the staff gain the +3 bonus for a class skill on those skills?

The PFSRD says class skills "represent part of [your] professional training and constant practice". One one hand, intelligent items aren't really trained, so you could say no. Also, they're just objects - why would they have any class skills? OTOH an intelligent item may very well be created with a specific purpose in mind - giving advice, destroying a certain enemy, etc. If the item is meant to do one thing and do it well, it may make sense for the skill to be a class skill. If the item has been around a long time and had practice using that skill, that might qualify too.

D&D 3.5 granted intelligent items 10 ranks in a skill, and the rules don't mention anything about cross-class ranks. So perhaps the intent is for any skills known by an item to count as class skills?

What do you think?

Hey everyone,

Do you think it is possible for a character to Take 20 when performing a Sleight of Hand check to hide an object on their body? I am assuming they are in a safe place away from observers, and not, say, under the threat of combat. The SRD says "When you use this skill under close observation, your skill check is opposed by the observer's Perception check". But if you know someone is going to frisk you could you spend a long time (20 minutes) hiding something well?

A long time ago Sean K. Reynolds made this page, which says you can't Take 20 on Pick Pocket rolls in 3.0 because there's a penalty for failure (the +10 increase to the DC for successive attempts). But if you're hiding the object while in the safety of your own house and, say, the castle guard only gets once chance to frisk you it doesn't seem like you're giving him multiple chances, or failing any sort of check right in front of him. Does it seems reasonable to allow Taking 20 on checks to hide objects if you have a safe place to do so?

Thanks,
culix

Hey Paizo fans,

I have a question about the DCs and time requirements for crafting magic items. The SRD says:

* "The DC to create a magic item is 5 + the caster level for the item."
* "Creating an item requires 8 hours of work per 1,000 gp in the item's base price (or fraction thereof)"
* "This process can be accelerated to 4 hours of work per 1,000 gp in the item's base price (or fraction thereof) by increasing the DC to create the item by +5."

If you put the maximum number of ranks into the relevant skill at every level your modifier will be your level + ability mod (+3 if the skill is a class skill). Thus if you take 10 on the crafting check your check will be at least 10 + your level. If you do accelerated crafting, this check is against a DC of 10 + your level. Am I misunderstanding something or is it a good idea for crafters to *always* choose accelerated casting, since they essentially cut the time in half with no cost or risk?

I can think of a few exceptions where you would not want to accelerate, such as if you're raising the DC in order to skip one of the item requirements - say, if you're a half-orc crafting Boots of Elvenkind. But these situations seem rare.

Don't get me wrong - I think the possibility of accelerating your crafting is an *excellent* idea. I've both played crafting characters and had players who were crafters, and accelerated crafting would have been a boon in both situations. I just want to make sure I'm not misinterpreting the rules.

To continue the thought of faster crafting, what do you think about increasing the DC even further? Do you think it would be unbalanced to raise the DC by 10 for 3x faster crafting or by 15 for 4x faster? If you have a crafter with an ability score of at least 14 (+2) and the skill was a class skill (+3) they would be able to make a DC 15 + caster level check by taking 10. If you have a really excellent crafter (say, a higher ability score plus Skill Focus) they may be able to make a DC 20 + caster level check by taking 10. This could really allow dedicated crafters to excel.

Hello,

Sorry if this is the wrong place for this. I am wondering if an entry could be added to the Messageboard FAQ ( http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/faq ) that talks about editing your own posts. It looks as though you have a limited time to edit your own posts, and the reasons for this have been mentioned in several threads:

* http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/paizo/websiteFeedback/archives/unableT oEdit
* http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/paizo/websiteFeedback/archives/editing Posts
* http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/paizo/websiteFeedback/archives/editabl ePostsPlease

Do you think an entry could be added to the FAQ that mentions these policies? In case it saves Paizo employees any time or effort I have created a draft FAQ entry below.

Thanks! :)
culix

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draft entry:

"Can I edit my own posts?" -OR- "Help! I can no longer edit my message!"

Messages you post to the Paizo messageboards can be edited for up to one hour after submission. After this time messages cannot be edited. There are several reasons for this policy: firstly it prevents people from "rewriting history" by changing a controversial post; it also helps conversations flow the way most people expect, with newer information being added at the bottom; finally we hope this policy encouraces people to think carefully before they post.

Hey everyone,

In our next campaign we're going to playtest Pathfinder, and we also thought we'd mix things up a bit by straying from the standard fighter/cleric/rogue/wizard combination. We're going to try coordinating character design to make our party stealthy and fast, so we can set up ambushes and sneak around with ease. This probably means two stealthy meat shields (some combination of fighter/rogue), two arcane casters (most likely an evoker and either an illusionist or an abjurer), and possibly a paladin or monk.

At any rate, I am trying to figure out the best ways to be stealthy under the Pathfinder system. Below are ways I could think of to be good at stealth. Do you know of a cool way to make your character or the party stealthy and quiet? Please let me know!

culix

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How to be stealthy in Pathfinder:

1. Buy ranks in Stealth. Every class in Pathfinder can purchase ranks in this skill on a 1-1 cost; it's a great way to ensure you have a basic level of sneakiness.
2. Take a level of Bard, Monk, Ranger, or Rogue. These classes have Stealth as a class skill, so if you buy one rank you get a +3 bonus on Stealth checks. You can also take a level of Cleric and select the Trickery domain.
3. Play a human or half-elf. Humans get bonus skill points at every level while Half-elves get a free Skill Focus feat - use these to increase your Stealth check.
4. Play a fighter. Fighters learn armor training at level 3, 7, 11, 15, and 19; this allows them to reduce the armor check penalty, increase the max Dex bonus, and move more quickly.
5. Pick a cat familiar. If you're a wizard this nets you a +3 on Stealth checks.
6. Wear masterwork armor. Sure it "only" reduces your armor check penalty by one point, but every little bit helps. Masterwork armor is a cheap way to improve your Stealth skill that doesn't cost skill points or feats.
7. Get Shadow armor. For 4900gp (150 masterwork, 1,000 +1 enhancement, 3,750 Shadow) you can buy +1 Shadow armor and get a +5 competence bonus on Stealth checks.
8. Use feats. Skill Focus (Stealth) and Stealthy, while perhaps not optimal, both add to your Stealth skill check.
9. Buy a wand of invisibility. At 4500gp these are not cheap, but they can help hide your less stealthy party members at key times.
10. Use spells! Many spells can help individuals or a group be sneakier, including:

alter self; animal shapes; animal trance; beast shape i, ii, iii, and iv; cat's grace; cat's grace, mass; color spray; dancing lights; darkness; deep slumber; deeper darkness; disguise self; elemental body i, ii, iii, and iv; ethereal jaunt; etherealness; fog cloud; ghost sound; glitterdust; guidance; hallucinatory terrain; heroism; heroism, greater; hide from animals; hide from undead; hypnotic pattern; hypnotism; illusory wall; invisibility; invisibility sphere; invisibility, greater; invisibility, mass; major image; meld into stone; message; minor image; mirage arcana; obscuring mist; open/close; pass without trace; persistent image; polymorph; project image; rainbow pattern; reduce person; reduce person, mass; seeming; shapechange; silence; silent image; sleep; sleet storm; spider climb; suggestion; symbol of sleep; telepathic bond; transport via plants; tree shape; tree stride; ventriloquism

11. Use tactics! Some ideas:

- Use a scout or magic to recon the area ahead so you can approach at the right time or when danger has passed.
- Set ambushes. Let the noisier members of your group wait in hiding and have stealthier characters lead the enemy into your trap.

So, how else can you be stealthy in Pathfinder?